need help, leaking oil, found where its coming from but what is it???

ever since I had my rocker cover gasket changed at the garage (as I didn't have time to do it myself) I have noticed a burning oil smell, and had a little bit of smoke from underneath the exhaust manifold, been so busy of late and as its my daily I cant afford to have it in the garage atm and haven't had time to put it in the garage, but ive now had some time and had a look underneath and have found where its coming from, question is, I don't know what it is, so ive taken two pictures from underneath the car and hopefully, some of the guru's on here will be able to give me a few pointers and hopefully just a quick and easy fix

as you can see in the first picture oil is leaking and working its way down to my exhaust manifold via the heat shielding ( I think thats what its called) and then burning, do I need to worry as i've probably done about 250-300 miles like this

Have you got a picture from the top of the engine, has it started since the rocker cover gasket was changed?
At a guess the garage has not done the gasket properly, either the cam shaft cover and the metal bars holding the cover on have been put on in the wrong order, nuts done up to tight or to lose.
Have a look at the top back of the engine to see if the leak is there.
Next port of call would be take the cam belt cover off and look at the seal for the cam shaft.

Just whipped out and got a pic now but car was only running for about 1 minute it always seems to be damp where you see it in the pic, yes it's only been smoking since the rocker cover gasket has been changed, how do I know how tight the bolts need to be and how do I know if the bars have been fitted correctly??? Cheers for the help, greatly appreciated

i think i can see sealant there, bad news seems your garage is run by bodge artists

take the cover off and see what they have done, i would recommend you upgrade to the new style rubber gasket, you'll have to change the studs holding it down though. you lock 2 nuts together on each stud then wind em out that way

buy this kit complete with new studs:
Elring 457.200 Valve Cover Gasket Kit - OE Ref: 026198025C | AVS Car Parts

Is the black stuff on the back edge of the rocker cover sort of like rubber or is it grease?
If its like rubber your garage has used sealant to seal the gasket.
Listen to rubjonny, he's knows alot about VW and upgrade the rocker cover gasket, you will need to clean all the sealant off and make sure the faces are clean before fitting a new gasket.

If it was me I would either get the garage to do the job again properly with out using any sealant (never need to use sealent in the 20 years of owning my car) or never go any where near that garage again as its a simple job to replace the gasket and it they have to dodge that what else are they doing wrong???

The see if the nuts are tight enough I get a 10mm socket on an extention bar and with nothing on the end (just a socket and a stright bar coming up from the socket) use you fingers and turn the bar, they only need to be nipped up and worth checking every 12 months as they can work lose.
If you do have a torque wrench which goes low enough they are some thing like 20 Nm but not got my Haynes manual at work to check!