As a business, we act to encourage open access for learners who are eligible for reasonable adjustments, and/or special considerations during assessments. Any adjustments made need to ensure that the assessment of skills, knowledge, understanding and competence is not compromised.
What is a reasonable adjustment?
A reasonable adjustment relates to an adjustment that helps to reduce the effect of a disability or difficulty which may place the learner at a disadvantage during the assessment process.
It is important that reasonable adjustments do not affect the reliability or validity of assessment and they should not give the learner an advantage over other learners undertaking the same assessment.
Where reasonable adjustments have been applied, the work produced by the learner will be assessed to the same standard as the work of other learners.
Our responsibilities
Identification of any need for reasonable adjustment should be done as early as possible. Learners have the opportunity at enrolment to indicate if they need any additional support and if they foresee any difficulties they may have in accessing assessments. Any issues raised will be passed onto the Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) team prior to the start of the learner’s course so that they may consult with the Awarding Organisation (“AO”), if applicable, to ensure appropriate adjustments are put in place.
Key members of staff will also receive training in awareness of access-related issues. This will be conducted as part of our internal assessor and tutor induction program.
It should be made clear at the outset if the learner is not going to be able to meet all of the criteria. They may still wish to proceed with the programme but enter for only part of the assessment. In this case we will explain to the learner any restriction on progression to other qualifications as a result of not achieving all of the criteria. All of these decisions will be made with the involvement of the learner.
As a centre we will source any assistance needed by the learner (this may be at an additional cost) within the requirements of the AO, if applicable. All policies set out by the AO for reasonable adjustments will be agreed and followed, if applicable.
The Appeals Policy is available in our Learner Achievement Portfolios so a learner can appeal any decision not to apply a reasonable adjustment, or if they feel it was not appropriate to their needs.
When making reasonable adjustments we will ensure:
We will only reject enrolments on course in circumstances where:
In these instances we will facilitate an alternative choice of course or training opportunity and give relevant feedback to the applicant. We will not refuse to enrol learners on the grounds that better facilities or support could be provided elsewhere.
We will seek clarification from the AO, if applicable, in any case where we consider that we do not have the necessary expertise to judge whether a reasonable adjustment is needed and/or how it should be applied.