You may have asked yourself what is good practice when assessing the Mandatory Unit for ITQ.

You may also have considered how the use of Professional Discussion can be effectively put into practice to assess ITQ candidates, in particular for the Mandatory Unit (Make Selective Use of IT)

So let's consider an overview of a Professional Discussion before we think about the Mandatory Unit and then look at how assessors can successfully use this assessment method to gather rich evidence from their ITQ candidates.

Professional Discussion is an opportunity for an assessor and candidate to discuss, in detail, aspects of the candidate's use and application of IT. It is an assessment method and one which, carefully planned for and implemented, offers a chance for the ITQ candidate to provide a wealth of evidence to the assessor.


ENTO, in its publication entitled 'Excellence in assessing' describes a Professional Discussion as an "in-depth, two-way conversation between the assessor and the candidate. It's the main method to use when assessing complex tasks and the candidate's ability to show and apply knowledge"


Edexcel defines Professional Discussion in the following way:
"This can be seen as a special type of questioning when the assessor records the outcome of a discussion with the candidate, typically based around some product evidence, to ensure understanding of the activity and to extend the evidence to cover the component detail required." Edexcel Levels 1,2 and 3 for IT Users.

However, a Professional Discussion is not a question and answer session with the assessor directing and controlling the whole process. It is a chance for candidates to take the floor. In the case of the Mandatory Unit, they can not only describe the application of IT but also provide a greater analytical and critical examination of the use and application of IT in their day-to-day lives. It is a reliable method to capture description direct from the candidate.

John Deacon, the National Account Manager for OCR describes Professional Discussion as follows: "Used correctly between the assessor and candidate a Professional Discussion can prove to be an extremely effective method of collecting evidence especially for the Mandatory Unit within ITQ.

A Professional Discussion can be a planned series of discussions that help the assessor and candidate focus in on real life tasks such as problem solving, setting up new systems within their organisation, case histories or critical incidents."

Unlike a reactive question and answer session, a Professional Discussion is a negotiated session where the areas for discussion are agreed prior to the event. Good planning is essential.

Before looking at the planning for a successful Professional Discussion let's consider what the Mandatory Unit consists of and think about the journey to achieve the Unit.

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Last modified: 15 Jun 2007