Rules of Evidence

After you gather evidences, there is a need to make an assessment decision and one of the thing you have to consider in making your decision   is the rules of evidence.

When evaluating evidence in order to make a decision of competence, the assessor must ensure that the evidence provided satisfies the Rules of Evidence.

They are the rules by which an assessor justifies his/her assessment decision. Each piece of evidence must be valid, authentic and current to be considered acceptable evidence. There must also be sufficient evidence overall, to allow an assessor to make a judgement of competence. (Linked to the sufficiency rule is a requirement, that the assessor must be confident  that the candidate can perform the competency consistently.

Valid

To ensure evidence is valid, you as the assessor must be confident that each piece of evidence collected:

• demonstrates relevant outcomes and performance requirements of the Unit of Competency
• covers the relevant breadth and depth of the Unit  of  Competency (including knowledge and skills, dimensions of competency, evidence guide etc)
• reflects current industry- standards

Authentic

Authenticity relates to ensuring that each piece of evidence is from the candidate and not another person – that the assessor  is confident that it is the candidates own work.

Where a judgement relies on indirect or supplementary forms of evidence or the direct evidence is not directly observable, other complementary evidence may be needed to support authenticity-

Procedures can be established to support the authenticity of evidence which include’.

• observation of work in progress
• submission of training records
• third party verification

Current

Currency relates to the age of the evidence presented by a candidate to demonstrate that they are still competent. Competency requires each piece of evidence provided must:

• reflect the candidates current knowledge and/or skills in the relevant aspect of work
• establish that the candidate can meet the requirements of the current version of the relevant Unit/s of Competency and industry standards

Sufficient

Sufficiency relates to the quality and quantity of evidence assessed. It requires collection of enough appropriate evidence to ensure that all aspects of competency have been satisfied.

Applying the sufficiency rule to evidence means that the combination of all evidence provided must;

• demonstrate the outcomes and performance requirements of the Unit of Competency
• cover the breadth and depth of the Unit of Competency (including knowledge and skills, dimensions of competency, range of variables, evidence guide etc)
• allow the assessor to be confident that the candidate  can perform the competency consistently

Consistent

Does the evidence :

• show that the candidate consistently meets the standards under workplace conditions rather than showing a one – off demonstration of the standards?
• Incorporate multiple items of evidence?

Recent

Recency relates to the age of evidence in relationship to current version of the relevant unit of competency.