What is an
Assessor?
Assessor are
considered "experts" in an activity. Their role is to
engage with participants and offer guidance, mentoring and encouragement. Assessors
should be determined early on to help participants
set achievable goals for their chosen activities. The
assessor should be aware that they will be assessing whether or not a
participant has undertaken the required regular effort and has striven to
achieve their goals. An Assessor shouldn’t be surprised when asked to
complete an assessor report, when an activity is finished.
For each activity of
the Duke of Ed, a participant will need at an assessor to help guide them
throughout their Award. They must attest and comment on the participant’s
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
participant’s activity. For example, if a participant has selected Cooking
as their Skill and the family member is a Chef, then that family member could
be the assessor. The assessor would use their expertise, as a Chef, to
assess the participant’s progress and sign off on the activity.
An assessor is needed to
sign off once the participant completes each activity. This may result in
multiple assessors for a section. For example, if the participant chose
hockey and baseball for their Physical Recreation sections, they would need an
assessor for the hockey activities and an assessor for the baseball activities.
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 participant’s activity as well as
complete the assessor report to verify the participant has completed the
activities as logged.
- Assessors are responsible for signing off on the
activity 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.