Please note there is no requirement for centres to submit the BTEC Q-TAG centre policy to us in advance of the post-QTAG submission QA stage (where it may be requested).

The consolidated Q-TAG centre policy is provided in the guidance information to support the Head of Centre, and centre staff to be aligned on the processes that must continue to be utilised for the Quality Assurance of Q-TAGs (and internal assessment) this year.

In our last bulletin we let you know that we may contact you to offer support and to find out if you have been successful in using the Q-TAG and other BTEC policies. 

Commencing this week, if your centre has been selected, a Pearson colleague will contact the listed Quality Nominee (QN) at your centre. They will want to spend approximately fifteen minutes speaking to the QN about whether your centre has submitted or engaged in Quality Assurance so far this year, and are on track to submit your Q-TAG judgements this year.

This activity is expected to conclude by 21 May 2021. Please do let them know if you have any questions or concerns about the process.

Please note – unfortunately it is not possible for us to give advance notice of when these calls will take place within this window. As always we appreciate your understanding, support and collaboration.

We would like to remind you that the window for Standards Verification closes on 30 May 2021, and there will be no activity beyond that point. This is so you can focus on the Q-TAG process for your learners.

Your Standards Verifier (SV) will provide clear feedback but will not request a second sample. With the feedback provided, you should review any other grading decisions taking that information into consideration and taking the appropriate actions.

Important note regarding report outcomes

If you have provided a full sample that has been agreed by the SV, then the report will show a ‘release’. If the sample was not fully agreed, then the report will show ‘Pending – Centre Actions Required’ (even though a second sample is not required). This status is for our monitoring purposes only this year, and does not link to the release of results for your learners. 

If you are not able to provide a full sample, or any sample at all, then your report will show as ‘Not Yet Fully Sampled’ - again for our tracking purposes.

Although these SV report outcomes will not affect the submission of Q-TAGs or the certification of learners for this year, the provision of sampling will inform the selection of centre programmes at the ‘post-QTAG submission’ QA step. We therefore encourage you to give us sight of your assessment judgements, using the adjusted Standards Verification process this year, to help inform this final QA stage.

We will be releasing more detail of the post-QTAG submission QA stage in the next few weeks.

We have provided centres with details of learners requiring a Qualification-level Teacher Assessed Grade (Q-TAG) to award BTEC results this Summer. 

These spreadsheets contain learners who are registered on qualifications that are categorised as ‘B1’ by Ofqual, meaning they are most similar to GCSEs or A levels, and can therefore be awarded results via a ‘Q-TAG’ judgement.

For your centre to be able to submit a Q-TAG to us, the learner must be due to certificate this summer and therefore have an estimated completion date in Edexcel Online between 2 April and 31 August 2021.

If you haven’t already returned your spreadsheet, please do so as soon as possible to eprocessing@pearson.com.

If you have any additional learners that will be certificating in summer 2021 who are not identified on the spreadsheets provided, please add these to the spreadsheet or ensure the planned completion date in Edexcel Online is updated to an appropriate date, falling within the date range 2 April – 31 August.

Failure to provide this information to us may impact on timely results release for your learners – please support us to ensure results are released on time.

Many centres have told us they will utilise their existing record keeping tools to record Q-TAG judgements for certificating learners, and integrate the relevant (Q-TAG specific) information that should be documented into their processes. For many centres the Q-TAG process will be well underway.

If you are still considering how you might record the evidence used for you Q-TAG judgements we have previously released an evidence record template. To help illustrate how this template could be used, one of our Sector experts, Viv, has recorded a short video, which we hope you will find useful.

You can find the relevant information via the links below:

• BTEC Evidence Record - example video (New!)
• BTEC Evidence Record - guidance document (PDF, 0.2 MB)
• BTEC Evidence Record - cover sheet (where Pearson template is not adopted – two key questions should be captured)
• BTEC Evidence Record - Excel spreadsheet template
• BTEC Evidence Record - Learner worked examples (PDF, 0.5 MB).

You will be aware that we announced permitted reductions in assessments for learners at the end of last year, and also at the beginning of this year. Detailed information on these is available on our teaching and learning page.

Whilst (as previously advised) the Q-TAG process replaces guidance for certificating learners on reduced assessment, centres must be mindful of learners who may ‘top-up’ to larger qualifications, and in these cases, should look to submit the ‘reduced assessment’ information, as explained in the table below.

Please be reminded that for fairness and parity for learners, Notifications of Performance (unit results) cannot be issued for certificating learners this year and we continue to work with HE Institutions to ensure that admissions information is updated to reflect this.

