Workplace+Assessor+Database

Rhoda Takiwa, logistic lecturer from the WA Maritime Training Centre, has been trialling a workplace assessor database on a PDA for the last 4 months. Rhoda normally looks after 30 new trainees per year. In her area a Certificate II trainee needs to complete 14 units whereas a Certificate III needs to complete 21 units.

Normally when she assesses a trainee in the workplace she visits several trainees at different locations on the same day and this means she carries numerous documents for each student. Instead of having a crate of the documents in her car she uses a PDA. Her PDA has a database which stores student & employer details, stores information on student contact and it also contains her assesment tools. When she visits her trainees she can now record all required information about the visit including any assessments on the database. At the end of the day she “syncs” the PDA with the database on her PC. The sync process transfers all the information she has inputted during the day onto her PC which means all her students’ records are stored electronically instead of in paper based form. In Rhoda's situation she would need to carry assessment tools for 54 different units when she goes out on workplace visits if she did not use the PDA.

Previously when she visited her trainees she carried a student contact sheet. Now she has contact information on the database of her PDA and this syncs to the database on her computer. When she visits the workplace she can enter information about the visit in the student contact area of the database on her PDA.



She assesses the trainees using the assessment tools contained in the database on her PDA.