In our previous edition of the VQ Bulletin, we provided more information on learners who are returning to their second year or who are topping up to a larger qualification this year. Over the last few weeks, you have raised questions and have provided us with feedback in relation to these learners. We have taken your feedback on board as part of our planning and decision making of the U-TAG process and timelines. Keeping to the key dates below will allow us to confirm your U-TAGs as soon as possible, and no later than mid-January.  

We are now able to provide you with our full guidance for 2021/22 mid-flight learners, as well as those learners ‘topping up’ or ‘dropping down’.

Key dates and activities to be aware of: 

• You can start to prepare and determine U-TAGs now, for eligible internally and externally assessed units, using our U-TAG guidance.
• Functionality for submitting U-TAGs will become available in mid-October and we will let you know as soon as it is live.You will have until 10 November 2021 to submit U-TAGs to us, and our full guidance for 2021/22 mid-flight learners will be able to support you with this activity.
• We will start our quality assurance checks once the U-TAGs have been submitted. You may be contacted in November or December to provide the evidence that you have collated and recorded to support the U-TAG judgements. Please see our Teacher Guidance for U-TAGs for further support. In addition, we have created a form which you can choose to use to help you record the evidence used and grades for these U-TAGs: BTEC U-TAG Record 2021.
• Following our quality assurance process, we will aim to confirm your U-TAGs have been accepted no later than 13 January 2022.

Please note, further information on Appeals for U-TAGs will follow in the coming weeks.  

The 2021/22 Annual Centre Declaration is now available for you to download from Edexcel Online, as well as the Quality Assurance homepage.

On Edexcel Online, you should select BTEC as the qualification and then the first menu entry will take you to the Annual Centre Declaration page. The template is noted in blue and underlined. You will need to use your email address as an electronic signature and save as a Word document. You will then be able to return to the Edexcel Online page and upload the completed document using the upload link there. Please note, there is a 6MB limit on file size, which is why we recommend a Word document and email signatures.

You may need to click on the template link first before uploading your finished document, even if you have used the template from the Quality Assurance page, to ensure the upload has worked. Please ensure you do not submit your declaration via email or the Support Portal. 

The option to streamline the number of assessments indicated in the guidance is at the centre’s discretion upon reflection of the continued impact of disruption to learners caused by the pandemic.

Centres should continue to plan to deliver all content and assessment to ensure learners are best placed for their future progression. However, streamlined assessment is available, if required, to create additional time for lost teaching and learning and access to facilities like workshops, studios and laboratories. 

Our Streamlined Internal Assessment 2021/22 Guidance has now been updated to include:  

• Further clarification around units that should not be streamlined for progression purposes.
• Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate in Applied Human Biology streamlined assessment only applies to optional units. 
• A reminder that BTEC Level 2 Sports Industry Skills qualifications cannot be streamlined. 

If you haven’t managed to join one of our customer briefings, you may not be aware that 2021/22 sector guides are now available under the Teaching and Learning Sector guidance section on our new Teaching, Learning and assessment web page.

These guides have been designed to offer you guidance on how you might adapt the delivery of BTEC qualifications from September 2021 and cover the following qualifications as well as additional sector-specific qualifications where appropriate:

• BTEC Nationals
• BTEC Firsts
• BTEC Level 2 Technicals
• BTEC Level 2 Industry Skills
• BTEC Tech Awards
• BTEC Entry Level and Level 1 Introductory
• Workskills, PSD, Personal Growth and Wellbeing 

All BTEC external assessments for 2021/22 are expected to go ahead.

In light of feedback from centres, the January and February series will commence one week later than initially shared.

Final timetables for January, February and March 2022 are now up on the website and included in the BTEC External Assessment Overview document, which is available on the Exams Officers and Exam Timetables pages. 
 
We will be releasing provisional summer 2022 timetables shortly, for centre feedback, and will communicate with you once this is available. 

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 guidance for all learners this academic year.

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. You can find more details on our Training from Pearson webpage (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 Support Hub Events 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.

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.

WBL handbooks 

WBL handbooks are currently undergoing further review and will be available on 27 September 2021. 

