Assessment and reporting in Retail Services

Assessment in Stage 6

Assessment is the process of gathering information and making judgements about student achievement for a variety of purposes. In the Higher School Certificate (HSC), those purposes include:

• assisting student learning
• evaluating and improving teaching and learning programs
• providing evidence of satisfactory achievement
• providing HSC results.

For HSC VET courses, they also include:

• confirming whether an individual can perform to the standards expected in the workplace, as expressed in the relevant endorsed unit of competency
• determining eligibility for Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) VET qualifications.

Reporting achievement in the HSC

The HSC credentials received by students are used by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) to report satisfactory completion of courses within the Retail Services Curriculum Framework. Each course will be listed on the HSC Record of Achievement together with the HSC unit credit value. The Record of Achievement will also refer to separate vocational documentation.

For students who have fulfilled the requirements of an AQF VET qualification, the vocational documentation will consist of the relevant Certificate and an accompanying Transcript of Competencies Achieved. Students who have achieved partial completion of an AQF VET qualification will receive a Statement of Attainment, which lists all units of competency achieved towards the qualification.

For students who have completed the Retail Services (240 indicative hours) course and who undertake the HSC exam, the HSC Record of Achievement will show:

• an exam mark derived from the HSC external exam
• an HSC mark, equal to the exam mark
• a performance band, determined by the HSC mark.

Student performance in the HSC exam is also reported against standards on a course report. The course report contains a performance scale describing levels (bands) of achievement, an HSC mark located on the performance scale, and an exam mark. The course report also shows, graphically, the statewide distribution of HSC exam marks of all students who undertake the exam.

The distribution of marks is determined by students’ performances against the standards and not scaled to a predetermined pattern of marks.

Competency-based assessment

The courses within the Retail Services Curriculum Framework are competency-based courses. The courses can only be delivered by a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). NESA and the VET Quality Framework require that a competency-based approach to assessment is used. Assessment must meet the requirements of the SIR Retail Services Training Package.

In a competency-based course, assessment of competencies is standards-referenced. This means that a participant’s performance is judged against a prescribed standard contained in each unit of competency, not against the performance of other participants.

The purpose of assessment is to judge competence on the basis of the performance criteria set out under each element of competency. A participant is judged either ‘competent’ or ‘not yet competent’. This judgement is made on the basis of a range of evidence, which may be in a variety of forms.

Competency-based assessment focuses on the requirements of the workplace. Competence incorporates all aspects of work performance, including problem-solving and the capacity to apply skills and knowledge in both familiar and new situations. Assessment of competence involves the assessment of skills and knowledge combined.

It is not necessary, nor is it desirable, for individual performance criteria to be demonstrated separately for assessment purposes. Rather, assessors should adopt an integrated or holistic approach to assessment. This means that a number of elements of competency or even several units of competency are assessed together. This method of assessment is strongly recommended because the concept of competence involves the integration of a wide range of skills, knowledge and attitudes.

The unit of competency identifies the specific skills and knowledge required to demonstrate achievement of the unit of competency.

Assessment requirements

To achieve an AQF VET Certificate or Statement of Attainment, a student or worker must be assessed as competent according to the requirements set out in the national Training Package.

Assessment requirements are detailed in each unit of competency and include performance evidence, knowledge evidence and assessment conditions.

To ensure quality outcomes, assessment should be conducted in accordance with the Principles of Assessment (fairness, flexibility, validity and reliability) and the Rules of Evidence (validity, sufficiency, authenticity and currency) as detailed in the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015.

A qualified assessor under the RTO that is to issue the qualification must conduct the assessment. The VET Quality Framework specifies mandatory competency requirements for assessors. Standard 1 from the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015 details requirements for trainer and assessors, including:

The RTO’s training and assessment is delivered only by persons who have:

1. vocational competencies at least to the level being delivered and assessed;
2. current industry skills directly relevant to the training and assessment being provided; and
3. current knowledge and skills in vocational training and learning that informs their training and assessment.

Industry experts may also be involved in the assessment judgement, working alongside the trainer and/or assessor to conduct the assessment.

The RTO’s training and assessment is delivered only by persons who have Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor, or a diploma or higher-level qualification in adult education.

The RTO ensures that all trainers and assessors undertake professional development in the fields of the knowledge and practice of vocational training, learning and assessment, including competency-based training and assessment.

All assessors who are engaged in assessing units of competency from the SIR Retail Services Training Package must be either:

• employed by an RTO, or
• acting under the registration of an RTO (for example, a teacher working at a delivery site of a school system or sector RTO).

Retail Services HSC exam

Students who have completed the Retail Services (240 indicative hours) course are eligible to sit for the Retail Services HSC exam. Students who want to sit for the Retail Services HSC exam must be entered for both the Retail Services course and the Retail Services exam in Schools Online.

Students who undertake this exam can have their HSC exam mark contribute to the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR). The Retail Services HSC exam mark can contribute up to 2 units towards the calculation of a student’s ATAR. Further information about the ATAR is available on the Universities Admission Centre (UAC) website. 

The external HSC exam provides a measure of student achievement across a range of mandatory syllabus outcomes and content that can be reliably measured in an exam setting. The external exam and its marking relate to syllabus standards by:

• providing clear links to the examinable syllabus outcomes and content
• enabling students to demonstrate the levels of achievement outlined in the course performance scale for the exam
• applying marking guidelines based on criteria that relate to the quality of the response
• aligning performance in the exam each year to the standards established for the exam.

Estimated exam mark

NESA requires schools or RTOs to submit an estimated exam mark for all students entered for the Retail Services HSC exam. This mark is to be an estimate of likely performance in the HSC exam and will reflect each student’s achievement of task(s) similar to the HSC exam, such as a trial HSC exam. The estimated exam mark is not reported and is only used in the case of a successful illness/misadventure application. See Assessment Certification Examination (ACE) Rule 14.5.2.

HSC exam specifications

The examinable outcomes and content for the Retail Services HSC exam are contained in the Retail Services Curriculum Framework Stage 6 Syllabus.

The HSC exam in Retail Services is based on the HSC Content (mandatory and stream focus areas). The 4 mandatory focus areas are:

• Customer service
• Safety
• Sales and security
• Working in the industry.

The 3 stream focus areas are:

• General selling
• Food selling
• Community pharmacy.

The exam will consist of a written paper worth 80 marks. The exam mark for each student will be converted to a mark out of 100.

Time allowed: 2 hours plus 5 minutes reading time.

NESA-approved calculators may be used.

The paper will consist of 4 sections.

Section I  (15 marks)

• There will be objective-response questions to the value of 15 marks.

Section II (35 marks)

• There will be 4 to 6 short-answer questions.
• Questions may contain parts.
• There will be 10 to 12 items in total.
• At least two items will be worth from 4 to 8 marks.

Section III  (15 marks)

• There will be three structured extended-response questions, one for each of the stream focus areas: General selling, Food selling and Community pharmacy.
• Students will be required to answer the question on the stream they have studied.
• Each question will consist of two or three parts, with one part worth at least 8 marks.

Section IV (15 marks)

• There will be one extended-response question based on the mandatory focus areas.

Sections I, II and IV are based on the mandatory focus areas (Customer service, Safety, Sales and security and Working in the industry) and Section III is based on the stream focus areas (General selling, Food selling and Community pharmacy) and can also draw from the mandatory focus areas.

Relationship of the Retail Services 240-hour course to the HSC exam