What is an Assessor?
Assessor are considered "experts" in the activity. Their role is to engage with participants and offer guidance, mentoring and encouragement. Assessors both help participants set goals for their chosen activity and assess whether or not a participant has undertaken the required regular effort and has striven to achieve goals.
For each section of the Duke of Ed, a participant will need at least one assessor to help guide them throughout their Award. They must attest and comment on the participants commitment and verify that the participant has completed the activity. Ideally, Assessors will not be members of the participant's immediate family. However, in some cases they may be the best qualified individuals to assess the participants activity. For example, if a participant has a home gym and uses that as their Physical Recreation activity, a family member is the best person to sign off on the activity as the assessor.
Only one assessor is needed to sign off once the participant completes the required hours for that section with ORB. Ideally, this assessor is the individual who has seen them do the majority of that activity in that section. For example, if the participant played hockey and it was the most hours in that section, their hockey coach is the overall section Assessor. Traditional paper record book participants need initials after each hour of activity is logged, however the only need one Assessor to sign off on the overall completion of the section. This individual should be the person who witnessed the participant complete the most hours.
Roles and Responsibilities:
- Be suitably experienced and qualified in the activity in which you are assessing and understand the relevant Duke of Ed requirements for the section.
- Assist the participant to identify and set achievable goals for the section they are assessing and to help develop a program to reach their goals.
- Encourage and recognize improvements in the participant and record positive comments about the participant's progress.
- Attest and comment on the participants activity as well as sign the participants assessment form to verify they have completed the activities as logged.
- Assessors are responsible for signing off on the section which they are assessing. The frequency of the contact and monitoring between the participant and the Assessor will depend on the activity and independence of the participant. Contact between assessor and participant ideally is every 2-4 weeks or when it is appropriate.