Administration (Business Professional): Centre guidance on adaptations for Summer 2020

Overview

We have prepared this guidance to support centres in the delivery and assessment of our Administration (Business Professional) qualifications.

For qualifications that support progression into or through employment, Ofqual has agreed that for students who expected to complete assessments between 20 March and 31 July 2020, but have had this disrupted, assessment should be adapted where possible to support their progression.

We advise that Learners who planned to complete assessments after 31 July 2020 should be supported to identify which activities they can complete while normal assessment arrangements cannot be carried out.  This might involve working towards knowledge-based criteria until it is safe to resume direct observation and all practical and group-based activities.

Equalities and Objectivity

It is important that any adaptations to assessment consider the ability of students to access them and, as far as possible, ensure that any adaptations do not advantage or disadvantage any student. 

For students with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), centres will be best placed to accommodate this when making adapted assessments available for their students. Reasonable adjustments and access arrangements must be made available and recognised wherever possible. 

If you require any guidance or support about making reasonable adjustments for your students, please contact the OCR Special Requirements Team on srteam@ocr.org.uk.

Professional discussions and witness testimonies need to be fair and evidence-based to reflect what the candidate has achieved.  When leading conversations, writing testimonies or reviewing evidence you should continue to be aware of the potential effects of students’ characteristics, including protected characteristics) on assessment judgements and ensure that they are not affecting your judgements. Protected characteristics are legally defined and include a learner’s sex, race, religion/belief, disability, gender reassignment or sexual orientation.

Guidance on the importance of objectivity and avoiding unconscious bias can be taken from the section in Ofqual’s publication for schools and colleges who are providing centre assessment grades for students taking GCSEs, A levels and other performance tables qualifications.  The section ‘Unconscious effects on objectivity’ is applicable to centre assessment in general.

Permitted adaptations

The rationale for the types of adaptations for these qualifications is that the candidate may not be able to access their normal setting to carry out the activities needed to generate evidence of their skills, knowledge and understanding.  A normal setting could be the workplace, college or school.

Normally, observation of practical activities is conducted through direct (face-to-face) observation.  Centres use sufficient levels of supervision to authenticate the work of the student.  Practical activities can be carried out in a real work or a simulated setting.  OCR assignments are optional and can be modified to reflect the real work setting or scenario but some require a specific number of examples of work outputs to demonstrate that the candidate can consistently perform at the required standard which cannot normally be adapted.

Students who have been unable to complete their assessment due to the current extraordinary circumstances brought about by the Coronavirus are permitted to:

• complete assessments (including the OCR assignments) in an alternative setting, including at home
• have an adjustment to the requirements in OCR assignments which require a specific number of examples of work outputs/activities
• use alternative methods to demonstrate how to print and/or reproduce documents if they cannot access a printer/scanner/copier.

There is no set date by which assessments using adaptations must be completed but we encourage you to complete the assessment and submission process at the earliest opportunity.

If for any reason you cannot adapt the assessments in the ways that are described below and ensure the necessary level of supervision and checks to authenticate the evidence that is being produced, then the assessments will have to be delayed until it is safe to continue with them.

Taking assessments in an alternative setting

Valid and reliable evidence of competence is required for competence-based assessment criteria and where possible assessor observation should continue to be the primary source of evidence to determine if the requirements of the OCR units/assignments have been met. 

Measures for social/physical distancing will make completion of some units more challenging, for example:

• Unit 4, Welcoming visitors
• Unit 24, Working in an administration team
• Unit 29, Train and develop staff

Where practical activities and direct observation cannot be carried out in the normal setting and manner, suitable alternatives are:

• audio or video evidence of a real or simulated work activity taking place
• professional discussion
• witness testimony
• authenticated reflective accounts, learner-produced reports or learner statements
• outputs from the learner’s work or work products (with supporting documentation from a work activity)

Adjustments to OCR assignments

Some OCR assignments ask for a specific number of items of evidence. While arrangements for taking adapted assessment are in place for an exceptional time, the precise numbers of examples of evidence must be sufficient to meet the assessment criteria and the precise number requested in OCR assignments should be used as a guide as to what must be accomplished. When using professional judgement on the quantity of evidence where quantity is stated in the OCR assignment, the centre assessor must focus on the purpose of the qualification.  It is important they are confident that the candidate has demonstrated competency.

To illustrate:

• In Unit 5, Handling Mail, the OCR assignment requires the learner to handle 15 pieces of incoming mail including parcels and 10 pieces of outgoing mail, including parcels. If a learner has been carrying out real work in a post room, for example, then these exact numbers are not required but the learner must meet the assessment criteria. The centre assessor should use their judgement to determine if the candidate has performed the tasks consistently at the required standard. 
• Professional discussion and witness testimonies might help to support that judgement. They can refer back to an event or activity from the past (as long as the event took place during the Learner’s registration period) when the candidate was handling mail but was not being directly observed for assessment.

Adjustments to assessment requirements for demonstrating competency in printing/reproducing hard copy

Hard copy documents are not required to demonstrate competency. The candidate can use alternative forms of evidence to demonstrate competence such as:

• Cross-referencing to previous achievement in other units.
• Printing to pdf.
• Submitting a screenshot of the print preview screen.
• Professional discussion and witness testimony.

