Become an NALW Assessor

The role

As an NALW assessor, you are responsible for ensuring that the high professional standards of NALW are upheld. Acting as the gatekeepers to the profession, NALW assessors give their time, commitment, professionalism and expertise to assess potential new professionals and training providers for accreditation by written submission and interview if required. There are four roles you may perform as a NALW assessor:

• marker – marking written assignments for our accredited courses
• reviewer – reviewing written submissions to approve them for an accredited member of NALW status or reviewing a training provider’s application
• moderator – assessing a reviewer or marker’s assessment and agreeing or disagreeing with the determination
• interviewer – conducting a face-to-face or online interview to assess competence and suitability if required

Requirements

Some key tasks you may be required to undertake include:

• reviewing and marking submissions
• participation in assessment panel meetings and interviews
• contributing to the decision-making process
• contributing to candidate feedback.

Eligibility

To become an NALW assessor, you must successfully complete our assessor training course. The training will provide you with the required knowledge and understanding to participate in NALW assessments and ensure all assessors apply a consistent approach.

You must also comply with NALW’s CPD requirements and Code of Practice, have accredited membership of NALW or have completed an NALW accredited level 5 certificate in social prescribing practice course or a supervision course and be a practising social prescribing link worker.

Benefits of assessing

Being a NALW assessor is a hugely rewarding role that affords you the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with the accreditation and qualification process and be involved in one of the key stages of career development. Key benefits of fulfilling this role include:

• being part of the NALW assessor community
• recording your assessor training as formal CPD
• claiming informal CPD hours for your assessor role
• maintaining professional standards
• updating and developing your professional knowledge
• networking and sharing knowledge and experience with your peers
• developing future professionals
• gaining satisfaction from helping to build this vital profession
• earning additional income
• gaining new skills and knowledge

Career progression

As an NALW assessor, you can progress to more senior roles such as lead assessor, quality assurance lead, or assessment manager and other related roles

How to apply

To apply to become an assessor, send your CV alongside a 500-word cover letter stating your NALW membership number, your job title, how long you have been in your role, your current organisation, your motivation for applying and how you meet the eligibility criteria to hr@nalw.org.uk.

Assessor training

As candidates come forward for accreditation and training, we will understand how many assessors are needed, for which assessment types. At that point we will find out where we may have shortages for specific assessors and will then publish a call for potential assessors based on the assessment types where new or more assessors are required. Only successful recruits will be able to enrol in the assessor training.

Assessment Platform

Once you have trained as an Assessor you are able to access the Assessment Platform where you would give your availability to assess, view the candidates who are assigned to your panel and their submissions, along with your moderators’ details, and gain access to all supporting Assessment material.