Internal Quality Assurer (IQA) – Early Years & Education (Remote)

Salary: Up to £32,000.00

Location: Remote

Contract: Full Time, Permanent

Shape Futures. Drive Growth. Make a Difference.

At Shaping Lives, we're passionate about transforming careers, supporting employers, and creating meaningful opportunities through apprenticeships. Our mission is built around five core principles: Purpose, Positioning, Values, Personality, and Proposition, and we're proud that 91% of our apprentices report satisfaction with their learning experience and professional development.

Are you an experienced Internal Quality Assurer with a passion for maintaining high standards in apprenticeship and vocational education delivery?

We are seeking a knowledgeable and proactive Internal Quality Assurer (IQA) to join our Quality team. This is an exciting opportunity to play a pivotal role in ensuring assessment quality, compliance, and continuous improvement across our Early Years and Education provision.

Working closely with Tutors, Assessors and Quality Improvement colleagues, you will provide robust quality assurance and support delivery teams to achieve excellence in learner outcomes and assessment practice.

Key Responsibilities

As our IQA, you will:

• Conduct risk-based sampling of learner work, assessment decisions and feedback.
• Develop, maintain and implement effective IQA sampling strategies and plans.
• Lead and facilitate standardisation activities across delivery teams.
• Coach and support Tutors and Assessors to ensure consistency and quality of assessment practices.
• Complete achiever checks and support achievement claims.
• Quality assure provider-delivered assessments in line with apprenticeship reforms and awarding organisation requirements.
• Prepare for and support External Quality Assurance (EQA) visits.
• Monitor compliance against regulatory and awarding organisation standards.
• Identify trends, quality risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Produce detailed quality reports, recommendations and action plans.
• Collaborate with Quality Improvement colleagues to support organisational quality objectives and continuous improvement initiatives.

Programmes You'll Support

You will initially quality assure programmes including:

• Early Years Practitioner Level 2
• Early Years Educator Level 3
• SENCO Level 3
• Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) Level 4

Future provision may also include:

• Early Years Lead Practitioner Level 5
• Teaching Assistant Level 3
• Specialist Teaching Assistant Level 5
• Safeguarding Level 3

We're looking for an experienced quality professional who can operate independently whilst building strong, collaborative relationships with delivery teams.

Requirements:

• Significant experience within Early Years, Education, Teaching Assistant or related provision.
• IQA qualification (IQA Award/Certificate, V1, D34 or equivalent).
• Assessor qualification (CAVA, A1, D32/D33 or equivalent).
• Proven experience carrying out IQA activities within apprenticeships and/or vocational qualifications.
• Experience sampling learner evidence, assessment decisions and assessor feedback.
• Experience leading or supporting standardisation activities.
• Strong understanding of awarding organisation requirements and quality assurance frameworks.
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to identify quality themes, risks and areas for improvement.
• Exceptional attention to detail and organisational skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

We have a number of benefits available and all colleagues benefit from our standard benefits including;

• Generous Annual Leave: 20 days, increasing with length of service, plus a holiday purchase scheme
• Holiday Benefits: 3 Paragon Days for our operational December closure and 8 Public Bank Holidays
• Extra Day Off: Enjoy an additional day off to celebrate your birthday
• Paid Volunteering Leave: Up to 3 days of paid leave for volunteering opportunities and corporate conscience initiatives
• Perkbox: Access to a wide range of lifestyle benefits and wellness tools
• Recognition and Long Service Awards: Celebrating the milestones and contributions of our colleagues

We are a Disability Confident Employer and have a guaranteed interview scheme in place to ensure that nobody is overlooked or discriminated against because of their disability. If you meet the minimum criteria when you apply and you have informed us in your application that you have a disability, you will be guaranteed an interview for that role.

To promote and maintain an inclusive working environment, as part of your application process we will ask you to share data on certain characteristics. These answers will not form part of the selection and recruitment process and will not be shared with anyone outside of the People Team.

Shaping Lives is committed to the safeguarding and wellbeing of our learners and colleagues and we implement robust safer recruitment practices to support this. Dependant on the role you are applying for, we may undertake a number of necessary checks to confirm you are suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults, which may include a Disclosure and Barring Service check. We are also committed to promoting equality and inclusion throughout our colleague and learner populations.