Expert Witnesses
Etutor Alliance encourages the use of expert witnesses as part of the assessment process. Awarding body approval might also be required before an expert can be used. Expert witnesses may be used where there are no occupationally competent assessors for certain specialist fields, to minimise intrusion in the workplace or as a part of a range of assessment methods. All evidence from experts will be verified during quality assurance.
An expert witness must:
– Have a working knowledge of the RQF units for which they are providing witness testimony;
– Be occupationally competent in their area of expertise;
– Have either a qualification that includes assessment of workplace performance or a professional work role that involves evaluating everyday practice of staff.
| How to belome an expert witness? The expert should complete our expert witness occupational competency declaration or state, their job role, contact number, email address, experience, qualifications and relation to the learner on their first report in order to declare any conflict of interest. Your experts might be required to provide proof of relevant qualifications or a CV to prove their occupational competence. Please inform your assessor during your initial assessment and planning that you seek to use experts. This will need to be acknowledged within your assessment plan.It is important that experts fully understand their role, responsibilities and the range of evidence they can provide. Please share the learning outcomes and assessment criteria of all your units with your expert/s. Inductions, support, and guidance is available to all experts upon request. Please note that any evidence from expert witnesses that have not been formally identified as part of your assessment strategy might be treated as an ordinary witness testimony. Experts will need to either provide evidence on an official letterhead or utilise our expert witness form when providing evidence. Evidence from expert witnesses should not appear to be a testimonial but simply a record of what has been observed. Experts should not make an assessment decision. Their primary role is to be a witness. Where an expert fails to fully declare their occupational competency they will be treated as an ordinary witness. Evidence from witnesses usually requires additional supporting evidence. Anyone can be a witness (clients, colleagues, supervisors etc). Caution is however exercised regarding the credibility of ordinary witnesses. Issues such as conflict of interest are considered. All types of relationships need to be declared. Where there are concerns with the evidence from any of the witnesses additional evidence will be required in order to ensure all principles of assessments are met. |
Quality of evidence
The evidence from experts should be authentic, reliable, sufficient and current. There should be clear dates of the events or activities being witnessed. The evidence should not be generic but a record of what is being witnessed at a particular time. For example, the following will not be acceptable:
Unfortunately the above is not evidence. The witness has not provided a time frame for their observation. They have simply generalised and also gave an assessment decision regarding competency. The following record below is, however, better and fit for purpose.
