External verification is carried out in most cases by Quality Reviewers for the Recognised Centres to which they are appointed, in liaison with each centre’s Quality Assurance Contact.  Sometimes it will be done by a Specialist External Verifier for a sector or a cluster of courses if this has been agreed with the Quality Reviewer, or where it is a requirement of a particular qualification. Quality Reviewers and External Verifiers will scrutinise the evidence for all units offered by the Centre in the sectors, clusters or qualifications for which they are responsible. They will:

• Sample assessment and learner evidence of achievement
• Ensure that rigorous processes are in place for the assessment, tracking and recording of individual learner achievements in accordance with OCN London requirements
• Sign off Recommendations for the Award of Credit

In order to do this, an External Verifier will need to have access to the following during the visit:

• The relevant completed RAC (Recommendation for Award of Credit) forms indicating unit achievement for each learner   

This should be signed and dated by the Assessor and Internal Verifier.  Where there is more than one of these for a particular cohort, the person signing is taking responsibility for saying that the assessment or internal verification process has confirmed that the achievement being put forward is accurate.

Once signed, the original RAC will need to be sent to your Administration Officer at OCN London.  You also need to keep a copy for yourself, and give a second copy to the External Verifier to take away with them.

f you have not received a copy of the RAC for each cohort of learners you have registered or there are problems with the RAC you have been sent, it is extremely important that you contact your Administration Officer at OCN London before the visit takes place.

• All the portfolios for the learners and units to be verified
  

Where there are logistical difficulties, for example if there are many portfolios and/or they have to be transported over a large distance, it may be possible for the External Verifier to agree a set sample before the visit.  However, even where this is the case it is important to ensure portfolios could still be accessed if necessary at a later date and until the relevant RAC is signed off.

Portfolios need to be presented in a way that makes it straightforward to locate evidence of units and individual assessment criteria within each unit. There should typically be one portfolio for each learner, with their name clearly displayed.  Where learners have completed multiple units, these should be in a consistent order within each portfolio and the portfolio should have a contents page where significant numbers of units are involved.

Assessment paperwork should have the full unit name and code clearly displayed.  For each unit it should also indicate where evidence of individual criteria is located; this is sometimes done with a unit front sheet and page numbers, but there are other alternatives including annotating the evidence itself with the criteria number. The paperwork should also be signed and dated by the assessor to confirm that assessment is completed.

Assessment tasks or briefs need to be available for all units, showing exactly what learners were asked to do.  Where these are long and/or complex, it is helpful to link the different parts to the assessment criteria they relate to.

Ideally, class handouts and other content that does not relate to assessment should be removed from portfolios.  If this is impractical, it should be easy to distinguish between these and the actual evidence learners have produced.

• Copies of each unit being put forward for sampling, including learning outcomes, assessment criteria and prescribed and optional assessment methods
  

This should be the official OCN London document rather than something you produced based on this, as the External Verifier needs to make sure that the internal documents you are using are accurate.  In addition, if you are delivering any National units, you must have a full copy of the relevant Qualification Guide.

• The relevant internal verification records
  

Records should include a sample plan showing evidence that the process has been planned and giving a summary of the sampling activity, individual records for each portfolio sampled and any observations made, a feedback report to the Assessor for each cohort of learners that has been sampled, and records of any standardisation meetings held.

The Internal Verifier should be available during the visit, unless it has been agreed with the External Verifier in advance that this will not be required.

• Learner evaluations of the course(s) they have undertaken
  

These could be the original feedback sheets, or a summary prepared by tutors.

External Verifiers’ reports are made available to the Centre and form an important source of evidence for the Centre quality improvement plan.