Statement from Cindy Rampersaud on regrading of BTEC qualifications
This has been an unprecedented year, with cancelled exams and a totally new approach to awarding grades. The complexity and rapidly changing nature of the situation has been unlike anything we have ever experienced in the sector.
Our priority is always to deliver fair outcomes for BTEC students and to ensure that no student is disadvantaged. Over the past few months, we have worked in collaboration with schools and colleges, other awarding organisations, the Department for Education and our regulator Ofqual to ensure all students receive fair and accurate results.
I’m sure some of you are feeling worried or anxious about the delay to your results, so I want to explain why we have taken the decision to review our BTEC grade awards.
Because BTEC results are largely based on modular teacher-assessed projects and assignments, overall grade outcomes have been generally consistent with teacher and learner expectations. However, following Monday’s announcement from Ofqual and feedback from students, teachers, schools and colleges, we became concerned about fairness, including consistency with the approaches now being used for GCSEs and A levels.
This is why we decided to review our approach to awarding BTEC results this summer and will be reviewing and regrading (where appropriate) the following BTECs:
- BTEC Level 3 Nationals (2010 QCF and 2016 RQF)
- BTEC Level 1/2 Tech Awards
- BTEC Level 2 Technicals
- BTEC Level 1/2 Firsts.
You can find more details here.
We know this has been an incredibly stressful time for students, teachers and parents, and we are extremely sorry for causing any additional worry or stress due to the review process and the subsequent delay in issuing some BTEC results.
This decision has not been taken lightly. Our priority is to ensure the fairest outcomes for BTEC students and to also ensure they are not disadvantaged in comparison to their peers. We wouldn’t be asking you to bear with us if we didn’t believe it would result in the fairest outcomes for our BTEC learners this summer.
We are working around the clock to provide students with updated results as soon as possible and will share more information as soon as we can, including when students should expect to receive their updated results.
Once again, please accept our sincerest apologies for this disruption and please be reassured that we are doing everything possible to re-issue the results as quickly as possible.
If you would like to contact us, please do so at https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/contact-us/students.html or DM us at @BTECstudents where our team is waiting to help you.
Thank you for your support and your patience.
Cindy Rampersaud
Senior Vice-President
BTEC & Apprenticeships