The debate surrounding assessment in education and the tensions it has caused is based upon conflicting ideologies in society. Enterprise in Higher Education and other initiatives have raised the awareness of staff to these issues and caused many of us to rethink the way in which we educate students. Changing the structure of assessment has enabled us to start adopting methods which are more student centred and appropriate to the demands of employers in particular and society as a whole more generally. There is a strong case for adopting a, more collaborative approach which breaks away from traditional norms and, while assessing students' abilities in a summative sense, helps them to develop an awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in a formative way.

This article explores a series of issues surrounding the use of Records of Achievement (RoAs) within higher education and seeks to understand the way in which a small group of first year students make sense of them. Despite having made limited use at school of the National Record of Achievement either formatively or summatively, a majority of these students expressed a desire to continue with RoAs as an aid to empowerment in the labour market. Some modern universities seek to develop key transferable skills and advocate the use of RoAs to enable a summative document to be taken forward following completion of studies. The development of such documents takes place within a context in which some employers rely on the social and cultural capital associated with those who attend established universities. On a minimalist level we need to support undergraduates in the development and recording of skills which will help them to achieve their life projects but it is also incumbent upon us to ensure that we simultaneously develop their critical sensibilities towards the society and labour market they hope to enter.