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You will be able to mark all items made by your girls and add coments but need qualified access to do final mark of if you want to be fully qual access you do need def icsf and I think ndsf with the access exam if you check on sof site it will tell you there as I read a post there last night asking the same question as you they would put you on the right path to take and the telephone number is on site

Jo I have done NVQ level 3 D32/33 and the A1 asseeors course. Now my company want me to do a level 1!! You will find it time consuming doing the assessors course just like the students do when they are taking and NVQ. I'm not happy with it and my advice to anyone in any job is to go for a different qualification. Those of you who are looking to go down this route of NVQ. All the best and good look.

how long did it take you to do the A1 then? How was it done, did you go to college?

It was done by a third party company. Our company farms all that type of work out to others. In total about two years on and off. It was a day hear and a day there. Bearing in mind I had to travel to Aberdeen from home because that was where we do all our training. The sadest thing about it is that I have never used it. Another qualification sat on the CV doing nothing.
Don't get me wrong I'm all in favour of training and would/ have spent many ours helping people training them. I'm just not a fan of NVQ's. It is more of a money earner to those that run it and a hell of alot of hassle for those trying to obtain the qualification. I would be happier with city and guilds etc to me it means more. In total It took me two years to get my level 3. A year to get my D32 D33 two years to do the A! course. Another thing about NVQ's companies can make them company specific. To me that is not a National Certificate so you have to be wary when someone says they have an NVQ in whatever. With City and guilds etc, they are recognised national qualifications.
My eldest has just left school and i would certainly put him off from doing one if he went to college, but that is my own personal opinion.

hey pmf i did my training in the workplace, we had a set 'curriculum' to follow and every couple of months an assessor came into my workplace and assessed me there. I never set foot into college althogh a couple of times i had to attend a workshop (not sure it was actually mandatory bt was worth it) that was quite far away but they gave you plenty of notice to arrange cover etc..
Really enjoyed it and i feel that I gained more practical experience than a couple of girls I now work with who attended college. (the college girls said the same)

Hi Serena, thanks for your comments. It is true there is no faster way to learn new floristry skills than actually doing them day in day out! I am now in touch with my local college and have began the process of becoming an nvq assessor.

Good luck Jo

cheers Solly!

Im not sure whether you are still interestedin this or not but I'll answer it anyway.

You need to have students working on an NVQ in order to get the A1 andA2 assessor awards as part of your training. So if you have NVQ's in your shop then you have the hardest part cracked.
You cannot mark NVQ's work if you are not an assessor, however you can write them lots of Witness statements that count as evidence towards their qualification.
To be able to teach/assess you need to be qualified to the level above that which you wish to teach. So if you want to assess NVQ 2 you need to have level 3 at least. Most colleges though wish you to be qualified to at least ICSF before they let you loose on students.

Hope this helps

lazy and not read all of thread but just thought i would throw my tuppence worth in.

i used to be an nvq assessor in days when you had to have d32 and d33 awards. i used to assess business administration and customer service. An assessor ultimately assesses the work but a workplace colleague can provide a witness statement to accompany a photograph . For observations these have to be done by a qualified assessor. An option would be to go through your learning and skills council who will tell you who has the funding available, very often those who assess the nvq will also provide the d units or a1 or whatever you need now.

It is a complete pain in the arse though but then again i worked for a company so it would be slightly different. if you really wanted you could try and apply for funding yourself to train your staff maybe or ask the college and they may give you some money towards them getting the qual as they will get funding for having them on the books and for the outcome and you would be doing all of the work