Having trouble seeing this email? Please see the online version

EO page |  Development Hub | New Support portal | New Year Essential Info

Welcome to latest edition of the International Exams Officer update. We hope you're settling back in to the new school year.

As well as calling out some key dates and processes for the coming month, we’d also like to take this opportunity to share some useful information which can be passed on to any newer colleagues who may have started working with you this term.

• Getting set up on Edexcel Online
•  Important Reminder  Completing your annual Edexcel Online Account Confirmation and Terms & Conditions
•  NEW  An Introduction to the New Pearson Support Portal
•  NEW  Pearson Development Hub and upcoming live EO event
•  NEW  International Customer Services Team Postcards
• Keeping up to date with Pearson communications
• How you can get in touch
• Cyber Security and Multi Factor Authentication

• Key Dates
• Registering your learners
•  NEW  Join our feedback panel: VQ Learner Tracker and Vocational Qualifications

• Key Dates
• October/November exam support
• October and November 2024 stationery and materials list
• October/November question paper dispatch

•  Reminder  'The Exams Office'- International training events
•  NEW  Contacting us via email
•  NEW  Private candidate centre list

As a member of the exams team, you should ensure you are set up correctly in Edexcel Online. You may be responsible for the creation and maintenance of EOL accounts for other staff members such as Teachers, Heads of Department and centre-administrators. However, responsibility for the creation of Exams staff accounts sits with Pearson. This is because those accounts carry a higher level of secure access, and additional checks are required before they can be created.

You can read more about Edexcel Online (EOL) accounts

We’re excited to introduce our enhanced Qualifications Customer Support Portal, designed to make getting help quicker and easier than ever. Created with our customers in mind, new or enhanced features include:

Read our getting started support article here: Customer Support Portal: Getting Started, and remember to bookmark the portal in Chrome, Edge, Safari or other web browser for quick access.

Our new dedicated space for Exams Officer training. We have created this as part of our commitment to you to offer enhanced support and training in 2024 and beyond. 

Features 

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

You can read How to access the Pearson Development Hub in our dedicated support article

Why not join us for our next live online event, taking place on Thursday 24 October, 10am - 11am BST.

As with last year's events, we will go through news, updates and processes for the coming weeks and give you the opportunity to ask any general questions.

Click the link below to register for this event

If you are unable to attend this event, you can find recordings of previous events and links to sign up in our support article: Exams Officer Update International Webinar Events 2024 / 2025

Our new digital international postcards are now interactive. These postcards have been designed to give you an insight into some of the areas our Customer Service team can support you with, whilst also providing you with access to the Knowledgebase articles that will help you self serve on the specific processes. These easy to use postcards will also provide you with the Contact Us information for your local Customer Service Hub support team. 

Click the button below to see the postcard for your region.

The likelihood is that Pearson won’t be the only awarding organisation that you or your centre work with, and this means that you will receive lots of different communications. Some of these may be more relevant to your role than others, so it’s important that you and your colleagues are signed up to receive the regular updates that matter to you. It's also important that Edexcel Online accounts are accurate as these are used to determine who needs to receive ad hoc communications. 

As Exams Officers you will be responsible for the creation and maintenance of Edexcel Online account for those in other roles, such as Teachers or other curriculum staff. Whilst doing this you could also sign them up to receive the relevant subject advisor updates. 

Here is a full list of all the regular updates we send, including an archive of previous editions and the sign-up forms.

There are multiple ways to contact the customer service teams at Pearson. The New Customer Support Portal allows you to choose a method that best suits you.

Whether you’re a new or experienced Edexcel Online user it's important that we are all aware of the possible threats to our collective data. We would encourage all Exams staff, new and old to visit our cyber security webpage and watch our short training video.

Multi factor authentication was successfully rolled out to nearly a quarter of a million Pearson Portal users last year. Although it has now become a standard way of accessing our systems, that we should all be familiar with, it can sometimes present challenges if a smart device is lost or replaced. You can read more information, see a quick start guide and access FAQs and troubleshooting for our authenticator app in our Pearson Portal Authenticator support article.

As learners are enrolled on to their BTEC programmes (including BTEC Tech Awards), you should make their BTEC registrations within 60 days of enrolment to avoid any late fees. You should check that your centre has approval for the programme they will be following, and if you need to gain approval to run a course you should do this straight away.

Read our guide to making BTEC registrations.

Where learners have completed a BTEC programme, and are moving on to a larger sized qualification this year, you should “top up” these learners, and not create a new registration. You can create a top-up once the learner’s previous qualification has been certificated. 

Read our guide to topping up registrations.

We’re reaching out to invite our international centres to collaborate with us on some exciting improvements we’re planning for 2024/25.  

If you’d like to get involved in providing feedback for the VQ Learner Tracker and how we can refine our processes to better support you, complete our short form and we’ll be in touch over the next few weeks with more information. 

Complete an expression of interest form 

You can download entry basedata from our website. Please ensure that all your entries are made before the entry deadlines to avoid being charged late fees.

You can find full details on entry deadlines and key dates using our key dates finder or in the Key Dates section of the Information Manual.

You may find our Making academic entries page helpful for support with making entries using EDI or Edexcel Online, as well as these articles from our support portal:

If any of your learners sitting these examinations have additional requirements, it is important your centre applies for these arrangements on their behalf.

We have now published the Exam stationery and materials list including Calculator use for the upcoming October and November general qualification exams.

If your candidates are resitting their GCSE Maths or English exams in November, you can expect to start receiving standard and modified question papers from Thursday 10 October.

You will be able to track your standard question paper despatch for General Qualifications via Edexcel Online.

You can expect to start receiving attendance registers and labels for International GCSE from 7 October.  

If you require electronic copies of these question papers, please check your EOL accounts are up-to-date, ensuring you have access to our Secure Download Service (SDS) service.  

For further guidance on this service, please visit our Support Portal.

Our colleagues at The Exams Office will once again be hosting a face to face event aimed at supporting international customers through the administration of qualifications and exams. 

You can read more about the training available here

Did you know you can add your centre to our published list of international centres that offer Pearson and BTEC qualifications, to help in recruiting students?

If you would like to add your centre to this list, please complete the form below.

Once confirmed, your centre details will be added to this list on our qualifications website. You can remove or amend your details at any time by resubmitting the form.

If you choose to contact us via email to pqs.internationaleo@pearson.com, you'll notice that our responses are sent from 'customersupport.reply@pearson.com'. This is a response only email address, and allows any responses you send, by clicking 'reply/reply all', to be linked to the existing support case.

However, if you were to compose a brand new email and send to that reply email address, there is no case to link it to, so we do not receive your email and you will not receive a response. This should result in a bounce back email stating the address is invalid.

Don't forget we have a dedicated Pearson Exams Officer Support page on Facebook. This provides you with a quick and convenient way to stay up to date with our latest news and live updates from the team.

Important and informative announcements will be posted on the page daily and messages will be monitored 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday by Charlie, Emma and Seren; our dedicated Social Media Team. Message them with for help with your queries throughout your working day.