The centre assessor must be confident that the candidate has demonstrated competency.

Guidance on methods and forms of evidence

Audio or video evidence of a real or simulated work activity taking place

• The assessor could observe the OCR candidate carry out practical work activity remotely in real time using a secure digital meeting platform. A practical work activity can be a real work task or a simulation.
• Secure on-line meeting platforms can be used for group practical activities
• A candidate could record themselves and upload the recorded evidence to be assessed at a later time. (This must be a video recording so the assessor can observe the OCR candidate and authenticate the evidence as the candidate’s own work.)

Professional discussion and witness testimony

• When used as an alternative to an observed practical activity, it needs to be backed up with work outputs/products that clearly indicate what the candidate is able to do to meet the achievement of competence-based assessment criteria.
• When used as an alternative to gathering further written evidence from learners, they can refer back to an event or activity retrospectively as long as the event took place during the Learner’s registration period.
• Witness testimonies and professional discussions should be backed up, where possible, with other authenticated learner-generated evidence or reports.
• Witness testimonies must be individual, cannot be generic statements used for two or more candidates and must reflect what was actually observed.
• Professional discussion can be used to confirm product evidence and skills-based evidence to test the learner’s competence/understanding. Where written evidence is weak then a professional discussion can be used to try and draw out further evidence from the candidate. 
• If a candidate has not yet put a skill into practice but has enough of the associated knowledge and understanding to know what to do if presented with a work task, a professional discussion might provide evidence to cover gaps in units. A discussion based on a typical work scenario would have to draw out what a candidate might encounter, how they would overcome any challenges and how they would know that they had successfully met the standard of work required. The candidate needs to be able to explain what they would do to carry out the task and why.
• Witness testimonies and discussions with OCR candidates to capture evidence of their knowledge/understanding can be digitally recorded. (Audio-only recordings are suitable.)

Authenticated reflective accounts, authenticated learner-produced reports

• Authenticated learner-produced reports are acceptable if the authentication is confirmed by a trained and knowledgeable individual who has no relationship with the learner (that includes family members even if they provide work experience).
• Gaps in evidence can be filled by cross-referencing to previous relevant achievement in other units. It must be clear that the candidate still meets the assessment requirements of the unit.
• These have to be signed by a responsible, objective individual and would benefit from being backed up with other evidence such as questions and answers.
• If evidence has to include photographs, the learner must be identified. Photographs are used as evidence to accompany stronger types of evidence. The scene should be of a genuine activity and not be posed. Note: photographs are not reliable as a primary source of evidence of a practical task as they are unlikely to show that the candidate is meeting the criteria when carrying out a task.

Any alternative forms of evidence must still meet the assessment criteria and requirements.

Centres and candidates must give consideration to Safeguarding and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) when using technology or still images/photographs to support any part of the assessment process.

General guidance on producing evidence

Simulated activity must be carried out in a professional manner and present as realistic a scenario as possible.  Any simulation must be conducted in an atmosphere of professionalism as would be required in the workplace.  The arrangements for simulation must be set up by centre assessors, not the candidates. 

Professional discussions, question and answer discussions and simulated activities must not permit the use of leading questions. 

You must be assured that the candidate’s work is their own. Candidates must not submit work that includes evidence copied from other sources without proper attribution

Real time and recorded activity must be focussed on the candidate activity and it must be obvious it is the candidate performing the activity throughout.  All talking/discussion must be clearly audible.  Recordings to be viewed at a later date must confirm the name of the candidate, date of activity.

Centres must give consideration to Safeguarding and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) when using live video and audio evidence and when recording it and using still images/photographs.  Consent must be obtained from all parties who need to be part of the activity that is being viewed remotely or recorded. 

Quality assurance

It is important for all internal assessments that robust monitoring processes are implemented by your centre.  These monitoring processes should include effective dialogue with students where needed to ensure the evidence being generated is both individual and authentic. 

There are no changes to the sampling rules for these internal assessments.  We require you to submit the same amount of work for external moderation as you would under normal circumstances.  

There is no set date by which assessments using adaptations must be completed but we encourage you to complete the assessment and submission process at the earliest opportunity. 

You must complete an ‘Adaption Declaration’ included within a summer 2020 cover sheet, that replaces the standard submission cover sheet when you submit candidate evidence and a copy of the Interchange claim. This summer 2020 cover sheet can be downloaded below. You will need to confirm that any adaptations to assessment are in line with the permitted adaptations for Summer 2020 outlined by OCR. 

Completed assessments can be submitted to OCR in the normal way for external moderation.  We would strongly advise the use of electronic evidence during this period, guidance for which can be found in the centre handbook.

Administration (Business Professional) submission cover sheet (2020)

FAQs

If we are able to deliver Administration (Business Professional) as usual within our centre, with no adaptations, can we submit work to the moderator as usual?

Yes, you can submit as usual with the exception of the submission cover sheet. Please use the summer 2020 version and indicate that assessment has been conducted with no adaptations.

Assessment was conducted within our centre before lockdown but we didn't collect authentication signatures before we closed, what can we do?

You can submit as normal, indicate on the summer 2020 cover sheet that assessment has been conducted with no adaptations but you must ask the candidates to declare the work is their own (this can be an email from the candidate) and keep hold of the declaration  - you do not need to send it to OCR.