| Vocational Quality Assurance Manager Newsletter |
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Dear Colleague,
Happy New Year and we hope everyone has settled into the new term. In this newsletter you will find all the latest information to support you with the quality assurance of your vocational programmes.
If you have any questions about Quality Assurance, please contact the team via Live Chat or the Pearson Support Portal and, if you are not already a member, join the QN Community where we share the latest information and you can network with other BTEC Centres.
VQAM team update: Our colleague Sue Cousart-Smith is taking leave for a few weeks, and we welcome Bev Shaw who will be covering Sue’s region so there will be no gaps in service for any of our centres. |
To ensure the timely and accurate certification of your learners this summer, the Quality Nominee should be working with programme teams and the Examinations Officer on different themes each month.
January’s focus is to:
- Check learners are registered on the correct programme
- Check estimated completion dates are accurate
- Ensure learner deletions are processed by 31 January
- Check past cohorts on EOL for unclaimed learners (e.g., N, M registrations) - claim fallback or withdraw
- Ensure programme teams are aware that assessment adaptations have ceased. Full assessment commenced from September 2022.
Reminder, 5 July is the deadline for certification claims. |
- Complete and submit the Annual Quality Declaration (AQD) if this is still outstanding as the deadline has now passed (the HN section has a separate deadline - 24 February 2023).
- SV allocations are now live - Look out for emails from your SVs and pass these along to the relevant Lead IV for that subject.
- Check in with your teaching teams to ensure all internal documents including assessment plans are up to date.
- Check with teaching teams to see what work they have available (assessed during 22/23), or plan to have available, for their SV.
- Tech Awards from 2022 – Make PSA entries for the May/June assessment series by 21 February.
- Low control requests for year 2 cohorts on the legacy Tech Awards/BTEC Firsts – Contact the VQAM team to process this for you as soon as possible. See the BTEC Level 1-3 Quality Assurance Updates below for further details.
- Book onto the QA Catch-up sessions and check out our on-demand offer and full schedule of live Support Events to help staff with all aspects of quality assurance and BTEC Assessment Rules.
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Annual Quality Declaration
Required by all vocational centres - BTEC, Work-Based Learning, Higher Nationals, Alternative Providers and T Levels |
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We have recently made contact with centres who have not submitted the Annual Quality Declaration (AQD). The deadline was 18 November for all sections other than the Higher Nationals, which has a deadline of 24 February.
If you are yet to submit the AQD please do so as a matter of urgency as non-submission will impact on the risk profile of your centre and may result in enhanced sampling and monitoring by Centre Quality Management.
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Standards Verifier allocations to your BTEC programmes have now gone live and remember, the units/components in scope for sampling are those that have been assessed during the academic year 22/23. The sample can be from a year 1 or 2 cohort.
The SV introductory email will be sent to the Quality Nominee so please look out for the communication and once received, forward it to the relevant Lead IV. On Edexcel Online you can check who your SV is for the courses you run by selecting ‘BTEC’ from the drop-down menu and then going to ‘External Verification.’ Do not be alarmed if an SV has not been allocated straight away, allocations will continue over the coming weeks as the SVs accept their allocations. If you have not heard by mid-February, please contact us. The Centre Guide to Standards Verification is available on our quality assurance webpage, please share this with your teams and support them throughout the SV process.
We recently sent a communication to centres regarding the use of the Learner Work Transfer (LWT) platform to submit SV samples. Please note, only a medium sample can be submitted via the LWT. Low and Enhanced samples should be submitted via your own platform e.g., OneDrive, SharePoint.
Programme Control Measures – The appeals window closed on 15 December, however we are still accepting requests for Low Control if you are delivering the new Tech Awards, see next section. Please ensure your Lead IVs are aware of their Programme Control Measures. Further information regarding Programme Control Measures can be found on page 7 and the sample sizes from page 21 of the Centre Guide to Standards Verification.
Low Control - Due to regulatory requirements all programmes must undergo sampling annually. Therefore, Low Control means a smaller sample size is required as indicated in the Centre Guide, rather than no sample at all as was previously the case.
