As explained in our recent bulletins, where assessment was due but did not take place between 1 August 2020 - 31 August 2021, you will provide a unit-level Teacher Assessed Grades (U-TAGs) judgement in order for learners to be able to progress their certification claims this year. Externally assessed units eligible for a UTAG will be submitted on a spreadsheet. 

We have now written to your nominated Point of Contact/Exam administration staff at your centre to ensure we have the right contact to provide the External Assessment UTAG judgement templates to.

If you have not received this, please check with your colleagues. Alternatively, you can contact us (please select ‘System, Tools & Services > Edexcel Online > Update Account Profile’) to be forwarded a copy or update yourself to be marked as the correct person to provide the U-TAG. 

Please review our Teacher Guidance for U-TAGs, which includes an infographic and some of our frequently asked questions.   

Key information for internal assessment U-TAGs and re-submissions:

• Only learner evidence from 1 August 2020 - 31 August 2021 can be used to inform U-TAGs.
• If a learner wishes to improve an awarded U-TAG, they may resubmit the unit with a new assignment in 2021/22, which should be assessed as normal. The resubmission grade would not be classified as a U-TAG, and therefore should be submitted without a ‘Z’ flag.
• If no resubmission opportunity was available (due to COVID-19) after a planned assessment was completed in 2020/21, learners can complete resubmissions against the same assignment brief(s) this academic year*.

*All other rules of resubmission will still apply (meeting the eligibility requirements, working independently, and having 15 days to complete the work).

Key information for external assessment U-TAGs and re-sits: 

• Only learner evidence from 1 August 2020 - 31 August 2021 can be used to inform U-TAGs.
• If a learner wishes to improve a U-TAG, the only option is to take a Pearson-set and marked (live) external assessment in 2021/22.
• The U-TAG does not count as one of the learner’s attempts and the highest grade/points will be applied to the certification claim. 

U-TAG appeals 

If the learner is unhappy with the U-TAG you have provided, there will be an Appeals process in place. Further information on Appeals for U-TAGs will follow in the coming weeks.   

Can learners resit an assessment to improve a qualification-level Teacher Assessed Grade (Q-TAG) judgement from summer 2021? 

Centres should ‘decline’ the Q-TAG grade and will be required to return the certificate. The learner’s Q-TAG will need to be converted to a U-TAG, using the process outlined in our guidance. The learner will then be able to resit the relevant units, and a ‘full award claim’ can be added when ready for certification. Qualification grades in 2021/22 will be aggregated under the normal rules, outlined in the specification.  

Learners cannot add evidence to increase a U-TAG grade, any resits taken in 2021/22 must be conducted under the normal assessment rules.  

More detail on this can be found in our guidance on U-TAGs and our Teacher Guidance for U-TAGs. 

We have received some queries from centres about the impact of the timing of the U-TAG process for units undertaken in 2020/21 on UCAS applications. This relates to learners completing in 2022 and applying to HE during this academic year, given that it may not be possible to add the quality assured U-TAGs for year 1 units to the UCAS application form (like in normal years).

We have the following guidance: 

• Please continue to list which unit titles students are studying as part of the BTEC. This is particularly imperative for STEM and health-related degrees, where unit-based offers can often be made. Some HEIs will reject applications outright if unit titles are not listed on the UCAS application form.
• We have already informed UK HEIs that we will send all the unit grades with the overall qualification grade (via UCAS) in the summer, as in normal years.
• It is not vital to also include year 1 unit grades on the application form for the vast majority of BTEC students (as we will send that information in summer, and HEIs recognise that not all centres deliver the key units in year 1). HEIs will largely be able to make offers (including unit-based ones) in the normal way.
• The exception, where some HEIs use year 1 unit grades to make an offer, is in cases where applicants have not met the GCSE entry requirements and some will use the year 1 results to still make an offer to the student if they feel it compensates for their GCSE performance. In these cases, we recommend that centres enter the “Provisional year 1 BTEC unit grades” into the “Reference” part of the UCAS application form, which will be confidential and not seen by the student. You may also wish to do this for applicants with borderline predicted qualification grades.
• We will also be informing all UK HEIs that the timing of the U-TAG process means that not all applicants will be able to enter their year 1 unit grades to the UCAS application form as normal and remind them that they will be sent all the unit grades as normal in summer.
• Please ensure that applicants use the same name on their UCAS application form as on their BTEC registration (i.e. their legal name). This enables us to successfully identify students and send their results to UCAS on time. Please remind students not to use nicknames or change the way hyphenated surnames appear for example.

