Professional Assessment Ltd

Professional Assessment Ltd (PAL) are award-winning specialists in assessment and compliance. Their mission is simple yet vital: to make the process of assessment, qualification awarding, and audit and compliance of FE funding, flow more easily.

PAL supports learners, employers, and training centres across multiple sectors — including Adult Care and Healthcare, Business and Administration, Catering and Hospitality, Education and Childcare, Engineering and Manufacturing, and Sales and Marketing.

For many learners, approved reasonable adjustments are essential to ensure fair and valid testing conditions. Among these, having a reader during on-screen assessments is a common requirement — a service PAL had long provided through trained staff members.

The Challenge

Before adopting ReadSpeaker, PAL relied on human readers to provide reading assistance during assessments. While staff training ensured quality and compliance, the process introduced challenges:

Human readers had to be scheduled and trained in assessment protocols and subject terminology. Maintaining consistent reading quality across sessions was demanding. Long test durations (up to 60 minutes) could cause fatigue, affecting delivery consistency.

Quality reviews showed strong learner satisfaction overall, but also highlighted occasional variation in delivery — a natural limitation of any human-based process.

PAL wanted to offer learners a more consistent, self-directed, and confidence-building experience while maintaining strict assessment validity standards.

The Solution

When Cirrus Assessment recommended ReadSpeaker as a built-in accessibility option within their e-assessment platform, PAL saw an ideal fit.

ReadSpeaker’s text-to-speech (TTS) solution allows learners to have assessment text read aloud directly on screen — without external assistance. Learners can adjust the reading speed, replay words or sentences, and follow synchronised highlighting, giving them full control over how they engage with assessment content.

The integration process was seamless. PAL built practice tests based on general-knowledge quizzes, allowing learners to explore ReadSpeaker features ahead of time. This hands-on preparation ensured that when learners entered official test conditions, they could focus entirely on demonstrating their knowledge — not on the technology.

“We wanted a solution that put learners fully in control,” explained Paul Kelly of PAL “ReadSpeaker does that — it gives them the independence and confidence they need.”

ReadSpeaker also worked closely with PAL to fine-tune pronunciation for Hospitality and Catering qualifications, ensuring accurate reading of technical and French terminology, for example,  “mise en place” in our Commis Chef assessments and “beurre blanc” in Chef de Partie assessments. The adjustments were completed promptly and smoothly by ReadSpeaker’s support team.

The Results

By replacing human readers with ReadSpeaker, PAL now delivers consistent, fair, and fully accessible assessments across all participating centres.

Learners experience greater confidence, less anxiety, and full control over the pace of reading — all critical factors in valid, equitable assessment.

“I felt far more relaxed and at ease, and less stressed about the exam. The words were clearer, as I am dyslexic, and it helped keep me at ease. Sometimes when I read words, the letters get jumbled, and I can’t always work out what the word is. Hearing it was very helpful to me.” Cleaning Hygiene Operative Apprentice at Professional Assessment Ltd

Training providers and assessors also benefit from reduced administrative effort, streamlined scheduling, and reliable quality assurance.

 “ReadSpeaker has transformed how we support learners who need reading assistance during onscreen assessments. Instead of relying on staff to act as readers, the technology gives every learner consistent, high-quality support—instantly and independently. It helps us meet our compliance obligations and, more importantly, ensures no learner is disadvantaged when demonstrating what they know.”  Paul Kelly, Qualifications Director, Professional Assessment Ltd

PAL continues to expand its use of digital accessibility tools, guided by a clear commitment to inclusion and fairness in every qualification it awards.

ReadSpeaker for improved accessibility

ReadSpeaker provides flexible, fully integrated text-to-speech solutions that help assessment platform providers and training centres meet accessibility and compliance standards — while enhancing learner independence and confidence.

Learn more about ReadSpeaker for Assessments

Interview with Paul Kelly, Qualifications Director

Please introduce Professional Assessment — your mission, the types of qualifications you provide,  the learners you serve and the typical types of accommodations they require.

Professional Assessment Ltd (PAL) is an award-winning specialist in assessment and compliance. PAL’s promise to our customers is to make assessment, qualification awarding, and audit and compliance of FE funding, all flow more easily. We provide a responsive, high-quality service to learners, employers, and centres and providers alike, at a reasonable cost.

What sectors do you currently operate in, and which ones are you focusing on most (e.g., adult care, healthcare, hospitality)?

We operate in Adult Care and Healthcare, Business and Administration, Catering and Hospitality, Education and Childcare, Engineering and Manufacturing, and Sales and Marketing sectors. All these sectors are very important to us and our stakeholders, and we’ll look to expand into other sectors in the future.

What led you to the ReadSpeaker solution?

Our learners taking the onscreen assessments that PAL delivers are entitled to have a reader provided, as part of an approved reasonable adjustment. These adjustments, such as a learner having a test read out loud to them, are available in order to meet our legal and test validity obligations to ensure a learner is not disadvantaged because of a known learning or development need. Cirrus Assessment recommended the ReadSpeaker solution, as this is an add-on available within their e-assessment platform.

Before using ReadSpeaker, how did you support learners who required reading assistance in their assessments?

PAL staff were trained to perform the role of readers, ensuring that they were familiar with invigilation rules and regulations and technical terms that were required to be read out loud for the learner.

What challenges did you face with those solutions?

The availability and training of human readers and occasionally, the consistency of the provision of the reading service over extended exam times. For example, quality reviews of recordings of the tests, involved human readers, revealed though on the whole the learner experience was strong, there were occasions when the reader could have been slightly better and it’s worth noting that reading aloud with a consistent level of quality for 60 minutes can be a challenge, regardless of the level of subject experience a reader has and how much training they have received.

Why was it important for you to offer text-to-speech as part of your accessibility offering?

PAL wanted a solution that met learner needs and gave learners a consistent experience across the board and placed the learner in full control of the text selection, reading speed and ability to repeat words and sentences as required.

What was the integration process like with Cirrus Assessment — were there any issues or lessons learned?

The integration process was straightforward and we had no issues in getting ReadSpeaker implemented. We constructed practice tests, based on general knowledge quizzes, so learners could familiarise themselves with the system outside of test conditions; this is because it is vital that learners, who are entitled to use ReadSpeaker in assessments, are not anxious and are able to use the system features seamlessly and focus on what is important, answering the questions and demonstrating their knowledge in the best possible way.

Were you able to customise or create pronunciation dictionaries for your assessments, and how easy was that process? 

We submitted a pronunciation request to ReadSpeaker for our hospitality and catering assessments (Commis Chef and Chef de Partie qualifications) to ensure ReadSpeaker was able to accurately pronounce technical terminology often from the French language. This request was completed by ReadSpeaker promptly and successfully.