VQ Bulletin - Issue 4 - 11 Dec 2020

Please find below the principles of how we expect the ‘Reduced Optional Unit Assessment’ adaptation will apply. Please note that not all qualifications will have this mitigation. We continue to work with DfE, Ofqual and other regulators and stakeholders to share your feedback on the challenges faced in this academic year. We will produce a detailed list of qualifications early in the new year that will enable you to understand more specifically what will be permitted for all qualifications. We will also share the administration details for this process, and the quality checks we will have in place to ensure the mitigation is applied accurately.

Please note that some qualifications will not have reduced assessments because they have one or more of the following characteristics:

• 100% Mandatory content
• The qualification gives a license to practice
• To ensure parity between QCF and RQF qualification of the same size receive the same level of adaptation
• In-unit adaptation has already applied.

The adaptation will apply to learners certificating in Summer 2021, and learners who registered in September 2020, and who will be certificating in Summer 2022.

Reduced Optional Unit Assessments will be applied to the BTEC Qualification Suites, outlined in the tables below, which also show the maximum number of optional units/credits that can be claimed as not assessed. The mitigation will permit the reduction of assessment for any valid optional unit within the qualification.

BTEC RQF Nationals (2016 –2020)

BTEC QCF Nationals 2010

BTEC Firsts

In addition to the above information, we’d like to confirm the following points and will share more with you as soon as possible:

• All content should be taught
• All mandatory content must be taught and assessed
• When selecting which units to apply reduced assessment to, Centres will need to reflect on learner's progression, to ensure learners can confidently progress to Higher Education or to work
• The unit(s) that are taught but not assessed must be on the Centre's assessment plan for 2020/2021 academic year
• Centres can choose to assess all units, and not use the reduced assessment adaptation if they are able to assess all content
• The reduced assessment adaptation will not reduce the GLH of the qualification or UCAS points available
• The ‘Reduced Optional Unit Assessment’ is an adaptation and therefore should not be confused with Special Considerations.

We would also like to share our responses to some of your questions relating to ‘Reduced Optional Unit Assessment’ here:

Can I change my assessment plan following on from your announcements?

As in more normal times, you can adjust your assessment plans to reflect any changes you are making. We know many of you will have adjusted the assessment of mandatory units, based on our advice to teach and assess these first, for example. Your assessment plan should be kept updated and reflect your planned delivery, but the Reduced Optional Unit Assessment adaptation is not intended to result in significant disruption to your assessment plans. These units should already be pushed to later in the year and will simply need to be marked with a reference to indicate that assessment will not take place.

Can I use the maximum number of reduced optional units for my ‘mid-flight’ learners?

We would not expect that you would be planning to assess your mid-flight learners on all optional units in their first year. Therefore we would not expect that mid-flight learners would need to have the maximum reduced optional unit assessment adaptation. We will be releasing more information on our expectations and monitoring of this in the new year.

If we have already assessed the optional units, can we remove the grades we awarded?

All units that have been assessed should be banked on the system using the ‘interim claim’ function. It is not appropriate to remove grades for evidence that has been submitted. Learners that have submitted evidence for assessment, in line with the assessment plan should be assessed as planned, and this evidence should be available for Standards Verification if selected.

Can learners later submit/re-submit work for ‘Reduced Optional Units’ that will not be assessed this year, as a result of this mitigation?

As teaching and learning is expected to take place for units that are claimed as ‘not assessed’ this year, we would not expect for learners to generate and submit evidence at a later date.

You have asked for clarity on how ‘Special Considerations’ will apply this year. We have been working with JCQ to ensure parity of the application of Special Consideration across both GQ and VQ learners. Following on from our last bulletin we want to give this reminder.

Special Considerations should only be requested in very specific instances when the assessment activities have been disturbed or disrupted due to temporary illness or injury. It should be used as a last resort, this means that where an assessment cannot be accommodated within the guidance of the JCQ ICE document, or deferred to another sitting e.g. May/June 2021.

It can be applied for where:

• The assessment activity has been disrupted, for example if, due to illness, the learner was unable to complete the whole assessment

It cannot be used:

• in request of consideration of lost teaching and learning time, including teacher absence
• for learners who have missed an assessment and are not completing their qualification this year, i.e. ‘mid-flight’ learners completing in 2022, as we would expect for the assessment to be deferred.

Guidance on applying for Special Considerations which must be submitted after the scheduled assessment has taken place, is available here.

We know that many centres are making full use of all external assessment opportunities, and we encourage you to confirm that your external assessment entries for BTEC are in the system and up to date, this ensures that you will receive or have access to the examination material in good time.

We would like to share the responses below to some frequently asked questions on the Standards Verification activity this academic year, in light of our announcements on 'Reduced Optional Unit Assessment’:

Will Standards Verification still take place?

Yes – our dedicated Standards Verifiers have just completed their training and are looking forward to receiving their allocations and supporting you with your sampling, which will be conducted remotely. We will continue to keep everyone updated if there are any changes to the process.

Will the SV window be extended?

It is unlikely that it will be possible to extend the window for SV sampling whilst ensuring timely completion of the certification process. This is due to the nature of the activities we will be looking to complete this year, including deferred calculation of CAGs from summer 2020, and calculations of the Reduced Optional Unit Assessment mitigations. However, if you have specific concerns, please discuss these with your SV.

In light of the announcements relating to Reduced optional unit assessment, will SV sample sizes be reviewed?

We are in the process of reviewing whether sample sizes remain appropriate following the Reduced optional unit assessment announcement and will update you as soon as possible.