The new Centre Guide to Quality Assurance is now available for you to download from our useful documents section of the home of Quality Assurance. This guide provides you with the information you need to deliver BTEC Quality Assurance in 2021/22.

We want to make delivering a BTEC as simple as possible, by providing you with all the support you need from the start, and tailoring our Quality Assurance process to your needs to ensure that you can be confident in the assessment of BTEC qualifications.  

We are aware of the recent error message some Lead Internal Verifiers may have experienced when trying to register or access standardisation materials.

This issue has now been resolved, so please ensure that the relevant staff access the materials. In light of the issue, we have extended the deadline for the registration as a Lead Internal Verifier, and the standardisation of themselves and their teams to 15 October.

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

We have released our provisional summer 2022 timetables for centre feedback. You can find these on our provisional timetables web page.  

Any feedback on these provisional timetables should be sent to timetables@pearson.com before Friday 22 October 2021. Once these timetables are final, they will be published in the BTEC External Assessment Overview document, found on our timetables web page.

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

• 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, just to ensure the upload has worked.
• Please ensure you do not submit via email or the Support Portal. 

If you need further support to complete you Annual Centre Declaration, you can access our video tutorial, or our guide on our website. 

Please note that the deadline for this activity was 30 September, so it is a matter of urgency as it indicates your acceptance of our Terms and Conditions for BTEC qualifications.

WBL Handbooks 

WBL Handbooks are now available and can be found on our website.  

Centre Self-Assessment and supporting guidance document 

Following a review and update of our supporting materials, the Centre Self-Assessment (CSA) is now available. 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 website.

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 Lead Standards Verifier (LSV) or your Pearson Quality Assurance advisor once complete. 

Lead Standards Verifier 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.

Currently, in line with Ofqual regulations, assessments completed after 31 August 2021 cannot be awarded using the Unit Level Teacher Assessed Grades (U-TAGs) process.

On 30 September 2021, Ofqual provided further guidance that may enable the use of UTAGs for certain qualifications, should the need arise this academic year. 

We will continue working with stakeholders to ensure that our guidance meets the regulations and is resilient to the impact of the pandemic.   

Our current guidance can be found on our website and we will keep you informed of any updates or changes. If you have any questions about this, please contact us using the Pearson Support Portal. 

Training events 

We are starting to finalise our events for this academic year. More information will be released in the Autumn term, but for those of you delivering Construction and Digital you’ll find the dates to our live Q&A Networks below.  

Autumn Term Q&A Network Sessions

These half termly Q&A sessions with the Sector Manager and Subject Advisor will give you the opportunity to ask questions, discuss with other tutors your experience with delivering the T Level and share good practice. Details and weblinks to register onto our networking events are below. 

Construction:  

12 October 2021 at 13:00-14:00 
30 November 2021 at 13:00-14:00  

Digital: 

13 October 2021 at 13:00-14:00
1 December 2021 at 13:00-14:00
 
Accounting and Finance news 

We’re putting the final touches to the Technical Qualification in Accounting and the Technical Qualification in Finance. Hopefully, we’ll have good news about approval and be able to share this in our October e-Bulletin.  

Student Registration 

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. 

Student Entries - November 2021 Series and Occupational Specialism - Summer 2022 Series 

Entries for the Core Component Assessments for the November 2021 Series and the Occupational Specialism Assessment for the Summer 2022 are 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.  

Please note, the standard entry window was 01 September - 05 October 2021. Therefore, we are now in the late entry period, dated 6 October - 31 October 2021. 

2021 Providers 

For those commencing delivery this September 2021 do not forget to take advantage of the support available to you, tutors and Exams Officers:

• Introduce T Levels to your team with this short webcast.
• Training events and Q&A Networks noted above.
• The COURSE MATERIALS tab for each TQ has teaching, learning and assessment materials; plus, administration materials.
• The ENGAGEMENT HUB on the Provider page has our training archive, plus several short support videos on administration processes for T Levels including: "Assessment, results and resits", "How to make a registration", "How to make an entry", and "How to manage learner details".  

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, which you must complete if you want to be approved to run tests in this way. 

The webpage also 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’ve 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 July 14 the DfE released their response to the second stage of the Review of Post-16 qualifications at level 3. 

Find out more about what these changes mean for you and the BTECs 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 that represent and support staff and students in schools, colleges and universities wrote to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson (PDF), urging him to reconsider restricting students’ choice of qualifications at the age of 16. 

The #ProtectStudentChoice campaign focuses on the Department for Education’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.