VQ Bulletin - Issue 49

If you are delivering our new BTEC Tech Awards for first teach from September 2022, our recent communication provides some key information to make sure you’ve got everything to hand. If you don’t find what you need here, we are always happy to support you via the Pearson Support Portal. 

BTEC Quality Assurance Cycle 

The start of the new academic year brings with it the start of the new quality assurance cycle for BTEC provision, and we look forward to working with you in what we hope will be a welcome return to business as usual after a somewhat challenging couple of years. The first term is always particularly exciting with a fresh start for learners and staff alike, and much to look forward to in terms of developing understanding and skills.

We have a range of online support available to help you through the quality assurance processes this year, from live events focused on a range of roles and responsibilities linked with BTEC programmes, to our weekly quality assurance catch ups where you are welcome to join us for an informal chat about where we are in the cycle, as well as ask any questions to a member of the team. Please do take a look at the range of events available and share these with your teams; we look forward to seeing you at one soon.

Introducing the new and improved ‘Annual Quality Declaration’ (AQD) 

As highlighted, the quality assurance cycle is underway and as part of Stage 1, Setting up for Success, centres are required to complete and submit the Annual Quality Declaration (AQD). We will notify you as soon as this is available to start.

The AQD will be housed on our new platform ‘Progress’ and will replace the need to download, complete Word documents and re-upload completed forms. Progress is our digital platform designed to help reduce administration time around assessment delivery and facilitate Quality Assurance. The AQD is the first step towards digital transformation for Quality Assurance. You can find out more about Pearson Progress in our dedicated support article.

A range of support is available to help Quality Nominees complete and submit this document successfully: 

• Short, online briefings to demonstrate the sourcing, completion and submission of the Declaration (please see tab “Live events online”, then “Annual Quality Declaration walk through” for the Teams meeting links – no registration necessary).
• A bitesize video to access at any time (coming soon).The AQD can be found on Edexcel Online, by selecting BTEC from the qualification drop-down menu and scrolling to the bottom.

Annual Centre Terms and Conditions via the AQD

All centres offering any Pearson BTEC, Functional Skills, Work Based Learning and/or Higher National qualifications will be able to complete the Annual Quality Declaration (AQD). Centres will only be required to complete the sections relevant to their qualification offer. The AQD will also contain the Centre Terms and Conditions and can be signed by the Head of Centre or Quality Nominee acting on their behalf. 

We wanted to let you know that we are aware of a technical issue that is affecting the registration process for Lead Internal Verifiers (LIV) on Edexcel Online and we would like apologise for any inconvenience this may be causing you and your colleagues. We are working hard to resolve the issue and we will contact centres by email when the system is live.

The process for the registration and standardisation of LIVs remains the same as in previous years and the Centre Standardisation Materials will be available to allow centres to complete standardisation activity. Additional information can be found in the BTEC Centre Guide to Quality Assurance 2022/23.

For NQF/ RQF programmes, LIVs should confirm standardisation has taken place by selecting the ‘standardised’ box within the OSCA registration page.

For further information on how to register as an LIV, please watch the following guidance video.
Please note that BTEC Level 1/2 Tech Awards (from 2017, last certificate 2023) will still require the registration of a LIV and team standardisation. The new Tech Awards (first teach from September 2022) will not require LIV registration due to the introduction of Pearson Set Assignments and moderation.

WBL Allocations

For centres with learners registered on WBL qualifications, Lead Standards Verifier (LSV) and Standards Verifier (SV) allocations will be released to centres by the end of September 2022. Please do look out for the introductory emails later this month and into early October. 

Last month, Ofqual confirmed that:

“For other qualifications, including vocational and technical qualifications taught alongside or instead of GCSEs, AS and A levels, a range of adaptations were permitted in academic year 2021 to 2022. […] Given that public health restrictions are no longer in place, these adaptations are no longer necessary for the academic year 2022 to 2023 onwards.”

This means our main adaptation of streamlined assessment will not be available in 2022/23, so you should plan to teach and assess the BTEC qualifications as normal. The streamlined ‘flag’ will be removed from Edexcel Online.

As part of the Level 3 Vocational Qualification reform, we would like to invite you to help influence the next generation of BTEC Nationals. We want to ensure that we capture the teacher and learner voice in our qualifications and support materials. If you are interested in participating, please complete this form, and we will be in contact shortly. 

Pearson’s September E-Bulletin was published and included the following: 

• Q&A Networks and Training events
• Registrations and entries
• ResultsPlus

Read the September E-Bulletin

Higher Technical Education skills injection fund

Don’t miss your opportunity to submit your bid for the HTE Injection fund before the deadline of 5 October. If you want to find out more about how you could use this funding to deliver Higher Technical qualifications, head over to our website.

Online Standardisation for Centre Assessors (OSCA)

Lead IVs must register on Edexcel Online (OSCA section) and download the Centre Standardisation materials by Monday 31 October.

Lead Internal Verifiers are reminded to hold a standardisation meeting with their teams prior to any formal assessment taking place. Please refer to the Centre Guide to Quality Assurance for full details 

Certification Claims

We have recently noticed an increase in failed EPA certification requests. From reviewing the errors, this is due to a data mismatch between the apprentices ILR (Individual Learning Record) and the data held within ACE360. To ensure certificates are generated without delay, please ensure that the following pieces of information are identical on the ILR and ACE360:

• Spelling of family name
• Unique learner number
• Standard/sub standard
• Start dates

Recent guidance from the ESFA has also confirmed that non-funded learners must be registered under funding model 99 to allow the validation to occur.

Multiple Choice Tests – Reminder

We have noticed an increase in tests being booked before the apprentice has cleared gateway and entered into the EPA period. Under EPA rules, apprentices will be ineligible for their result as they are still within the on-programme phase of their learning. Should apprentices have a result for a tested component when not in the EPA period, the test result will be voided.

For further information on multiple choice tests, please take a look at our knowledge base article.

Recruitment of Independent end-point assessors

We have a number of roles for Associates to be involved with End Point Assessment assessments. If you are interested, please look at our live vacancy page. 

Annual Quality Declaration

Our new online Annual Quality Declaration is aimed to streamline the Centre Self-Assessment (CSA) and T&C's into a single online form, instead of completing separate documents. This will be available for customers to access from mid-September 2022. To support you, we have set up some live training sessions, which can be accessed using the following link.

Lead Standards Verification and Standards Verification Allocations

In the coming weeks we will be releasing both Lead Standards Verification and Standards Verification allocations. Details of these allocations can be found within Edexcel Online under the NVQ tab, external verification.

With the addition of the Annual Quality Declaration, this now captures the CSA.

Handbooks

We will shortly be releasing our updated sector handbooks on our WBL quality assurance support page. These are a useful reference to support effective quality assurance throughout the next academic year. 

You can contact us through our support portal, where you can also browse our knowledge base of support articles, and access live chat. Alternatively, you can call the most relevant team for your job role.

You can also review past bulletins if you’ve missed any or sign up to receive future updates if you have not already done so, via the link at the end of this bulletin.

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