Verification

Verification is the process to make sure that centres' assessment decisions are valid, reliable and in line with national standards.

We rely on collaboration with centres to ensure national standards are maintained across all qualifications at all levels.

Why do we need verification?

Verification confirms:

• centres' assessment decisions are; valid, reliable and workable
• national standards are being uniformly applied
• assessments are accurately and consistently applied across all candidates and levels

This ensures qualifications and certification is credible with every candidate being assessed to a common standard.

Internal verification

Centres are responsible for the internal verification of their assessments. This means centres should have an internal verification system - a system of having quality checks in place - which can be operated throughout the centre. Each member of staff who is responsible for the assessment of candidates and/or internal verification of candidate material should:

• be made aware of your centre's quality assurance procedures
• comply with these procedures

External verification

To ensure national consistency in assessment, we appoint teachers/lecturers who have good, recent experience in the delivery and assessment of their subject to carry out external verification in centres. We will notify the SQA co-ordinator if your centre has been selected for verification.

Verification is a valuable quality improvement tool.