We appreciate that, with the volume of information you’re receiving, it may be challenging to keep track of what is confirmed and what we’re still waiting clarification on, so we hope the following proves helpful:

Setting standards for the January 2021 external assessments

To be as fair as we can to students in the January series, who have continued to face disruption to their teaching and learning due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, we will look to carry forward the generosity from summer 2020 grades, the majority of which were based on centre assessment grades. 

We will rely much more heavily on the judgement of expert senior examiners looking at the quality of student work. We are clear that students sitting exams this January must be treated as fairly as possible, alongside students from summer 2020. As such, examiners will be guided by ‘proxy’ grade boundaries. We will generate these by looking at how far the January 2020 grade boundaries for each unit would have to move to achieve the proportion of students at the key grades we saw for each of those in summer 2020. Archive student work, as well as several other sources of evidence about where grade boundaries should be set, will also be considered. 

For students who were due to certificate before summer and were absent for an exam in the January series, they will be able to apply for special consideration as per a normal series. Please send us the relevant information if you have students in this situation.

This week we held the first two of our Jan-Feb BTEC Customer Briefing sessions for centres running BTEC Entry Level to Level 3 courses. If you were unable to make it, we have included links to the pre-recorded session and briefing (PDF, 0.5 MB) , as well as the pre-asked questionS (PDF, 0.3 MB).   

Thank you to those of you who have attended and submitted questions, it is very helpful to understand first-hand what your current concerns are. We will continue to hold these briefings over the coming months and will let you know when more events are announced.

We will be contacting you shortly regarding learners who have an expected completion date in Edexcel Online of March 2021 or earlier. We would be grateful for your support to confirm completion dates for learners to ensure timely certification, in line with your assessment plans.
  
BTEC learners with completion dates of March 2021 or earlier will require: 

• Correct combination of externally assessed unit entries (and results/special consideration) (where relevant)
• Correct combination of internally assessed unit grades submitted*
• Successful Standards Verification
• Full Award Claims to be entered

To ensure timely certification, the completion date for learners due to certificate before March will be amended to 1 April 2021.

You can support us by withdrawing learners who are no longer on a BTEC programme, and making sure learners that are completing this summer have the relevant completion date in Edexcel Online.

^{*If you intend to use the 'reduced internal assessment' mitigation for learners that require certification before summer 2021, you will be asked to let us know when we contact you.}

In light of the information released as part of the consultation launched on Friday 15 January 2021, the summer examinations for BTEC will also not go ahead. However, those BTEC examinations that contribute to qualifications that include a Licence to Practise (Childcare) may still go ahead. The consultation outcome will inform any alternative arrangements. We have said we would contact you directly if you run these qualifications, and have also provided this specific Childcare guidance (PDF, 0.45 MB) , EYE PEP adaptations, EYP PEP adaptations, and the reduced assessment guidance (PDF, 0.75 MB).

As the guidance permits licence to practise assessments to continue, we are writing to seek your feedback on whether you intend to run this assessment in March for your registered learners, whilst we await the outcome of the consultation. 

Please let us know via this form, so we are able to support your learners to certificate on this course and achieve their EYE status. It may be the case that your learners are deferring completion of their course, or that there are other factors which are impacting on the decisions you make. Please let us know and we will do our best to support you. 

The announcement that the February/March and summer examinations will not go ahead includes the onscreen on-demand tests for the BTEC L2 Firsts and L2 Technicals (excluding licence to practice units). If you have made bookings already for the coming months, for any non-Licence to practice assessment, we will make adjustments on our system and mark the learners as ‘absent’. This means the test cannot take place.

Please note: you do not need to take any action at this time and this will not impact your learners re-sit opportunities. 

Once we are aware of the consultation outcomes, we will write to you again with further information and instructions for learners who are due to certificate this year. For the time being, you will not be able to make any future bookings.

Functional Skills, Specialist Tests and EPA are permitted to continue.

We want to remind you of the importance of always maintaining the security of our tests. Although we have put in processes to support and accommodate the continuation of onscreen testing, it is essential that you continue to follow the Instructions for the Conduct of Examinations, to ensure tests remain fair, reliable and valid.

It is important that the security of our onscreen tests and the associated systems used to access tests are not compromised. 

• Test content should not be shared outside of the Pearson Test Player with anyone
• Learners must be the individual who takes the test and must be appropriately invigilated
• No unauthorised person, including learners or non-centre staff, should be given access to any of our systems, including, QMA, Edexcel Online and PAD
• Passwords or PINs for any Pearson systems should not be shared, if any have potentially been breached, they must be changed immediately
• You must report any actual or suspected breach of the above to us immediately.

If we have any concerns regarding a centre’s conduct in these areas, we are required to investigate and will take action as appropriate, which could result in revoking approval. 

If you have any concerns, questions or need to clarify any of the processes for running onscreen tests, please do contact us so we can support you.

This is to notify centres that the following qualifications will be withdrawn and no longer be available for new or top up registrations from 31 July 2021.

Detailed communications including replacement qualifications and last external assessment windows will be sent to affected centres in early February.

This withdrawal applies to all centres in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Internationally where available.

If you have any questions or queries regarding this announcement, please contact us by contacting your subject advisor, or by using our Support Portal.