*Please note that for Childcare qualifications the additional sector-specific guidance (PDF, 0.5 MB) should be followed

**The ‘Z’ flag is not yet available; we will contact you as soon as it becomes available for input of reduced assessment as outlined in the table above.

We’ve been in touch with many of you that have shared concerns about the amount of time you will have to access, and prepare learner results this year, with both GQ and VQ and Level 2 and Level 3 results days occurring in the same week this year.

As you are already aware, we are aligning Level 3 BTEC Nationals with the A level results day (Tuesday 10 August), and the Level 2 BTEC Firsts, Tech Awards and Technicals with the GCSE results day (Thursday 12 August). 

With two results days occurring in one week, we have reviewed how we can support you to be able to prepare learner results, which will be especially important for those colleges and schools with significant numbers of learners receiving results.

In light of the above, and in consideration of the flexibilities afforded to VTQ Awarding Organisations, we will release results under embargo to centres, for the purposes of preparation and administration time, on Wednesday 4 August.

It is essential that these results this year are treated as embargoed results, and only shared with learners on the relevant learner results dates. In a shift from more normal results handling for VQs, this year, to ensure parity for all learners, results must only be issued to learners for these qualifications on these dates. Furthermore, please do not contact HEIs during this embargo period.

Category A qualifications are those that assess occupational competence, therefore assessment should continue and Q-TAGs are not available. 

We have updated our sector guides in line with the new VCRF, the updated guides will be available shortly. The guides will be located on our Work-Based Learning page. 

Recording ‘delays to assessment’

We have previously requested that centres contact their Standards Verifier or External Examiner when using adaptations so that Pearson has sufficient oversight to ensure we are aware of adaptations being used. 

In addition to recording these adaptations in your verification reports, we will also be instructing your Standards Verifier or External Examiner to record any delays to assessment going forwards. This data will be used to support our understanding of the impact of the pandemic, and ensure we have the right mechanisms in place to enable learners to achieve and progress. This data may be requested by DfE and/or Ofqual should they require it.  

If you have already completed verification for the year, we would still like to know if you have experienced any delays to assessment. Please report it via customer portal, entitled ‘Category A qualifications: delays to assessment notification’.

We have been concluding the quality assurance requirements for category B2 qualifications this week. Our primary approach for these qualifications is to support centres to teach and assess safely, and to make normal claims.  

This means some centres may have a programme ‘release’ or ‘Direct Claims Status’ to enable them to claim as normal. However, there may be learners within the same cohort or later cohorts that may need to access a Q-TAG as a last resort. For centres claiming in between verification activities, we will need to put in some additional measures, to ensure safe, reliable, and valid results. If you are claiming certification between verification activities, subject to risk and your specific circumstances, you may experience an increase in retrospective sampling or an additional sampling activity.

If you fall into this scenario, we or your Lead Standards Verifier will contact you to support you through any additional quality assurance measures. In the meantime, it is important that you do not claim for learners who need to access a Q-TAG, these learners will need to follow the application route, guidance and instructions to be provided at a later stage.

If you have not had a chance to attend a BTEC Customer Briefing session, we are running more this term.

You can find more details on our Training from Pearson page (use the filter option to find your sector/s). Each session is delivered by a BTEC Sector specialist, and you will have the opportunity to ask questions and share best practice with your fellow BTEC colleagues.

As stated in previous bulletins and our Awarding Results 2021 guidance (PDF, 1.5 MB) (p.11), to ensure learners can progress with confidence to Higher Education, you should prioritise units for delivery that are set out by HEI admissions as essential to any offer they may have made to your students.

This often involves Maths and/or Science-related units within the BTEC Level 3 Nationals qualifications (e.g. Engineering, Construction, Health & Social Care, Applied Science, Sport & Exercise Science). It is vital learners are able to study this content, even if formal assessment of these units cannot take place, to give them the best chance of succeeding at degree level. 

You will be asked to confirm you have done this through the submission of the Q-TAG and accompanying Head of Centre Declaration (HOCD).

If you'd like to find out the latest information about our general qualifications and see how we are supporting schools and colleges, teachers, learners, parents and carers for summer 2021, please visit our dedicated support page. 

On 31 March we released additional assessment materials for GCSE and A level subjects, along with further guidance to support teachers in determining fair grades for learners this summer. We are also providing live and pre-recorded support and guidance events via our Professional Development Academy as well as running optional Q&A sessions which we will record and make available. These events are now live and open for booking.