Purpose of Assessment

“Assessment is a way of finding out if learning has taken place. It enables you, the assessor to ascertain if your learner has gained the required skills and knowledge needed at a given point towards a course or qualification.” (Gravells, 2008, p.74).
We assess our learners for a number of different reasons “motivation, creating learning opportunities, to give feedback (both students and staff), to grade, and as a quality assurance mechanism (both for internal and external systems).” (Rust, 2002, p.1). In terms of the Prince’s Trust Team programme, the team leader needs to consider different methods of assessment, to check progress and to achieve the criteria of the overall qualification. There are three forms of assessment which are used by the Prince’s Trust in order to collect evidence to achieve accreditation, which include initial/diagnostic, formative and summative.
Initial/diagnostic assessment “should take place before the learner commences a course/qualification to ensure they are on the right path.” (Gravells, 2008, p.75). At the beginning of the course, learners will complete initial assessment which includes a self-assessment, numeracy and literacy test. From this information, team leaders can assess which level the learners are at and how much additional support they may need to complete the programme successfully. Initial assessment provides you with the information about the learner’s current level of ability and can help to plan future learning and assessment.
Within the initial and diagnostic assessment period, an individual learning record is produced. According to the Prince’s Trust “the individual learning record has two main uses: to keep the students own record of what they do, recording their achievements as they go along and to store the evidence they need to gain qualifications. As the student works through this learning record he/she will: identify their strengths and weaknesses, agree their targets in an individual learning plan...