Assessment Instruments, Plans & Events

Summary

This guide shows you how to set up the building blocks of assessment in skillSYMS: the instruments (rubrics, checklists, marking guides) your assessors use, the plans that define what gets assessed and when, and the events that schedule each assessment session. Getting these right up front keeps every recorded result QCTO-aligned and audit-ready.

Who This Guide Is For

• SDP staff configuring assessment governance for a programme
• Assessors who need consistent instruments and a clear schedule
• Quality officers preparing for QCTO accreditation visits

Prerequisites

• At least one programme and its modules configured (see Getting Started as a Training Provider)
• Your organisation’s approved rubrics, checklists, or marking guides on hand
• Assessor accounts created so you can assign assessment events

Step 1: Create Your Assessment Instruments

Navigate to Assessments → Instruments.

Click Create Instrument and complete the form:

1. Name — a clear, recognisable title (for example, “Welding Practical Rubric v2”)
2. Type — choose Rubric, Checklist, Marking Guide, or Observation Sheet
3. Version — start at 1.0 and increment as you revise
4. Description — what the instrument covers and how to use it

Tip: Keep the version number in the name as well as the Version field. When an auditor asks which rubric produced a result, the version trail removes any doubt.

Use the search box and the Type and Status filters (Draft, Active, Archived) to manage your library as it grows. Archive superseded instruments rather than deleting them, so historic results stay traceable.

Step 2: Build an Assessment Plan

Navigate to Assessments → Plans.

Click Create Plan and fill in:

1. Plan Name — for example, “Term 2 Summative – Plumbing NQF 3”
2. Assessment Type — Formative, Summative (Internal), EISA, FISA, or Trade Test
3. Programme — the qualification the plan applies to
4. Start Date and End Date — the window the plan covers
5. Description — scope, methods, and any conditions

The plans table shows each plan’s programme, type, schedule, learner count, and status (Draft, Active, Completed, Cancelled). Use Edit to refine a plan as the cycle progresses.

Step 3: Schedule Assessment Events

Navigate to Assessments → Events.

Click Schedule Event and enter:

1. Event Title — for example, “Practical Assessment – Group A”
2. Date and Time
3. Venue — a room, workshop, or “Virtual”
4. Assessment Plan — link the event to the plan it belongs to
5. Notes — anything assessors or candidates need to know

Switch between List and Calendar views to see your schedule. The stat cards (Total Events, Today, This Week, Completed) give you an at-a-glance workload picture.

Tip: Always link an event to a plan. This keeps the chain — instrument → plan → event → recorded result — intact, which is exactly what QCTO moderation looks for.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Editing live instruments in place — bump the version instead, so past results stay tied to the rubric that produced them
2. Plans with no end date — open-ended windows make compliance reporting ambiguous
3. Unlinked events — events not tied to a plan break the audit trail
4. Wrong assessment type — selecting Summative when you mean EISA misroutes the readiness logic downstream

Verification Checklist

• At least one Active instrument exists for each assessment method
• Each programme has an assessment plan with a defined date window
• Events are scheduled and linked to their plans
• Assessors can see the events assigned to them
• Superseded instruments are archived, not deleted

Next Steps

• Recording Competency Decisions — capture results against these instruments
• Moderation Sampling — quality-assure the recorded decisions
• ICASS Cycles — run continuous internal assessment cycles
• Assessor & Moderator Workflow — the end-to-end picture