T Level update
October 2025 |
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Welcome to October’s T Level Update |
We send these updates out to everyone who signs up for them. If you’re no longer the right person in your centre to receive these, please ask the relevant colleagues to sign up for T level updates to make sure they receive them directly to their inbox. |
This month's news and updates |
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T Levels Week 2025
13–17 October is T Levels Week! We’ll be shining a spotlight on your students’ success and showcasing new and existing T Level courses available in 2026.
Kicking off the spotlight, you can read a case study from Jay Palmer about how he found his Digital Production, Design and Development T Level and what he’s doing now.
Read Jay’s story
Have a story you’d like to share with us?
Submit a learner, educator, or employer story |
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Book on to our exams officer training event
Join us for our annual exams officer and administrator training event on 4 November, 12:00–1:00 p.m.
This online event is for anyone involved in the administration of the Technical Qualification, covering everything from undertaking provider approval to making registrations and entries and assessment scheduling.
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Register your students starting this September
You can still make registrations on the Technical Qualification for your cohorts starting this academic year.
The deadline to make your registrations is 1 November. Late fees will apply to registrations received from 2 November onwards.
Need help? You’ll find guides to making registrations and managing student details on our admin support page.
You must be approved by Pearson for each Technical Qualification you plan to deliver. If you didn’t apply for approval during the approval window (February–June 2025), please contact us as soon as possible. |
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When you can expect your autumn series papers
Once you’ve made your entries, you can expect to start receiving question papers, attendance registers and labels for the autumn series from Monday 17 November.
The yellow label service will be in place for this series for you to return scripts.
If you need electronic copies of question papers — for example, if you make a very late entry or need to print onto coloured paper — you’ll be able to download them from the BTEC and T Level assessment download page. You'll need Secure Download Service access on your Edexcel Online account to access secure material. |
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Make your occupational specialism entries for summer 2026
You can still occupational specialism entries for the summer 2026 series. However, any entries made from 6 October will be subject to late fees.
You must make an entry for every student wishing to enter the assessment. |
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Moderation training and support |
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For those of you delivering the T Levels in Craft and Design or Media, Broadcast and Production, we'll run a moderation training and support event in late November.
We’ll share more details and a booking link in our next update, so keep an eye out. |
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Administrative support guides
We’ll publish new or updated administrative support guides for some subjects this month – see the sector updates for specifics, and make sure you’re working from the latest versions when you start planning your assessments. |
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Find out more about the future of post-16 Level 2 qualifications
If you offer post-16 Level 2 study programmes at your centre, you might be interested in Pearson’s Level 2 BTEC qualifications.
Join our webinar on 14 October, where we’ll walk you through the current BTEC portfolio and the potential changes as post-16 qualification reforms continue.
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Construction: Design, Surveying & Planning
Want help improving core exam performance? Our principal examiner’s recorded some guidance to help you improve this year; watch the bitesize recording on our training page.
The Guide to Core Content Depth is also being updated to include the Generation 2 specification content and will be online shortly.
We'll start our annual content review of the specification and assessments in November. We don’t expect there to be many changes, given the recent Generation 2 updates; however, we are keen to hear from you if you identify any serious issues or errors with the specification – please email gabriel.staples@pearson.com
A reminder that the Generation 2 specification for teaching from September 2025 is now available.
Download the 2025 specification
Watch a recording of our provider event introducing the 2025 specification to learn what’s new.
Introducing the Updated 2025 T Level Specification in Construction Design Surveying & Planning (49:35)
A new occupational specialism, Project Delivery for Construction, is now available for students, with the first assessments in 2027. Registration onto this OS is not yet possible, however, Providers with students intending to take the new OS can register on another pathway and transfer later.
If you’re moving from BTEC Nationals in Construction to the T Level, use our transition guide to help you map BTEC National units to the Core content areas. You can find the guide on the course materials page.
Download the transition mapping guide
Pearson has been working with the Gatsby Foundation to provide high quality teaching resources for several topics in the Core: Law, Maths and Modern Methods of Construction. Keep an eye on the Gatsby Technical Education Networks website. Construction - Technical Education Networks
Making assessments more manageable
Thanks to your feedback, we’re making assessments more manageable from next year:
- There will be a much longer window to complete the practical surveying task (facade survey)
- There will be a longer gap between Core exam papers 1 and 2, giving students more time to revise for the topics in each paper.
Support your T Level delivery with CITB
Need support for employers? Whether you already have relationships with employers or you’re trying to encourage employers to take students on placement, the CITB have great support to help.
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Craft and Design and Media, Broadcast and Production
If you're delivering for the first time this September, make sure to check out all the support we offer, including delivery guides, schemes of work, specimen assessments and guide standard exemplification materials. You’ll find these and more on each qualification's course materials page:
Watch our range of bitesize training and support sessions that will help guide you in your delivery of the T Levels for Craft and Design and Media Broadcast and Production
You can also catch up on past training sessions in our archive on the Training hub.
Administrative support guides:
The updated employer set project and new occupational specialism administrative support guides will be available on the website on 10 October. |
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Digital
You can still make student registrations on the Technical Qualification for your cohorts starting this academic year. The deadline is 1 November. Late fees will apply to registrations received from 2 November onwards. |
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Generation 2 T Level |
QAN |
| Digital Software Development (with the OS retitled to match the standard as Digital Software Development) |
610/5801/4 |
| Digital Support and Security |
610/5799/X |
| Digital Data Analytics (with the OS retitled to match the standard as Data Analytics Technician) |
610/5800/2 |
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If you were approved by Pearson to deliver the Generation 1 T Level in Digital Production, Design and Development, you have automatic approval to deliver its Generation 2 replacement, the T Level in Digital Software Development. This does not mean you also automatically have approval to deliver Digital Support and Security or Digital Data Analytics.
