The policy direction for this academic year is that teaching, learning and assessment should continue. As permitted by Ofqual and DfE, we do have adaptations available across many vocational qualifications to support centres and learners.   

We continue to work with Ofqual, other regulators, and VTQ Awarding Organisations to ensure that qualification and assessment delivery this academic year is resilient to the impacts of the pandemic. As part of this work, and alongside the announcements on 30 September regarding GQ contingencies, The Department for Education have released guidance for vocational qualifications,  to support parity of contingency planning for all learners this year.

As explained in our recent bulletins, Q-TAGs are not permitted under the current regulation for this academic year (2021/22), therefore in order for learners to be able to progress their certification claims this year, we need you to input unit-level grades into the system to enable timely certification.

Where assessment was due, but did not take place between 1 August 2020-31 August 2021, you will provide a ‘U-TAG’ judgement; this includes both external and internal unit assessment.  

You can find both our Teacher Support information (PDF) and administration guidance (PDF) on our website.

We also have a video walkthrough of the streamlined internal assessment guidance by two of our BTEC experts, which explains how this can be applied in practice to BTEC qualifications this academic year.

Contact details

We will be writing to your nominated Point of Contact (usually the Examinations Officer) next week to ensure we have the right contact to provide the External Assessment U-TAG judgement templates to. We’ll let you know once this has been sent, so you can check with colleagues.

We have received some queries from centres about the impact of the timing of the U-TAG process for units undertaken in 2020/21 on UCAS applications. This relates to learners completing in 2022 and applying to HE this academic year, given that it may not be possible to add the quality assured U-TAGs for year 1 units to the UCAS application form (like in normal years).

We have the following guidance:

• Please continue to list which unit titles students are studying as part of the BTEC. This is particularly imperative for STEM and health-related degrees, where unit-based offers can often be made. Some HEIs will reject applications outright if unit titles are not listed on the UCAS application form.
• We have already informed UK HEIs that we will send all the unit grades with the overall qualification grade (via UCAS) in summer as in normal years.
• It is not vital to also include year 1 unit grades on the application form for the vast majority of BTEC students (as we will send that information in summer, and HEIs recognise that not all centres deliver the key units in year 1). HEIs will largely be able to make offers (including unit-based ones) in the normal way.
• The exception, where some HEIs use year 1 unit grades to make an offer, is in cases where applicants have not met the GCSE entry requirements and some will use the year 1 results to still make an offer to the student if they feel it compensates for their GCSE performance. In these cases, we recommend that centres enter the “Provisional year 1 BTEC unit grades” into the “Reference” part of the UCAS application form, which will be confidential and not seen by the student. You may also wish to do this for applicants with borderline predicted qualification grades.
• We will also be informing all UK HEIs that the timing of the U-TAG process means that not all applicants will be able to enter their year 1 unit grades to the UCAS application form as normal and remind them that they will be sent all the unit grades as normal in summer.
• Please ensure that applicants use the same name on their UCAS application form as on their BTEC registration (i.e. their legal name). This enables us to successfully identify students and send their results to UCAS on time. Please remind students not to use nicknames or change the way hyphenated surnames appear for example. 

We are pleased to share with you that the DfE has confirmed that existing adaptations for Early Years Vocational and Technical Qualifications (VTQs) will continue to apply in the 2021-2022 academic year to be in line with the early year’s qualifications on league tables.

The DfE has further clarified that ‘all content for VTQs should be taught, as far as is feasible, so that students are as well-prepared as possible for progression to the next stage of their education, training or employment. These adaptations are for the academic year 2021-2022 only and it should not be assumed that adaptations to assessments approved for 2020-2021 or for 2021-2022 will continue into the academic year 2022-2023. It is our (DfE’s) firm intention that exams and assessments will return to normal in the academic year 2022-2023’.

The Joint Awarding Body adaptation document (PDF) has recently been updated. We are updating all associated Pearson guidance documents in line with the joint Awarding Organisation guidance, as agreed with DfE, and these will be available soon. In the meantime we wanted to share this great news with you to enable you to plan and deliver within this academic year and to provide continued support to your learners.

What this means for BTEC learners is that in addition to these adaptations for work placement hours and risk-based assessment of skills through alternative assessment methods, all streamlined assessments can be applied as per the Streamlined Internal Assessment Guidance (PDF). In addition, all external assessments for mandatory units will take place and must be completed. Reduction for mandatory units is no longer applicable for learners certificating in August 2022.

