A milestone is a task the apprentice must perform, under stated conditions and to a stated standard, that a person other than the teacher can watch and judge as pass or fail. Write each milestone as an action and not as an understanding, and treat any safety-critical step in it as all-or-nothing, because a milestone that can be passed with a skipped safety step teaches that the step is optional.
Part of Skill Progression Framework
How to write checkpoints for each stage of a trade so that progress is judged by what can be seen, not by opinion.
”Understands Metallurgy” Is Not A Milestone
The carrier article is explicit: milestones must be observable and testable, not “understands metallurgy” but “can identify iron ore, build a charcoal fire to correct temperature, and forge a functional nail.” The first cannot be judged. The second can be watched and the nail inspected.
The carrier gives example carpentry milestones by stage. An observer can name all the tools and their purposes, identify five local woods and their properties, and sharpen a blade to a working edge. An assistant can make straight cuts with a hand saw, join two boards with pegs or lashing, and measure and mark accurately. A practitioner can build a simple stool or shelf independently and diagnose structural problems. A journeyman can design and build a piece of furniture, construct a load-bearing structure and teach a new apprentice. Each is an action with a visible result.
The Parts Of A Good Milestone
- The task: what is done.
- The conditions: with what tools, how much supervision, how much time.
- The standard: what a pass looks like. The carrier’s examples include “a functional chair must support 120 kg without failure” and “a water filter must produce clear water with no visible particles”. Objective standards prevent arguments.
- The observer: who watches. As the Competency Testing article says, the primary trainer should not be the sole judge.
- Safety-critical steps: marked, and graded pass or fail with no partial credit.
- The record: date, observer and result, in the registry.
What You Need
- A list of the trade’s tasks in order of difficulty and hazard.
- A standard for each, written before the test.
- An observer from outside the pair for the stage-ending milestones.
- A form for results.
Method: Writing The Milestones For A Stage
Step 1: Start from the work. List what the apprentice will really do in this stage.
Step 2: Pick the tasks that prove the stage, those whose success shows the stage has been achieved.
Step 3: Write the standard in measurable terms: a load carried, a clearance held, a joint tight, a time not exceeded.
Step 4: Mark the safety steps. Anything that protects a person is graded all or nothing.
Step 5: Test the milestone on a competent practitioner. If a good practitioner fails it or a poor one passes it, the milestone is badly written.
Step 6: Review yearly. Practice changes.
Worked Example: Milestones For Running A Pressure Vessel
For a steam autoclave, a village could write the following by stage. These are qualitative on purpose, since the vessel’s own figures come from its code and nameplate.
- Observer. Can name every part of the vessel and say what it does; states from memory that the relief valve may never be adjusted, blocked or weighted, and why; can point to the stop for the heat.
- Assistant. Under direct watch, loads the vessel correctly, closes and locks the door, and records pressure and temperature at set intervals.
- Practitioner. Runs a full cycle with the master present but silent; purges the air and checks the thermometer against the gauge (Medical Instrument Sterilization); performs the pre-use check of the relief valve and interlock; opens the door only at zero pressure.
- Journeyman. Handles a fault under watch: a gauge and thermometer that disagree, a leaking gasket, a relief valve that lifts. Chooses to stop the cycle and shows how.
The full qualification for running the vessel alone is in Mastery Demonstration.
Common Mistakes
- Writing milestones about knowledge. Write about performance.
- Setting standards after the test. Standards set afterwards bend to fit.
- Letting a safety step be marked as partly done.
- Using the same observer every time.
- Writing a milestone no competent practitioner could pass.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Assessment Methods — who watches, how, and what to do when they disagree
- Combine with: Procedure Documentation — milestones are easiest to write where procedures already exist