If you are delivering the new Tech Awards for first teach from September 2022 and the legacy Tech Awards or BTEC Firsts to the final cohort for that qualification (in the second year of a two year programme), then provided certain criteria are met we will allocate a Programme Control Measure of Low to your legacy Tech Award / BTEC First so to reduce the administration for you in this final year. Please see page 8 of the Centre Guide to Standards Verification for further information and contact the Vocational Quality Assurance Management team via the Pearson Support Portal to process the control change. Please note, Low Control is not automatic, we need to conduct checks to ensure the eligibility criteria have been met. We encourage you to make this request as soon as possible so the SV can be informed of the correct sample size before contacting centres. |
As the December/January assessment series is coming to a close, centres will have received moderator feedback and where amendments to marks are required, please ensure this is completed by 27 January. For support in amending marks, see the support article Submitting/Amending Marks via Edexcel Online. Moderator reports will be available from Results day on 23 March.
As with the introduction of any new qualification suite, understanding new processes can be challenging. Please note, each assessment series (Dec/Jan and May/June) has a different PSA released. The PSA for the May/June assessment series will be released for most programmes on 6 February, (1 November 22 for Art & Design Practice and 1 December 22 for Performing Arts) as per the Key Dates Schedule. The PSA released in October 22 cannot be submitted for moderation in the May/June assessment series.
If you are yet to make PSA entries for the May/June assessment series, please ensure these are processed by 21 February. Guidance can be found on the BTEC Tech Awards 2022: Support Index webpage.
Quality Assurance Support
Following Moderator feedback, we have revised the Assessment Record sheet to be used in the next assessment series. This document is to be completed for each learner to record PSA marks and feedback. We have revised how marks should be recorded (now per marking grid) to ensure the moderator clearly understands where marks have been awarded. A template for this can be downloaded from the BTEC forms and guides webpage. |
Annual Quality Declaration
As above, please be reminded to complete and submit the AQD for your centre as soon as possible, if not already completed. Please work with your Lead Standards Verifiers to complete the WBL Section (Centre Self-Assessment). For further guidance to complete this section, please see the AQD Guidance Document.
Lead Standards Verifier (remote) visits
LSV remote visits should be complete for most centres. If yours is still outstanding, please work with your LSV to book in a date to arrange a remote visit as soon as possible.
Current vacancies for Standards Verification
We currently have vacancies for Security Standards Verifiers within Work-Based Learning. For more information and to submit an application, please follow this link.
Work-Based Learning Handbooks
Please be reminded that all WBL Quality Assurance Handbooks can be found here. If you have any questions regarding quality assurance, please do not hesitate to contact the team via the Pearson Support Portal. |
AQD – HN Reminder
If you have not already completed the HN section of the AQD, please ensure you have done so by 24 February. The HN section is your Annual Programme Monitoring Report (AMPR) and please note, only one submission is required per centre including any provision delivered by a collaborative partner on your centre’s behalf for all Higher Nationals delivered. For further information, or to answer any questions you may have, please contact us at hnqa@pearson.com.
Higher Nationals Newsletter
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The Functional Skills Standards Verifiers allocations have been confirmed. If you are yet to hear from your SV for the below qualifications, please contact us via the Pearson Support Portal.
- Speaking and Listening L1/2
- Entry Level Functional Skills
- English for Speaker of other Languages
- Essential Digital Skills
- Essential Skills Northern Ireland
- Essential Skills Wales
- Core Skills
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Term 2 monitoring calls should be planned (or underway) with your Technical Qualification Reviewer. Amongst other aspects for discussion in Term 2, we are asking TQRs to focus on the range of CPD and training events that are available for staff in centres. Please browse the options and do sign up this term.
A reminder that the approval process for centres looking to offer T Levels in the next academic year will be open between February and June 2023. More detail is available on the T Level site, but all approval documents are also accessible on each subject page in the Course Materials tab. |
Our Quality Assurance Events schedule for January – May 2023 is now available. All events are held on Zoom and to book your place, please visit our Quality Assurance: Events and Support webpage. Don’t forget to check out our on-demand offer too.
We are delighted to share the news that our summer Networking Events will return to a face to face format this May/June. Keep an eye on our Events webpage and we encourage you to book your place early, as spaces will be limited at each venue.
We look forward to meeting with you in person. |
Kind regards
Helen, Bev, Bill, Liz, Sally, & Sue
Vocational Quality Assurance Managers |
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