If you were approved by NCFE to deliver the Generation 1 T Levels in Digital Support Services, and/or Digital Business Support and are now transitioning to the Generation 2 versions, you must gain provider approval from Pearson asap.
Want to know more about migrating from Generation 1 to Generation 2 T Levels?
Read our provider approval FAQs
The new specifications are available on the website, along with specimen assessment materials for all assessments. We’ll release more materials over the coming months; here’s a rough schedule of what to expect when: |
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| Month |
Details |
| November 2025 |
Additional Specimen Assessment Materials: Core exams
Guide Standard Exemplification Materials: Employer Set Project |
Additional Specimen Assessment Materials: Employer Set Project
Guide Standard Exemplification Materials: Occupational Specialism |
| December 2025 |
Additional Specimen Assessment Materials: Occupational Specialism |
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Digital Production, Design and Development / Digital Software Development
We've worked with Cisco and their Networking Academy on teaching resources for Python and other programming languages used in the occupational specialism. It's free to sign up and become a Cisco Networking Academy centre.
Gatsby are continuing the rollout the Digital T Level support created by industry experts like Raspberry Pi and our own examiners to support your delivery. For information, keep an eye on Gatsby's website. |
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Digital Support and Security / Digital Support Services
We launched the first set of support materials in July, joining the curriculum guides and mapping documents already available on the website. More materials will follow over the autumn term.
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Digital Data Analytics / Digital Business Services
We launched the first set of support materials in July, joining the curriculum guides and mapping documents already available on the website. We’ll keep sharing more support materials during throughout the autumn.
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Administrative support guides coming soon
The administrative support guides for all three Gen 2 Digital T Levels’ employer set projects will be available on the website this month. |
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Health and Science
These Generation 2 T Levels will be delivered by Pearson from September 2026. This will not affect your 2024 or 2025 intake; those students will complete their T level with NCFE.
By adding these T Levels to your curriculum, you’ll be meeting the growing demand from industry, broadening your course options and attracting students excited about high-quality vocational qualifications.
We'd love you to join our Provider panel and share your opinions about the content, the structure and manageability of the assessments, and anything else you feel would be useful as we refresh both Technical Qualifications. To join, please email Andrew Hambleton at andrew.hambleton@pearson.com
Bookmark the T Level Health and Science pages so you can keep up to date with updates to these qualifications as they happen:
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Legal, Finance, and Accounting
Legal Services:
We have resources to support your delivery, including schemes of work for the core and occupational specialism components, exemplar materials for the employer set project, and a content overview for Core Paper 2.
Explore the resources on the course materials page. |
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Finance:
Improvements to the occupational specialisms
We’ve updated the T Level in Finance occupational specialisms to help make assessment clearer and more efficient.
We will no longer be providing pre-release materials. This change is designed to streamline your preparation process, ensuring all necessary information is included within the main assessment documents.
Tasks that were previously split into separate documents (e.g., Task A and Task B) will now be combined into a single task booklet. This adjustment aims to simplify the administration and handling of assessment materials.
We’ve uploaded updated administrative support guides to reflect these changes. These are available to download from our course materials page, along with curriculum planners.
Explore the Finance course materials.
Support from The Chartered Insurance Institute
Our partner The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has a dedicated T Levels page to support you.
Find out more about the CII support for T Levels. |
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Accounting:
We’ve partnered with ACCA to support your T Level in Accounting:
- Better engagement with employers
ACCA can promote your college to their local employers.
ACCA is holding a webinar on 15 October at 12:00 to educate employers on T Levels in Accounting and the benefits of placements and is . If you'd like to be involved to explain what is involved in a placement, please contact Rob Alder: rob.alder@accaglobal.com
- Study support for your students
Your students can sign up for ACCA X for free e-learning to management and financial accounting at Levels 2 and 3.
Find out more about ACCA X
- Access to paid resources
ACCA offers £30 per T Level student provides toward access to study resources, careers support and additional discounts to Sage products. They also have the option to take their Management Accounting exams in year 2.
- Career events and advice
If your students register with ACCA, ACCA can offer career events to your students involving their members to give them a greater understanding of the accounting profession, ethics and careers advice (either at your college or in their HQ in London).
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Marketing
We held a webinar with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) on 1 October, where CIM discussed the benefits this partnership will bring to your Marketing students, progression opportunities, CIM exemptions, professional recognition, enriched learning resources and more.
Couldn’t make it? Watch the recording.
Find out more about our partnership with CIM
The Technical Qualification specification is now available on our website, and the Getting to Know the Specification on-demand training is available on our training and admin page.
Download the T Level in Marketing specification
The Specimen Assessment Materials (SAMs) are now available for the Core exams, ESP and OS.
Marketing | Pearson qualifications
The delivery guide and schemes of work are available to download from the course materials page.
Access T Level in Marketing course materials updated for new CORE elements 2,4,5,10.
Administrative support guides:
The administrative support guide for the employer set project will be available on the website later this month. |
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Training and admin support hub |
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Our training and admin support hub makes it easier for you to find the help you need when you need it. You can find admin documents and support, on-demand and live training resources, our training archive, Provider FAQs, support from industry professionals and more, all in one place. |
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Some support materials are padlocked, meaning you'll need to have an Edexcel Online account to download them. If you don't have Edexcel Online access, please speak to your centre exams officer. |
Book a subject advisor support call
If you need support with your T Level, our subject advisors are here to help. You can book a 15-minute one-to-one call where you can discuss any issue you are having with regards to planning or delivery of your T Level. |
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