We are working hard to finalise the system capability and accompanying guidance for mid-flight learners and the Z-flag functionality. Please bookmark our new 2021/22 page to stay up to date with the latest information.

Bookmark our new 2021/22 page

We will send out the updated admin guidance as soon as possible, once the final changes are made in EOL. We expect the deadline for reporting this unit-TAG information to us via EOL to be late November.

As per our previous guidance, learners completing B1 qualifications in summer 2021 will only be issued with certificates, and not Notifications of Performance (NOPs).

We appreciate that some of you may be waiting for a certificate to be generated in order to be able to ‘top up’ learners (please see our previous VQ Bulletin for further information on ‘topping up’). Where this is the case, you will be able to top up your learner once the certificate print date has passed and a certificate has been sent to print, i.e. you do not need to wait to receive the hard-copy certificate.

See our previous VQ Bulletin

Pearson will be running sector-specific briefing events for BTEC Level 1/2 Tech Award, First or Technical and/or Level 3 National qualifications. You will have the opportunity to discuss our approved alternative arrangements of ‘streamlined assessment’ and the relevant guidance for all learners this year (2021/22).

The sessions are delivered by BTEC sector specialists, and you will have the opportunity to ask questions and share best practice with your fellow BTEC colleagues.

Find out more about these events on our Training from Pearson page (use the filter option to find your sector/s).

The Pearson Quality Advisor team offer a range of free online events to support all aspects of Quality Assurance in relation to your BTEC programmes. Whatever your role, please take a look at our list of events on offer on our Quality Assurance - events and support page. These events are offered on different days and at different times, so we are sure you will find a slot to suit you and your teams.

Vist our Quality Assurance - events and support page

Our full events schedule has now started and each session will usually be repeated on a monthly basis, so please look at the full list of available sessions for all your Quality Assurance needs.

The BTEC Centre Guides for Internal Assessment and Internal Verification can now be found on our Quality Assurance pages.

Explore our Quality Assurance pages

The 2021/22 Annual Centre Declaration is now available for you to download from the Quality Assurance page for BTEC Tech Awards, Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications. The template is a Word document that you will need to complete. You will need to use your email address as an electronic signature and save as a Word document.

Visit the Quality Assurance page

We will shortly be providing an upload platform for the completed document within Edexcel Online. Please retain the document until the upload platform becomes available, and please do not submit via email or the Support Portal.

As of 1 September, awarding organisations are required by Ofqual to establish and maintain a Centre Assessment Standards Scrutiny (CASS) strategy for qualifications they regulate that contain centre marked assessment. This is a new piece of regulation to cover all of the controls an awarding organisation has in place with centres. It will cover processes such as moderation, verification and the wide range of other checks and controls that awarding organisations carry out on centre assessments. The intention is to set out minimum standards to strengthen and improve awarding organisation controls over centre marked assessment.

Find out more about Centre Assessment Standards Scrutiny

As part of these new regulations, Ofqual has introduced new ‘minimum requirements’ for centre monitoring. Most of these are criteria that Pearson already has in place, and as a result, Pearson centres should see little or no change.

As a minimum, these controls will include:

• carrying out annual scrutiny activities with centres, some of which could be face to face, and some remote. Some of these activities may take place at short notice.
• observing centres delivering and marking assessments where appropriate.
• sampling centre marking, making sure that the sample selected is appropriate based on any specific risks relating to that centre, the size of the centre, the attainment of learners in that centre, and the number of assessors in the centre.
• reviewing additional assessments beyond those selected by the centre.
• reviewing their approach based on specific risks relating to the centre or qualification, and adjusting the approach accordingly.
• where it identifies issues, requiring an awarding organisation to consider whether to correct any assessment judgements that do not meet the required standard.

The CASS strategy is a regulatory document and therefore we have decided not to separately publish them, as these are included in the relevant Quality Assurance Handbooks and associated centre guides.

View Ofqual’s letter to centres (PDF | 98.8 KB)

The UK Government recently published arrangements for the assessment and awarding of vocational qualifications which confirmed that exams and assessments will go ahead as planned for the academic year 2021/22.

Although Unit Teacher Assessment Grades (UTAGs) will no longer apply, there is recognition that there could be future disruption to teaching and learning, as centres and students are affected by self-isolation rules that still apply.

To help centres maintain the quality of provision for 2021/22 academic year, we created a have guidance document, which you can download from our website. 

Access the guidance document

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

Visit our summer 2022 support page

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

Visit our October/November exam series page

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

Sign up for the Pearson Qualifications Bulletin