BTEC and Higher Nationals deadline reminder

For the majority of BTEC candidates following the academic year, registrations should be made by 1 November 2022 for learners enrolling for that academic year. The only exception to this rule is when a candidate is following a roll-on/roll-off programme. In this case, centres have 6 weeks in which to register the candidate from the date they have started the course without incurring any late fees. The entry deadline for the winter BTEC exams series (Jan/Feb/March 2023) is 18 October 2022.

If you need to make entries for the Tech Awards or January series, you will need to make your registrations first.

For Levels 4 and 5, 15 November 2022 is the deadline for programmes following the academic year, and you must register within one month of enrolment for programmes that do not follow the academic year.

Top up or new registration?

Learners who completed a BTEC qualification in the last academic year and are returning to your centre to complete a larger BTEC qualification in the same sector need to be topped up on Edexcel Online, rather than registering them again on a larger qualification. You can follow our step-by-step instructions to topping up on our support portal. Look out for the next BTEC training module, which will be published in the next couple of weeks on our exam officer training webpage.

Estimated Completion dates

This year, to help you further, we will be asking you to adjust all learners’ planned completion dates to 31 July, when they are expecting to complete alongside GCSE and A Level results days in August.

We will be in touch to support you with this, but if you have smaller cohorts, you can complete this yourself, by following our instructions for making amendments to registrations on our support portal.

If you are delivering new BTEC Tech Awards for first teach from September 2022, here are some key updates to make sure you’ve got everything to hand.

Registrations and assessment entries

The deadline for on-time registrations is 1 November 2022. Before you register, please read this important guidance to ensure learners are registered for the correct Tech Award depending on their year of completion.

The first Pearson-Set Assignments (PSAs) for internally assessed components are now available for all subjects for the December 2022 to January 2023 moderation series*. As the internal assessments are now moderated within the series, please note entries must be made for learners wishing to sit the assessment. The deadline for on-time entries for the December/January moderation series is 18 October 2022.

You can access the PSAs using an Edexcel Online password in the Course Materials section of your subject’s qualification page, under ‘Internal Assessments’. These can be administered to learners to begin assessment at any time for completion and internal centre assessment before the mark submission deadline of 15 December 2022.

You can find full guidance on making registrations and entries for new Tech Awards in our Tech Awards Support Index. For the full list of key dates for the 2022/23 academic year, please refer to the Tech Awards Key Dates Schedule.

*Excluding Art and Design, which does not include a December/January moderation series

Standardisation materials and training events

We have published the initial set of Exemplar Standardisation Materials (ESMs) for teachers to refer to for internal standardisation prior to marking learner responses to PSAs. You can access them using an Edexcel Online password in the Course Materials section of your subject’s qualification page, under ‘Teaching and Learning Materials’. Further ESMs will be added in early 2023 following the first moderation series.

Live online Getting Started training sessions and Marking and Moderation training sessions are being run throughout October and November. They are free to attend and filling up fast, so be sure to book your place. If you can’t attend one of our Getting Started sessions, you can access the recorded training, and we will release recordings of the Marking and Moderation training in the coming weeks.

You can read more about Tech Awards, including centre approvals, key dates, updated specifications and sample assessments, quality assurance processes, requesting modified papers, becoming a moderator and more.

Accessing your Annual Quality Declaration

We’re pleased to announce that the Annual Quality Declaration (AQD) will be made live for centres throughout next week. We will be contacting Quality Nominees directly with a link to access the AQD as it is made live for their centre. Once live, you’ll also be able to access this directly in Edexcel Online.

All centres and T Level Providers offering any Pearson BTEC, Functional Skills, Work Based Learning, T Levels 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. For centres offering Higher Nationals, the Annual Programme Monitoring Report (APMR) section will be made available to you from 8 November 2022 – 24 February 2023. 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. 

A range of support is available for Quality Nominees to successfully complete their AQD.

You can join a 30-minute online briefing for a demonstration of accessing and completing the AQD. These are bookable on our Quality Nominee training page, under “Annual Quality Declaration walk through”.

