LBS DEMONSTRATION:Pet Groomer
LBS LEVEL 3/4
Assessing a learner’s performance in accordance with expectations in a real-world place of employment is more complicated than assessing the learner’s work for academic purposes where 6 out of 10 is a pass. How do instructors determine what constitutes a pass for demonstrations of employment-related activities and skills? How do they know where to draw the line between what is good enough in a particular job and what is not? There is no simple answer. Instead, the answer lies in the relative importance placed by each individual employer on the overall significance of various tasks and duties in pursuit of desired company objectives. It is not something that others outside the company are necessarily aware of. Until more of that information is available, instructors may need to rely on their own good common sense in helping learners determine an appropriate level of performance for employment-related activities.
Assessment of workforce demonstrations is also challenging for instructors because of inconsistencies across employment sectors. What is acceptable in one workplace setting may not be acceptable in another. What is high on the priority list in one setting may not factor in much at all in another. Even within same industries, specific expectations and required levels of performance will not be consistent location to location. For that reason, the assessment of end-of-training or employment-readiness demonstrations should be less concerned with measuring discreet elements of separate learning outcomes and more interested in recognizing the learner’s overall successful accomplishment of each integrated employment-related task.
Success in the workforce involves not only understanding and being able to meet the particular demands of the job but also being aware of and avoiding serious mistakes that could put the job in jeopardy. For that reason, an important aspect of pre-demonstration training should involve helping the learner: 1) recognize relative levels of importance associated with different job duties and tasks, 2) become aware of the level and quality of performance that is expected, and 3) anticipate possible outcomes or repercussions for different kinds of mistakes.
Discuss, or research and discuss, the role each skill plays and its relative importance in the overall success of day-to-day work. Identify mistakes that might constitute a fireable offence. Take these discussions into account when you assess the learner’s performance on this demonstration.1
1. Jane Barber, Connecting to Workplaces: Validating Outcomes Demonstrations with Employers, Chambermaid/ Housekeeping Cleaner Demonstration, 2005