As a result of the ongoing concerns related to the risks associated with Covid-19 and the possibilities of public health restrictions to continue locally and nationally, there may be instances where normal assessment is not possible for a prolonged period of time or where this interruption relates to Covid-19. These alternative assessment arrangements will continue through the academic year 2021/22 and will be available to both ‘mid-flight’ and new learners, only.

The Joint Awarding Body guidance for the Health & Social Care and Childcare qualifications in Wales, and Northern Ireland (PDF) has been updated for 2021-22, and can be found on our website.

In addition to this updated guidance, NISCC and Social Care Wales have also issued an additional guidance and checklist for observation of supervision (PDF), which is applicable to Level 4 and Level 5 qualifications as listed on this guidance.

We are reviewing our own internal guidance documents in line with these changes, and these will be available soon.

We have carried forward the adaptions and suggestions for Work Experience and Employer Engagement for this academic year. Where possible and considering public health mandates we recommend that Work Experience is undertaken.    

For Childcare qualifications, the regulatory bodies have allowed for adaptations for learners who will certificate in August 2022, please note for learners who will certificate beyond this date, our assumption is that work placement requirements will return to pre-pandemic arrangements.

You can find the updated Work Experience and Employer Engagement Guidance (PDF) on our website.

All BTEC external assessments for 2021/22 are expected to go ahead.   

New: We have released our provisional Summer 2022 timetables, for centre feedback, today. You can find these on our provisional timetables web page.  

Any feedback on these provisional timetables should be sent to timetables@pearson.com before Friday 22 October 2021. Once these timetables are final, they will be published in the BTEC External Assessment Overview document, found on our timetables web page.  

Reminder: In light of feedback from centres, the January series will commence one week later (from 12 January) with results day moving to 23 March. The February series will also commence one week later (from 7 February) with results day moving to 6 April. 

Final timetables for January, February and March 2022 are now up on the website and included in the BTEC External Assessment Overview document, available on the Exams Officers and Exam Timetables web pages.

The 2021/22 Annual Centre Declaration is now available for you to download from Edexcel Online as well as the Quality Assurance web page.

• On Edexcel Online you should select BTEC as the qualification and then the first menu entry will take you to the Annual Centre Declaration page.The template is noted in blue and underlined.
• You will need to use your email address as an electronic signature and save as a Word document. You will then be able to return to the Edexcel Online page and upload the completed document using the upload link there.
• Please note that there is a 6MB limit on file size which is why we recommend a Word document and email signatures. You may need to click on the template link first before uploading your finished document, even if you have used the template from the Quality Assurance page, just to ensure the upload has worked.
• Please ensure you do not submit via email or the Portal. 

If you need further support to complete you Annual Centre Declaration, you can access our video tutorial, or our guide on our website.

WBL Handbooks

WBL handbooks are currently undergoing further review and will be available on 27 September 2021.

Centre Self-Assessment (CSA) and supporting guidance

Following a review and update of our supporting materials, the Centre Self- Assessment and new guidance is available on our website now. We would encourage you to complete your CSA for mid-October. This will enable you to be prepared for your first Lead Standards Verification activity. You can find the documents you'll need on our Quality Assurance web page.

If you have already completed an Annual Centre Declaration (ACD) for your BTEC programmes, you do not need to complete the CSA. Please make the ACD available for your WBL Lead Standards Verifier or Pearaon Quality Advisor (PQA) once complete.

If you have already completed an Annual Centre Declaration (ACD) for your BTEC programmes, you do not need to complete the CSA. Please make the ACD available for your WBL Lead Standards Verifier or Pearaon Quality Advisor (PQA) once complete.

Lead Standards Verifier (LSV) activity 

WBL LSV allocations will be released in mid-October 2021; this means that LSVs will start to contact you after this point to carry out the LSV activities and support you for the coming year. We encourage you to work with your allocated LSVs to ensure your documents are completed and you are ready for the coming year’s delivery.

It has been a challenging year for all of us, but we are here to support you. We will focus on working with you to plan all your Standard Verification activities effectively for the 2021- 2022, ensuring no delays and learners are able to progress to the next stage in their life.  

For 2021-2022, LSV activities will remain remote, to ensure the safety of all involved.

