Continuing Professional Development — guidance for External Verifiers

Senior External Verifiers (SEVs) and External Verifiers (EVs) are required to demonstrate how they have standardised and kept their occupational / subject expertise up to date. Continued appointments as an SEV or EV are dependent on us receiving a successful Continuing Professional Development (CPD) submission each year.

If you have a Vocational Qualification (VQ) or Ofqual remit, you are required to submit evidence of CPD annually, in line with the relevant Sector Skills Assessment Strategy.

SQA needs to meet the auditable CPD requirements of regulatory bodies. In the main there are two regulatory bodies for SQA: SQA Accreditation, and The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual).

The Personal Development Plan (PDP) is your opportunity to focus on your development needs and agree actions for the forthcoming year. A well-formed plan can help improve overall performance in your current role, help achieve your objectives, and prepare you for your next career move.

Think about how you might want to develop. This may not always be a training course, but could be working with others, being coached to do tasks more effectively, or completing a work project using newly acquired knowledge and / or skills.

We require you to provide a minimum of two entries in the PDP section, for each verification group covered in the submission. More entries can be added as needed.

One of these entries should show evidence of how you plan to standardise for each verification group. Entries can cover more than one verification group, if relevant. Examples could include:

• Attending a verification group meeting where standardisation is part of the agenda
• Standardising with fellow professionals (External Verifiers, Internal Verifiers, Assessors, experts) in your field of expertise
• Vetting mandatory questions for new standards in your occupational area of expertise, ensuring an understanding of assessment requirements

The second entry should show how you plan to keep your subject / occupational expertise up to date for each verification group covered in the submission. Entries can cover more than one verification group, if relevant. Examples could include:

• Complete on the job training
• Work on or complete a project
• Gain a qualification
• Complete a training course
• Informal learning such as reading subject related articles
• Attend an event

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is about how you use a variety of learning experiences to develop yourself professionally and personally.

Where possible, you should link your CPD activity to specific objectives in your PDP by considering:

• How you have standardised for each verification group that you are a member of
• The main areas or topics that you wished to develop
• The learning that you have done both in and outside the workplace that relates to your Senior External Verifier / External Verifier role

We require you to demonstrate that you have updated and enhanced your subject or occupational competence, by providing a minimum of two entries in the CPD activity section, for each verification group covered in the submission. More entries can be added as needed.

One of these entries should show evidence of how you standardised for each verification group. Entries can cover more than one verification group, if relevant. Examples could include:

• Describe how you reviewed a unit or suite of awards that you externally verify, ensuring that all members of the verification group come to same conclusion and can impart the same advice
• Explain how you contributed to a Verification Group meeting, noting any action points, such as relaying key messages to centres offering awards in your area of expertise
• Details of meetings with your Qualifications Manager and / or Qualifications Officer where you have discussed your subject in detail and agreed a route forward
• Evidence of liaising with SQA Quality Assurance Logistics Officers to seek advice, guidance, or debate about SQA policy and how to implement it

The second entry should show how you kept your subject / occupational expertise up to date for each verification group. Entries can cover more than one verification group, if relevant. Examples could include:

• Records of how you kept abreast of developments in the subject area
• Self-evaluations of own practice in the subject area
• Evidence of how you have shared new knowledge and skills with colleagues
• Details of subject related qualifications or skills courses you have begun or completed, and how they relate to your role as an External Verifier

SEVs and EVs are required to demonstrate how they have standardised and kept their occupational / subject expertise up to date, even if there has been little or no activity in the verification group they are appointed to.

Every SEV and EV should engage in a professional discussion with peers from each verification group or with SQA staff, to reflect on practice and use these reflections to improve performance. These discussions can be used as standardisation evidence on CPD submissions, along with details of any activities completed that relate to your EV role.

You can give more information for activities that are not complete in the blank template form, under the column heading "Is there any further action?".

CPD submissions are completed annually and should cover the academic session period of 1 August to 30 June.

External Verifiers

Please complete your PDP and CPD record and forward it to your SEV for comment by 30 June in any given year. Your SEV may request sight of your form before this date to provide support and / or feedback to you.

Your SEV will forward your final submission to us by 30 June.

If you have any queries regarding your PDP and CPD record, don’t hesitate to contact your SEV or get in touch with us via our contact form.

Senior External Verifiers

Please complete your PDP and CPD record and submit to us no later than 30 June in any given year.

If you need support or have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact your Depute Lead Verifier or get in touch with us via our contact form.

You can use one form for all verification groups or submit separate forms if preferred.

Our template forms include areas for you to confirm which verification groups are covered in the submission, and the entries in both the PDP and CPD activity sections should clearly show the minimum required entries for each verification group.

Similar verification groups can be covered in the same entry, if relevant. For example:

• You may attend a standardisation meeting that covers content for two or more verification groups. Please ensure your entries are specific to each verification group covered
• You may have completed training that can be applied to your role in multiple verification groups
• A work project you have completed may demonstrate a variety of subject knowledge or new skills

Senior External Verifiers for each verification group need to see your completed PDP and CPD record. Senior External Verifiers will support teams to fulfil the Key Performance Measures (KPMs) of the External Verifier role:

KPM 6: "Submit a current Personal Development Plan (PDP) and CPD record within agreed timescales where appropriate."

Our template forms provide an area on the final page for SEVs to electronically ‘sign off’ the submission. Multiple SEVs can add their details to this section as required before submitting to us to be logged.