2020 · Field note · 2018–2021
Certification when the building is closed
Lockdown would have halted a hall-based exam. We accelerated remote delivery so the pathway did not stop with the bus routes.
The assessment was already practical and already sat at a computer. The pandemic asked us to make the room the candidate’s own, without lowering the check. Remote delivery and open assessment models were brought forward so that a closed library was not a closed qualification.
From that year the sitting has been at the candidate’s own computer. The remote format described here used a local camera preview; video was not recorded or transmitted, and there was no live invigilation at that time. ENEBA’s current real assessments are subject to invigilation by an authorised invigilator, with candidate consent; practice mocks remain uninvigilated. The questions do not vary by place. Offices support candidates. They are not venues.
The work was harder than the slogan. Quiet space, a working camera, a connection that lasted the whole paper, a candidate who was also looking after someone else in the house. We learned to say those conditions out loud in the instructions, instead of assuming a spare room.
We are proud of the cohorts who certified in those years. They kept a standard alive at the moment it would have been easiest to replace it with a quiz.