Validation is the quality review of the assessment process. Validation involves checking that the assessment tool/s produce/s valid, reliable, sufficient, current and authentic evidence to enable reasonable judgements to be made as to whether the requirements of the Training Package or VET Accredited Course are met. It includes reviewing a statistically valid sample of the assessments and making recommendations for future improvements to the assessment tool, process and/or outcomes and acting upon such recommendations.

VALIDATION PLAN
IIFS will implement a plan for ongoing systematic validation of its assessment practices and judgements for each training product on the IIFS’s scope of registration. This plan will identify:
• when assessment validation will occur;
• which training products will be the focus of the validation;
• who will lead and participate in the validation activities; and
• how the outcomes of these activities will be documented and acted upon.

IIFS’s relevant Training Coordinators will be responsible for developing and implementing a Validation Plan for the training products on IIFS’s scope of registration for which they are responsible. In developing this plan the Training Coordinator will ensure:
• that each Training Product will undergo validation at least once every 5 years
• that at least 50% of the Training Products are validated within first three years of that cycle
• that certain Training Products may need to be validated more often where specific risks have been identified e.g. through industry engagement or advised by the VET regulator

CONDUCTING VALIDATION
• IIFS’s Training Coordinator’s will systematically conduct validation activities to confirm
assessment judgements.
• It is not intended to validate every assessment judgement, the relevant Training Coordinator will conduct a valid sampling approach in order to conduct a quality review process and that will allow a reasonable inference to be made that assessment judgement have been valid overall.
• They will also ensure that the sample chosen is random and that it is representative of all assessment judgements. With this approach IIFS can reliably predict the likelihood of any assessment judgement being valid.

• IIFS’s relevant Training Coordinator will undertake a team approach to this validation activity whereby IIFS’s Assessors can be involved in this validation activity as long as they were not directly involved in deciding the validation outcome for their assessment decisions.
• IIFS’s assessment practices and judgements will be undertaken by one or more persons who are not directly involved in the particular instance of delivery and assessment of the training product being validated, and who collectively have:
o vocational competencies and current industry skills relevant to the assessment being validated;
o current knowledge and skills in vocational teaching and learning; and
o the relevant TAE training and assessment qualification

SAMPLING APPROACH TO VALIDATION
• IIFS must systematically conduct validation activities to confirm assessment judgements are being made correctly.
• While IIFS is not required to validate every assessment judgement, a valid sampling approach provides a quality review process and allows a reasonable inference to be made that assessment judgements have been valid overall.
• IIFS will make sure that the sample of assessment judgements selected for validation is random and that it is representative of all assessment judgements. This allows to reliably predict the likelihood of any assessment judgement being valid.
• There are a number of tools available online that can assist in determining the required sample size, particularly where large numbers of assessment judgements have been made. One such tool is ASQA’s validation sample size calculator.