Part 1: Stop Guessing, Start Assessing – Building the Tools for Real Competence

From the Desk of Henning Lubbe
Education Lead | SCASA Board Directors

A Quick Word of Thanks (and What Comes Next)

First of all, thank you. To everyone who re-elected me to the SCASA Board – I appreciate the trust. There is still a mountain of work to be done, whether it’s on the education side, the development of formal and non-formal programmes, or the professional development of every single person in our sector – from the frontline servers to the suppliers and equipment technicians. I’m looking forward to tackling this alongside my fellow new directors.

Now, let’s get to work.

The Core Focus: Assessments (Part 1 of 2)

Today we start a two-part series on the engine room of training: Assessment. In two weeks, I’ll send the follow-up. But first, we need to understand what we’re actually doing when we say we’re “assessing” someone.

What is an Assessment?

At its simplest, an assessment is the structured process of gathering evidence to determine whether a learner has achieved the specific knowledge, skills, or behaviours that a training programme set out to impart. It is not a test for the sake of a test. It is the proof that the training worked.

What is a Training Programme?

Before you can assess, you need to know what you’re assessing against. A training programme is not just “showing someone how to make coffee.” It is a deliberate intervention with defined parameters. When we set up any programme – whether it’s for a barista, a roaster, or a warehouse packer – we need to ask:

• What are the objectives? What do we want to achieve?
• What is the theory knowledge we want to impart? (The “why” behind the “how”)
• What is the practical knowledge we want to impart? (The “how” itself)
• Is there any other knowledge or experience we want to transfer? (Problem-solving, customer interaction, safety awareness)

Once we have that in place, we can link and map assessment criteria to those objectives.

How Do We Assess? The Three Pillars

There are various ways to assess people. We don’t just rely on one method; we use a combination to cover all the topics we’ve trained:

1. Theory Assessments: Written tests, multiple choice, naming parts, explaining processes.
2. Practical Demonstrations: The learner physically performs the task while we observe against a checklist.
3. Research/Projects: The learner investigates, compiles information, or creates something new based on the training.

Climbing the Ladder: Bloom’s Taxonomy in Assessment

When you design your assessment questions, you cannot stay at the bottom of the ladder. You need to climb. This is where Bloom’s Taxonomy comes in – the framework that moves learners from basic recall to true mastery. Here is how it affects the different types of questions you ask:

• Remembering (Basic Naming): “Name the parts of the portafilter.” “What is the standard extraction temperature for espresso?”
• Understanding (Explaining): “Explain why we tamp with even pressure.” “Describe the difference between a single and double shot.”
• Applying (Interpreting/Doing): “Demonstrate how to dial in this grinder given these beans.” “Show me how you adjust the recipe when the humidity changes.”
• Analysing: “This shot is pouring too fast and tastes sour – break down what variables could be causing this.”
• Evaluating: “Taste these two espressos and judge which one meets our quality standard and why.”
• Creating: “Design a new workflow for the morning rush that maintains extraction quality.” “Develop a training checklist for packaging roasted beans that ensures freshness.”

If your assessment only asks learners to “name” and “explain,” you are only testing memory. You are not testing competence.

The Espresso Example: From Theory to Checklist

Let’s make this practical. Say your objective is: “The learner must be able to produce a consistent espresso.”

• Theory Assessment (using Bloom’s): What is an espresso? (A coffee-based beverage, ground to a specific size, extracted through an espresso machine via a portafilter, at a specific temperature and pressure – typically 9 bars – served in a specific vessel.) Can they explain the why behind the what?
• Practical Assessment: The learner must actually dose, distribute, tamp, and extract. You observe this against an observational checklist: Did they purge the group head? Did they distribute evenly? Did they achieve the correct yield in the correct time? Did they serve it in the right cup?

Beyond the Bar: Food Packaging and Bean Packaging

This applies everywhere. When we roast beans and package them, or package any food item we produce, we need to ask:

• Under what conditions do we package? What is the environment? What are the parameters?
• What are the people supposed to wear? (PPE – gloves, hairnets, aprons)
• What is the type of packaging? (Valve bags, vacuum seal, compostable)
• What is the labeling? (Best before dates, nutritional information, roast date, batch numbers)
• How do we actually do it? What is the process?

We record this through observational checklists. When we look back, we have:

• Theoretical assessments where people write, answer multiple choice, name, and explain (using Bloom’s levels).
• Observational checklists with parameters, points for accuracy, and space to describe what was observed.

At the end, we combine these tools to get a holistic view of whether the learner actually met the objectives we set out in the beginning.

The Question of Standards

Now, everybody always talks about “the standard.” What is the minimum standard? This is something that will be addressed going forward. As SCASA, we will create forms and frameworks to define what is the minimum basic requirement within our industry. We want to encourage and support this through our professional network.

Whether you are a barista in a small café in a rural town, a roaster in an industrial park in Gauteng, a server at a fancy hotel in Cape Town’s city centre, working at a vineyard in the Winelands, or running a roadside coffee stop on a highway in the Valley of 1000 Hills – it doesn’t matter. We need to come to consensus on what that minimum standard looks like. But that is a discussion for a later stage.

Your Homework for This Week

For this first exercise, I want you to look at your own training programmes. Take one simple task – like making an espresso or packaging a bag of beans – and map it out:

1. What is the objective?
2. What is the theory (using Bloom’s Taxonomy – can they name it, explain it, apply it, analyse it, evaluate it, create with it)?
3. What is the practical checklist?
4. What does the combined assessment look like?

Send me your examples. Let’s see what you’re doing out there.

In two weeks, we’ll dive into Part 2: Designing the actual assessment tools and moderation processes.

Keep training. Keep assessing. Keep building.

Henning Lubbe
Director: SCASA Board
Skills Development Specialist
Email: henning@kushindaacademy.com
SCASA: info@scasa.coffee