31 May 2023 - Deadline to submit results entry 7B files, to receive overall BTEC results electronically in August

8 June 2023 - Join us for our Monthly Exams Officer webinar

14 June 2023 - Date of last timetabled BTEC exam

15 June 2023 - Deadline to submit second samples to Standards Verifiers

16 June 2023 - Date by which on demand tests should be sat and uploaded to ensure on time delivery of results in August

22 June 2023 - Date by which March BTEC L2 Technical certificates will be in centres

5 July 2023 - Final date to make full award qualification claims to receive on time results for August 2023

This year it is essential that you make your BTEC qualification claims by 5 July at the latest. Where claims are made after 5 July, we can’t guarantee we can provide on time results for these learners. We’d recommend you begin making claims as soon as you can. You may also want to set internal deadlines for colleagues that need to provide information to Exams Officers, booking meetings where needed to sign off on internal grades, and ensuring you have time for colleagues to quality check any inputted grades. These best practices are some of the processes centres have told us work to help them make on-time claims.

What is different this year for BTEC eligibility and learner tracking?

Throughout June we will be sending weekly BTEC learner tracking reports to your Exams Officer Edexcel Online mailbox. You can expect to receive your first report tomorrow. These are shareable reports, and can be sent to colleagues where you need to work together to resolve any outstanding issues. Your report will highlight where you need to take specific action to make sure a learner can receive an on time result in August. You can use your report to check that the claims you have made are not missing any information.

We are offering extra support for making claims and ensuring my learners are on-track to receive a result. 

BTEC Clinics: You can request a 1-to-1 BTEC Clinic over MS teams, with one of our Customer Service specialists who can answer any questions about making claims, and help you get the most out of your weekly eligibility reports.

Weekly live sessions throughout June: When we begin sending your weekly report, we’ll be offering weekly live sessions for you to join where you can ask questions, and we can show you how to get the most out of your reporting.

This work is part of our commitment to meet the second Ofqual checkpoint, where we need to agree with all schools and colleges the remaining information or evidence each learner needs to receive a result in August 2023.

Read more about the Ofqual checkpoint deadlines

We’ve now added all Exams Officers that administer these in-scope BTEC qualifications onto Pearson Development Hub, our dedicated training site for BTEC administrators. This has been created as part of our commitment to you to offer enhanced support and training in 2023 for delivering BTEC.

Access our library of interactive modules, alongside live training, curated knowledgebase support articles, and the most useful documents from our website. We’ve brought everything you need to one place to save you time when you need to upskill or refresh yourself on a topic.

How do I access Pearson Development Hub?

We have created an account for all Exams Officers, and you will be able to log in to the Pearson Development Hub using your Edexcel Online details. If you aren’t an Exams Officer and would like access to the system, you can contact us at EOevents@pearson.com.

We’re also offering Credly accreditation

If you complete our BTEC Administrator essentials course on Pearson Development Hub, you can achieve a Credly badge. On completing the BTEC essentials course, we’ll send you a Credly badge to recognise your skills.

What is Credly?

We know that Exams Officers are vital to the delivery and assessment of our BTEC qualifications, and we believe you should have recognition of your skills. A Credly badge is a validated digital credential, which demonstrates you have a particular skill or learning outcome. It’s shareable, either through social media, or email, and can move with you if you change role or move centre. 

We are aware that industrial action could impact the running of external assessments in May/June. Exams Officers should check you have contingency plans which focus on ensuring that learners can sit their assessments. As per the DfE guidance on managing industrial action, timetabled exams and set task windows will not be changed. Any on-demand assessment should be rescheduled.

Read more about on the day arrangements available on the NEU website.

You can find additional information on contingency planning on the JCQ website.

If you have any queries about delivering assessment in the May/June series, take a look at our Exams Administration support index, which answers most of your frequently asked questions through an exam series. 

Recap on May/June submission deadlines

On 28 April, we wrote to all centres delivering new Tech Awards informing them that we would be accepting all submissions of learner marks and work up to the 16 May without the need for extension requests. Submissions of learner marks and work that were made by that date are currently being moderated in time for results day (23 August for centres and 24 August for learners).

If you submitted marks or learner work after the 16 May, we may not be able to deliver your results on the published results date for the series (August 23 /24) and you may not have the opportunity to review your centre marks following moderation. Due to a later result being issued, this may impact your ability to offer learners a retake in the December/January series.

If you have not yet submitted, please continue working towards submission as soon as possible to avoid delays to results and impact on learner retake opportunities in the next series.

