VQ Bulletin - Issue 6 - 26 Jan 2021

BTEC

• Teaching and learning across all content should continue as far as possible, with internal assessment continuing using available support and adaptations.
• Standards Verification sampling of learner work will continue, in order to support centres to claim their completed internally assessed unit grades.
• Internally assessed grades should be banked in the system using the ‘interim claim’ function.
• January exams for BTEC can go ahead, where centres deem it right to do so.
• BTEC externally set and marked tasks and exams scheduled in February, March and summer will not be going ahead, alternative arrangements to be put in place. The one exception is exams that are part of licence to practise qualifications (e.g. childcare), where we are reviewing what the consultation means for affected students.
• Ofqual consultation on alternative arrangements for the award of VTQs and other general qualifications in 2021 launched on 15 Jan and closes on 29 Jan.
• Special considerations is available for learners who have missed assessments, but are due to certificate before summer arrangements in place.

Functional Skills and ESOL

• Functional Skills assessments to continue where it is possible and safe to do so.
• Speaking, Listening and Communicating can be conducted remotely.
• Available adaptations are detailed here.
• Ofqual consultation on alternative arrangements for the award of VTQs and other general qualifications in 2021 launched on 15 Jan and closes on 29 Jan.
• Standards Verification activities continue, remotely, where centres have completed internal assessments ready for external verification.

WBL and Higher Nationals

• WBL qualifications can continue with existing adaptations.
• Pearson Higher Education Qualifications are responding to the Ofqual consultation on alternative arrangements for the award of VTQs and other general qualifications and preparing to issue detailed guidance once the outcome of the consultation is known. In the meantime, centres should continue to deliver and assess, where possible, using the guidance that we have issued.

In this week's Bulletin, we would like to take the opportunity to update you on adaptations to assessments available to BTEC suites, aimed at supporting you to continue to deliver teaching, learning and assessment under the current COVID-19 restrictions.

We encourage you to continue assessing your learners, even if this is partial assessments of units whilst centres are closed. We expect teaching to continue remotely, where possible.

There are two types of reduced internal assessment adaptations that are available:

• Reduced unit assessment - the number of internal units that need to be assessed is reduced, these could be mandatory or optional.
• In unit adaptation – the amount of assessment evidence needed to meet criteria have been reduced. 

The Reduced Internal Assessment Adaptation for each qualification can be found here.

BTEC RQF Nationals (2016–2020)

Please note for RQF Nationals, you can now reduce assessment of mandatory or optional internal units. The adaptation is for number of units, and not the GLH of the unit.

Level 3 BTEC Specialist qualifications in Engineering

(including Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, Aerospace and Aviation Engineering, Rail Engineering, Composites Engineering and Machining) have the same adaptations applied as the BTEC Nationals RQF (2016) suite.

Children’s Play Learning and Development

Please refer to the guide, with regards to when reduction of assessment can apply, the main principle is if the learner wants to be awarded an ‘Early Year Educator’ qualification that allows them to be counted into level 3 childcare ratios, they must complete all mandatory content.

Sport

Where the qualification is underpinned by CIMSPA standards, the mandatory unit assessments must take place. This impacts the 2019 Career Focused Sport Qualifications, and the BTEC National in Fitness Services. For these qualifications, reduced assessment applies only to optional content, please see the guide for further detail.

BTEC Nationals (2018/2019) Creative Practice Qualifications

Reduced assessment adaptations are now available for the following qualifications which can be found in the linked sector guides:

• BTEC Level 3 540 Diploma and Extended Diploma in Art and Design Practice (2019)
• BTEC Level 3 540 Diploma and Extended Diploma in Creative Media Practice (2019)
• BTEC Level 3 Foundation Diploma and Extended Diploma in Music and Music (Production) (2018)
• BTEC Level 3 Foundation Diploma and Extended Diploma in Performing Arts Practice (2019)
• BTEC Level 3 Foundation Diploma and Extended Diploma in Production Arts Practice (2019).

BTEC RQF National Level 3 in Applied Science and Forensic Investigation

The following in-unit assessment adaptations have been added and can be found in the Teaching and Learning Guide.

BTEC QCF Nationals 2010
 

BTEC Firsts

*Further adaptations are available as follows:

BTEC Tech Awards

In unit adaptations, please refer to the guide, where internal component adaptations have been applied.

BTEC Level 2 Technicals and BTEC Industry Skills NEW

Please note these adaptations do not apply to BTEC Level 2 Technicals in Children's Play, Learning and Development (Early Years Practitioner).

For Level 2 Creative Industry Skills qualifications, please refer to the teaching and learning guides for further details on adaptations available:

• BTEC Level 2 Art and Design Skills
• BTEC Level 2 Creative Media Skills
• BTEC Level 2 Music Industry Skills
• BTEC Level 2 Performing and Production Arts Industry Skills.

Level 1 and Entry Level qualifications

Please refer to the teaching and learning guide to support your delivery, we are still reviewing adaptations for these qualifications.

BTEC Standards Verification will continue as planned in 2021. This is to support you and particularly as teacher-led internal assessment sits at the very core of BTEC. Our Standards Verifiers will try to answer any questions you have on sampling this year, please do engage with them as they now begin to contact you.

Equally, we need to be able to verify, in line with our sampling guidance, the assessment decisions that teacher assessors have made on assessments that have taken place, acknowledging that we have many adaptations in place, and the continuing challenges regarding teaching, learning and assessment.

We remain committed to our current timelines set out in the guidance already issued, that Standards Verfication will conclude on 30 June 2021, with final deadline for centre claim submission of 5 July 2021.

Following the outcomes of the Ofqual consultation, we will write to you again with further information about the timeline.

We are pleased to be able to share with you that our new online portal for submitting BTEC Level 1-3 learner work to your SV is now live. Learner Work Transfer is a secure application, which is intended to provide a reliable replacement to postal submission of your work samples for verification. For the academic year 2020-21, in addition to remote sampled, medium rated programs, the platform will be available to use with enhanced programs and for sectors normally verified by a centre visit.

Uploading the work means you won’t need to arrange postage, there is no risk of loss in transit, and work will be available to the SV almost instantaneously. You will be able to upload work piece by piece or all in one go, and submit once everything is ready. Learner Work Transfer is accessed via a new menu option on Edexcel Online, and is available to all users with the Basic Access profile. If you are prompted to log in again, your Edexcel Online credentials will also access Learner Work Transfer.

When your Standards Verifier gets in touch regarding your verification sample this year, they will ask how you wish to submit the learner work. If you give your SV access to your own digital portfolio system that’s fine – you won’t need to duplicate effort by using Learner Work Transfer too. However, if you would normally post the work to your SV, please indicate to them that you would like to use Learner Work Transfer. They will set up the sample request in the system for you, and you will be able to upload the work to them. We are supporting a wide range of file formats, which you can refer to here.

Learner Work Transfer has been designed with input from centre users and Standards Verifiers to be simple to use. There are two short training videos available for you to watch on the Quality Assurance pages of our website, which give step by step instructions on using the application.