Read our Annual Quality Declaration FAQs on our support portal for guidance on accessing and completing the AQD.

Further support for Quality Assurance

Our on-going support includes live events focused on a range of roles and responsibilities linked to BTEC programmes and weekly Quality Assurance catch ups where you are welcome to join us for an informal chat about where we are in the cycle and ask any questions to one of the team. Please do check out the range of events available and share these with your teams; we look forward to seeing you at one soon.

The first BTEC module in our on-demand eLearning library, Introduction to BTEC, is now live on our Exams Officer eLearning page. This module covers what a BTEC qualification is, how it's structured, where to locate key information and how to check programmes on Edexcel Online. A great place to start if you're new to BTEC this year, or would like a refresher.

All issues with the Lead Internal Verifier registration process have now been resolved, so please encourage your Lead IVs to complete this activity as soon as possible and by the revised deadline of the 4 November. If colleagues are still experiencing difficulties, please contact us so that we can escalate the details to the relevant team for a speedy solution. Please ensure that you provide the programme details and Lead IV name in the case notes so we can expedite the response.

Remember that the Tech Awards 2017 still require a Lead IV registration, but new Tech Awards from 2022 need no Lead IV registration in Edexcel Online.

In relation to adaptations, Ofqual confirmed previously 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 shortly from Edexcel Online. Please do not use it in the meantime.

Ofqual have also released guidance on grading assessments in this new academic year which you can read on their website.

In relation to the use of special consideration, please note that learners must attempt all assessments that are required and that, when assessments are missed, they should be deferred to the next available opportunity. Where the assessment is the final opportunity and it has been unavoidably missed, for example due to illness, the special consideration process can be used.

Administrative support guides

The administrative support guides (ASGs) for task-based BTEC assessments are currently being reviewed and will be made available on the qualification pages of our website by 20 October. In the meantime, please refer to the unit specification for external assessment guidance and the ICEA document.

Overview document

The external assessment overview document is currently being reviewed and updated, and will be made available on the website by end of October.

Timetables

You can now access our final January 2023 timetable. Please download the latest version. The June 2023 provisional timetable is also now available on our provisional timetables webpage. You can provide feedback until 13 October by emailing timetables@pearson.com. The final BTEC timetable will be published on 4 November 2022.

Pearson’s September E-Bulletin includes the following:

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

Read the September T Level E-Bulletin

Autumn 2022 assessments

Please check the T level timetable for assessment dates/windows.

Online Standardisation for Centre Assessors (OSCA)

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

Lead IVs 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

If you attempt OSCA standardisation and you are unable to do so, this may be due to recent completion, as OSCA accreditation lasts for 12 months. Please check your accreditation end date in OSCA, as this is a common cause for not being able to access and complete.

Functional Skills training and events

There are still places available for our Festival of Functionality training sessions and keynote address.

Getting Ready To Teach Level 1 and 2 Maths, 3rd October 2-3pm
Getting Ready To Teach Entry Level Maths, 6th October 9-10am
Getting Ready To Teach Level 1 and 2 English, 3rd October 9-10am
Getting Ready To Teach Entry Level English, 5th October 2-3pm
Keynote address with Jonathan Kay, 7th October, 9-10am

This session will look at the issues facing the delivery of post-16 English and Maths and what can be done to support in the foreseeable future. Jonathan Kay is an expert in the delivery of post-16 English and Maths and the author of Improving Maths and English in Further Education: A Practical Guide.

Telecoms Field Operative Level 2 update

In line with the updated assessment plan, IFATE and the trailblazer group have removed the distinction criteria (D2.1), updated the wording in line with 20% off the job and removed the “attempt level 2 English and Maths” requirement. The updated specification and End-Point Assessment Resource Pack can be found in ACE360 Knowledge Base.

Reminder: Gateway dates

As a reminder, if apprentices' expected gateway dates have moved, please ensure that these are updated in ACE360 to ensure data compliance. For further information, you can read our guide to amending gateway dates on our support portal.

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.

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, then "external verification".

With the addition of the Annual Quality Declaration, this now captures the Centre Self-Assessment (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.