Centre Self-Assessment (CSA) and supporting guidance document 

Following a review and update of our supporting materials, the CSA and new guidance document will be available on the website on 24 September 2021. We would encourage you to complete your CSA for mid-October. This will enable you to be prepared for your first Lead Standards Verification activity. Documents can be found on our New Quality Assurance Model support page. 

If you have already completed an ACD for your BTEC programmes, you do not need to complete the CSA. Please make the ACD available for your WBL LSV or PQA advisor once complete. 

Lead Standards Verifier (LSV) activity

WBL LSV allocations will be released in mid-October 2021; this means that LSVs will start to contact you after this point to carry out the LSV activities and support you for the coming year.

We encourage you to work with your allocated LSVs to ensure your documents are completed and you are ready for the coming year’s delivery. It has been a challenging year for all of us, but we are here to support you. We will focus on working with you to plan all your Standard Verification activities effectively for the 2021/22, ensuring no delays and learners are able to progress to the next stage in their life. 

For 2021/22, LSV activities will remain remote, to ensure the safety of all involved.

Providers are now able to make student registrations onto the Construction and Digital Technical Qualifications for cohorts commencing this academic year. 

The standard registration window will close on 1 November, with late registrations starting on 2 November. A support video on how to make registrations and manage student details can be found on our Provider page. 

Entries for both the Core Component Assessments for the November 2021 series and the Occupational Specialism Assessment for the summer 2022 series are now open. A support video on how to make entries is available via the Engagement Hub. 

Please remember, you must make an entry for every student wishing to enter the assessment.  

Providers wishing to make entries for re-sits please ensure you are familiar with the re-sit rules. These can be found in the TQ Specification, or use our support video on ‘assessment, results and re-sits' which can be found on the Provider page.  

The standard entry window is from 1 September - 5 October 2021. 

Our remote invigilation service is now up and running for EPA and Functional Skills onscreen tests. For more information, please see our dedicated webpage. Here, you will find information about the service and an ‘Intention to Offer’ form you must complete if you want to be approved to run tests in this way. 

The webpage has detailed information for both centres and learners, guiding you through the process, as well as answers to a number of frequently asked questions about the service. It is vital that both you and your learners read this information fully before making any test bookings for remotely invigilated tests. 

We have been live for three months now and need to remind you of some key points we have noticed as part of our review of completed tests so far:

• You, the centre, are still responsible for your learners even though the test is being taken remotely. Your centre remains the first point of contact for learners and you must ensure your learners are fully prepared to take a test in this way.

The following items are not permitted and will lead to disqualification if seen: 

• Grammarly (software package some learners have running on their equipment which must be disabled before launching the test player)
• Calculators other than the built in one in POP (to reduce the risk of a learner using a calculator in the non-calculator section of the maths tests)
• Smart watches

It is vital learners show their ID at the start of the test. Failure to do so will lead to disqualification if we are unable to identify the learners fully.

Learners must show any note paper to camera at the start of the test. Again, if it's not shown and we can’t tell if it’s blank, this will lead to disqualification. 

On Wednesday 14 July, the DfE released their response to the second stage of the 'Review of post-16 qualifications at level 3'. You can find out more about what these changes mean for you and the BTEC qualifications you deliver. 

No changes are being made to technical qualifications until the 2023/24 academic year at the earliest, and no changes are being made to academic qualifications, including Applied General qualifications, until the 2024/25 academic year at the earliest. 

You may be aware that in July, twelve organisations representing and supporting staff and students in schools, colleges and universities wrote to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, urging him to reconsider restricting students’ choice of qualifications at the age of 16. 

The #ProtectStudentChoice campaign focuses on the DfE's current review of post-16 qualifications at level 3, which puts government funding at risk for many applied general qualifications, such as BTECs. The letter warns that “many young people will be adversely affected by this proposal, but disadvantaged students have the most to lose”. 

Here is Pearson's response to the #ProtectStudentChoice campaign, and here is the petition you can sign to support the campaign to guarantee BTECs will continue to play a major role in the qualifications landscape. 

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

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

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