Careful consideration should be given to ensure that a competitive salary is offered to attract the best possible applicants and the type of contract which will be offered – Full time or term time (plus additional weeks to manage examination results periods)
The NAEO has used data from the 2023 exams officer survey to devise advice and guidance in relation to salary and contract types.
Salary
When deciding upon the salary which should be offered prior to appointment, centres should consider the following:
- Regional expectations
- Experience and skills (consider those with experience of the role and/or evidence of the necessary skills)
- Number of qualifications undertaken at your centre
- Number of students undertaking examinations
- Number of Key Stages in which the applicant should expect examinations/assessment to be taken
- Involvement in internal assessments, including mock examinations, non-examination assessments and year group testing (e.g. CATs, YELLIS etc.)
The NAEO recommends the following minimum starting salary levels for the exams officer role only (based upon experience, skills and qualifications):
- No previous exams officer experience: £25,000 (consider additional weighting for London/South East)
- Previous exams officer experience: £30,000 (consider additional weighting for London/South East)
Other roles
In the majority of centres (54%), exams officers are given another role to undertake in addition to responsibility for examinations. This additional role is very likely to be associated with the management/collation of data. Although it is at the discretion of the centre as to whether their exams officer performs an additional role, this should also be reflected within their salary.
The NAEO does not recommend that exams officers are asked to perform an additional role(s) if this prevents them from serving effectively as exams officer.
Your exams officer must be given sufficient time to undertake all roles associated with the management, administration and conducting of examinations, meet awarding body deadlines and give their full attention to maintaining the integrity and security of the examination system within your centre.
Contract type
The NAEO does not support the appointment of exams officers on part time contracts.
The exams officer role is an all-year round role which requires the attention of an individual who is fully trained in JCQ and awarding body regulations. Therefore, the National Association of Examinations Officers recommends that exams officers are employed on a full time contract unless there is an agreement between the centre and exams officer where it is mutually beneficial to agree an alternative contract.
See below for the range of tasks which an exams officer undertakes outside of an exam series.
Additional information
The 2023 exams officer survey revealed that 39.1% of exams officers believed that their head of centre/senior leadership team was of the opinion that they were only required to undertake the role when examinations are taking place.
Below is a list - not exhaustive - of some of the tasks which exams officers are required to undertake when examinations are not taking place:
- Keeping up-to-date with JCQ regulations, including annual updates (there are approximately ten JCQ publications where exams officers must ensure familiarity)
- Ensuring familiarity with awarding body processes/procedures
- Completion of the Exams Officer Professional Standards
- Attending training events/conferences/network meetings
- Keeping up-to-date with stakeholder updates (daily task)
- Helping to devise exam-related policies
- Recruiting and training invigilators
- Creating annual exam/qualification plans
- Pre-entry submission information gathering and submitting exam entries (including withdrawals and amendments)
- Supporting access arrangements, including implementing these on an exam day
- Preparing for JCQ inspections
- Helping to brief candidates, parents/carers and centre staff
- Receiving, logging and storing confidential examination materials
- Timetabling examinations
- Rooming for examinations
- Seating plans
- Involvement in mock examinations, non-examination assessments, internal assessments
- Downloading, arranging and disseminating results and arranging Results Day(s)
- Managing the post-results services process