5. Quality Assurance Roles and Responsibilities

The Quality Assurance Steering Group has responsibility, amongst other things, for the oversight of all matters pertaining to quality assurance such as the development of new policies and procedures, programme development, delivery, assessment and review, and other issues pertaining to the quality of Further Education and Training programmes, both accredited and unaccredited which are delivered by CETB, across all centres.

The Steering Group is assisted and supported in its role by the Quality Assurance Office, comprising the Quality Assurance Officer and an Adult Education Officer charged with day-today management and development of quality assurance for the scheme.

All FET centre/service managers’ report directly to the FET Director, and are supported in their responsibilities for quality assuring programme delivery within their centre/service by the QA Office. In most centres/service, an identified member of staff named person has specific responsibility for coordination of activities relating to assessments.

All CETB centres/services delivering QQI assessments operate Internal Verification/External Authentication (IV/EA) processes, and have Results Approval Panels (RAPs) which review the results of the IV/EA processes, and address any quality assurance issues which may have arisen in the course of the assessment process. The Quality Assurance Office coordinates and monitors the IV/EA and RAP’s elements across centres/services

Post Leaving Certificate Colleges

In standalone PLC colleges, responsibility for the quality of provision in all its aspects is that of the Principal, supported by the Deputy Principal(‘s) and a number of post holders with specific roles in respect of defined areas of operation and quality assurance, including assessment. In centres where PLC provision exists in parallel to post primary provision, the further education element is generally managed by a further education coordinator (or a similar role), who reports to the school Principal. In both forms of PLC provision, department heads or course coordinators have day-to-day responsibility for the operation of courses delivered by teachers who are subject matter experts.

ETB level oversight of QQI delivery is managed through a review of certification rates and EA/RAP reports and processes as reported by the QA Office to the QA Steering Group.

Training Service

CETB’s training service is managed by the Area Training Manager, supported by a team of Assistant Managers. Day-to day responsibility for assessments and monitoring lies with the Training Standards Officer (‘s) (TSO). The TSO’s reports directly to the Area Training Manager.

Training services deliver courses leading to QQI certification, as well as extensively delivering courses leading to non-QQI certification. In addition to in-centre training delivery, training services engage additional contractors to delivery specific training programmes on behalf of CETB. All contracted training providers who deliver courses for CETB’s training service do so under the Transitional Quality Assurance System (TQAS), and contracted trainers are monitored on a regular basis. All results (in-centre and contracted) are submitted to QQI through the training centre, following the EA/RAP processes.

ETB-level oversight of QQI delivery is managed through review of certification rates and EA/RAP processes as reported by the QA Office to the QA Steering Group.

Adult Education Service

CETB’s Adult education Service is structured around for geographic areas, aligned with the LCDC areas in Cork City and County (City, West, Not and South). Two Adult education Officers have day to day management oversight and responsibility for the areas, and these AEO’s are supported by an Area FET Coordinator in each area. The AEO for an area, supported by the FET Coordinator, has responsibility for a number of adult education centres in their area, and is supported by the Adult Literacy Organisers, Community Education Facilitators, VTOS, BTEI, Skills for Work and ESOL coordinators and resource workers coordinating and managing the delivery of services within the area. Courses are delivered by tutors and resource staff.

ETB level oversight of QQI delivery is managed through review of certification rates and EA/RAP processes as reported by the QA Office to the QA Steering Group.

Youthreach

CETB operates twelve (12) Youthreach Centres across the region. One of the Adult Education Officers has overall responsibility for all Youthreach centres, and each centres is managed by a Youthreach Coordinator who has the day-to-day responsibility for the programme. The Youthreach Coordinator is supported in their management and coordination role by a Youthreach Resource Worker.

ETB level oversight of QQI delivery is managed through review of certification rates and EA/RAP processes as reported by the QA Office to the QA Steering Group

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For more information or queries relating to Quality Assurance, email quality.assurance@corketb.ie   © 2018 Cork Education and Training Board. All rights Reserved.