Following Ofqual’s announcement which confirmed that exams and assessments will go ahead as planned for the academic year 2021-22, we have recently released guidance to support centres, should you need to make adaptations to teaching and delivery this year. 

We have also created further guidance about quality assurance and assessment for your BTEC Higher Nationals and External Examination. For 2021-2022 external examination visits will continue remotely. If the opportunity arises to safely resume centre visits, we will advise centres of this.  

Please note that after 30 September 2021 you will no longer be able to make claims for assessments that took place between 1 August 2020 and 31 August 2021 using Unit Level Teacher Assessed Grades (UTAGs).

You can visit our Higher National web page for the latest guidance.

Some centres have been in touch seeking clarification on a cover letter received with certificates, which are being dispatched to centres after the conclusion of the TAG process for 2020/21.  

We’re sorry for any confusion, and would like to clarify when you should expect Notifications of Performance to be issued:

• BTECs awarded via Q-TAG -  NoPs will not be provided
• Other Vocational Qualifications (including Higher Nationals) - NoPs are provided within 2 weeks  

Providers are now able to make student registrations onto the Construction and Digital Technical Qualifications for cohorts commencing this academic year. 

The standard registration window will close on 1 November, with late registrations starting on 2 November. A support video on how to make registrations and manage student details can be found on our Provider web page.

Entries for both the Core Component Assessments for the November 2021 Series and the Occupational Specialism Assessment for the Summer 2022 Series are now open. A support video on how to make entries is available via the Engagement Hub.

Please remember, you must make an entry for every student wishing to enter the assessment.  

Providers wishing to make entries for re-sits please ensure you are familiar with the re-sit rules. These can be found in the TQ Specification, or use our support video on ‘assessment, results and re-sits' which can be found on the Provider web page.

The standard entry window is from 1 September – 5 October 2021.

Our remote invigilation service is now up and running for EPA and Functional Skills onscreen tests. For more information please see our dedicated web page. Here you will find information about the service and an ‘Intention to Offer’ form you must complete if you want to be approved to run tests in this way.

The web page also has detailed information for both centres and learners guiding you through the process as well as answers to a number of frequently asked questions about the service. It is vital that both you and your learners read this information fully before making any test bookings for remotely invigilated tests.  We’ve been live for three months now and need to remind you of some key points we have noticed as part of our review of completed tests so far:

• You, the centre, are still responsible for your learners even though the test is being taken remotely. Your centre remains the first point of contact for learners and you must ensure your learners are fully prepared to take a test in this way.
• It is vital learners show their ID at the start of the test. Failure to do so will lead to disqualification if we are unable to identify the learners fully.
• Learners must show any note paper to camera at the start of the test. Again, if it's not shown and we can’t tell if it’s blank, this will lead to disqualification.

The following items are not permitted and will lead to disqualification if seen:

• Grammarly (software package some learners have running on their equipment which must be disabled before launching the test player)
• Calculators other than the built in one in POP (to reduce the risk of a learner using a calculator in the non-calculator section of the maths tests)
• Smart watches 
  

On Wednesday July 14 the DfE released their response to the second stage of the Review of Post-16 qualifications at level 3. 

Find out more about what these changes mean for you and the BTECs you deliver.

No changes are being made to technical qualifications until the 2023/24 academic year at the earliest, and no changes are being made to academic qualifications, including Applied General qualifications, until the 2024/25 academic year at the earliest.

You may be aware that in July, twelve organisations that represent and support staff and students in schools, colleges and universities wrote to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson (PDF), urging him to reconsider restricting students’ choice of qualifications at the age of 16.

The #ProtectStudentChoice campaign focuses on the Department for Education’s current review of post-16 qualifications at Level 3, which puts government funding at risk for many applied general qualifications such as BTECs. The letter warns that “many young people will be adversely affected by this proposal, but disadvantaged students have the most to lose”.

Here is Pearson's response to the #ProtectStudentChoice campaign, and here is the petition you can sign to support the campaign to guarantee BTECs will continue to play a major role in the qualifications landscape.

For further information on our general qualifications for 2022, please visit our summer 2022 support page. We will be updating this page regularly.

For information and entry deadlines for the autumn 2021 exam series, please visit our October/November exam series web page.

Do sign up to receive our regular Pearson Qualifications Bulletin on our website, where you will also be able to read past issues.