Updates to Moderator Feedback

Based on the initial series of the new Tech Awards, we have considered centre and moderator comments on verbal moderator feedback. Centres told us that the draft written moderator report gave sufficient information, and that arranging a time to meet with the moderator was challenging. Based on this, starting this May/June series, the moderator will provide feedback to the nominated Programme Lead through a draft moderator report once they have completed their moderation. However, if there are significant issues with centre marking, the moderator will offer a verbal feedback session to clarify the report. Please note that for visiting moderation in Art and Design, the moderator will provide feedback to the Programme Lead at the end of the visit.

Where necessary, centres can review their marks and submit amendments on Edexcel Online. You are not required to make mark adjustments based on moderator feedback. This is a service available to centres which allows them to apply feedback by reviewing the marks immediately. If you choose not to amend marks, the Pearson system will apply any necessary adjustments. The final moderator report and the final marks will be available on Edexcel Online on Results day.

You can read more about the moderation process in our Guide to Moderation. 

Earlier release of Pearson Set Assignments from September 2023

As a reminder, we will be releasing all Pearson Set Assignments (PSAs) one month earlier within each series from September. This will give you more time to spend preparing for and administering the assessments. Please note that this change does not affect Performing Art and Art & Design. PSAs will now be released as follows:

• December/ January assessment series – Pearson set assignments released early September for all subjects. Art and Design practice does not include December/January series assessment.
• May/June assessment series – Pearson set assignments released early January, for all subjects apart from Art and Design practice which is released in early November, and Performing Arts which is released in early December.

Online BTEC Quality Nominee update & preparing for results summer 2023

For those that were unable to meet with us in person in May, we are delighted to offer an opportunity to meet online for the annual update to BTEC quality assurance procedures.

We have 6 dates available, each of which will provide an opportunity to explore the processes to facilitate a smooth summer awarding period and discuss quality assurance themes for the coming year.

The focus points for the online event will be as follows:

Readiness for claims and summer awarding – what do you need to know and how we can help

Feedback to us about the quality assurance processes this year

Planning for next year and the quality assurance cycle

Dates and times are as follows: 

• 6 June Tuesday 15:30 – 16:45
• 7 June Wednesday 12:30 – 13:45
• 8 June Thursday 12:15 – 13:30
• 12 June Monday 12:30 – 13:45
• 14 June Wednesday 15:30 – 16:45
• 15 June Thursday 15:30 – 16:45

Standards Verification

Please ensure that all sampling is complete as soon as possible. Work with your Lead IVs and Standards Verifiers to agree sampling dates if not already planned, to facilitate a release for certification. If you are experiencing any issues with the process, please contact us via the Pearson Support Portal and we will do our best to help.

Pearson has produced a series of Level 1 Functional Skills maths resources to support across different vocational areas.

Explore our Functional Skills maths resources

As part of getting ready for one of the busiest results periods we wanted to share a few reminders to help support you.

Very soon (if you haven’t already) you are likely to hear from your External Examiner (EE) regarding the external verification of your students. If you are new to the external verification process or if you would like a reminder, details can be found in our BTEC Higher Nationals Centre Guide to External Examination.

It is important that we are aware of the number of Higher National students expecting to complete their studies in 2023. Please do review your students with expected completion dates for 2023. We understand that things can change and the dates already entered into Edexcel Online may need to be adjusted, or you may need to make withdrawals from the programme(s). Read our guide to making vocational registration amendments.

Whilst the BTEC Higher Nationals do not have an official results day in August, we recommend that your claims are entered by 5 July 2023, as this will assist in the timely issue of results.

Stay up to date with the latest on T Levels, and read May’s T level newsletter on our website.

New Test Player - Rogo 

From the 1 July 2023, we will be using a new test player called Roo. This system allows for test bookings to be made within ACE360, without the need for registering learners on Edexcel Online or utilising the POP (Pearson Onscreen Player) platform. We have webinars scheduled on the following dates and times, where the EPA test delivery will be providing a hands-on demo of the system.

Customer Demo #1 7 June 15:00 - 16:00

Customer Demo #2 8 June 15:00 - 16:00

Customer Demo #3 13 June 11:00 - 12:00 

Customer Demo #4 14 June 16:00 - 17:00

Annual Quality Declaration 

Thank you to those who have completed the annual quality declaration. We still have a small number of declarations outstanding. Please ensure you work with your Lead Standards Verifier to complete this.