FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The Retail Institute has a wide network of Training Advisers and Assessors who you can contact in your area for support. The Retail Institute Assessor's endeavor to make contact with workplace verifiers/assessors on a monthly basis so as to ensure the process is running smoothly. They are available for planned store visits and recaps if needed.

The Retail Institute has an 0800 number that you can call. When you call 0800 486 738, the Retail Institute will ensure you are put in touch with a representative in your area. You can also email any questions or concerns to - info@retailinstitute.org.nz.

The Retail Institute has a moderation process ensuring a fair and valid assessment process is followed. As well as the support from the Assessor team, we have available the ‘Assessor's Guide' and ‘Information for Verifiers' booklets for help, free of charge. If you want to make your skills in this area official then it's worth completing the National Certificate in Retail (Level 4). The first module of this qualification covers Training and Assessment in the Workplace.

Different verifications covering different skill sets can be completed on one day, but it would be considered ‘best practice' to use different days for one skill set with more than one observation required. This also ensures the trainee isn't ‘on display' all day, and saves your sanity as a verifier! It is also important to remember that the requirements of some observation tasks may require different days and different situations depending on the task.

Yes. At the end of assessments there is a section identifying whether you have used more than one verifier. As long as the verifier's details are completed this is acceptable. It is important to select the verifier carefully. It cannot be a friend or family member of the trainee.

It depends on the task. Some tasks required can be completed in less than 10 minutes; others take up to 30 minutes. What is important is that you and your trainee plan some allocated time to complete the task.

Once a unit standard has been achieved and registered, there is no need to complete it again. If necessary, you can jog your memory by going back over it but once the unit has been registered against your name, it's achieved for life. Depending on what level you want to assess at, it is important to have industry knowledge of the industry you wish to assess in.

Some situations require creative approaches. Creating a role play environment is helpful in some cases. For example, written contact is somewhat rare in retail these days, but in order to submit a complete assessment, a trainee may need to provide evidence of professional written contact with a customer. Completing this may encourage a new process in your organisation, as well as giving the trainee valuable skills.

NZQA requires evidence of consistent performance of a task, on more than one occasion. In order for this to happen, tasks need to be completed on different days.

In this situation, as the workplace verifier/assessor, you could prompt the trainee to address this afterwards, eg "What could you have said if the customer objected to the price of the product?" In most ‘real-life' situations it is best for the process to run naturally, and ask for further evidence afterwards. If all else fails, a further observation might be needed, and the verification for that observation is repeated.