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In this month’s edition, we're bringing you the latest updates, including important deadlines, new support materials, and resources for both teachers and exams officers.

We'd like to highlight the release of new exemplar standardisation materials, now available for download from each subject’s course materials page. They have been created using actual learner work from the June 2024 series and exemplify learner work for a range of ability and will help you in standardising your internal marking. 

* The PSA for Art and Design Practice released on this day is for use with the May/June series and there is no December/January submission window

Read our full key date schedule for 2024/25

We have published new exemplar standardisation materials (ESMs) for the internal components. You can download these from each subject’s course materials page, under teaching and learning materials. We add new ESMs after every assessment series to give you additional fresh examples based on the most recent Pearson Set Assignments. Be sure to download them to support you in your marking.

Find exemplar standardisation materials for your subject. 

If learners are going to be sitting internally assessed components for December/January series you should make these entries by 18 October. As these components are externally moderated, we need to know when learners will be sitting these so we can assign a moderator, and we know when to expect a mark submission. You should also make any entries for the external component for the 18 October.

Read more about making BTEC Tech Award entries. 

Any registrations for learners starting the programme this year should be made by 1 November, through Edexcel Online or EDI.

If you are registering candidates via EDI who have existing registrations on other courses, please ensure that you include all required registered courses when making you are making EDI registrations. If BTEC registrations aren’t included we will withdraw any existing registrations.

Please remember to keep the candidate’s names and UCI numbers consistent throughout their registrations and entries. Discrepancies in candidate name or UCI details between the registrations and the EDI entries file may result in delays to your entries being processed. If you need to update a candidate’s registered name, please do so via a registration amendment file or Edexcel Online. The original UCI number used for the candidate’s registration should be kept for all entries and additional registrations.

Read more about making BTEC Tech Award registrations. 

Remember, when you are planning the delivery of your BTEC Tech Award, or preparing to make your internal and external component entries, it’s essential that you follow the terminal assessment rule.

The terminal assessment rule requires learners to take the external assessment at the end of their qualification (the series in which the learner certificates). This means that learners must sit internal component assessments either prior to or in the same series as the external assessment to fulfil this terminal rule. If a learner chooses to retake an internal assessment in a series after they sat the terminal external assessment, they will also need to resit the external component to satisfy the terminal rule.

Learners are allowed one retake of each internal component, and one resit of the external assessment within the programme.

Read our guidance for learners certification options in January

You can access the new PSAs for December/January assessments on each subject’s page, which you can select from the main BTEC Tech Award area. A reminder that Art and Design doesn’t have a December/January assessment window; the PSA released on the 2 September is for use within the May/June window. 

We’ve moved the withdrawal deadline this year to 31 December. This means you should make any registration withdrawals by 31 December for learners who have registered this academic year, to receive a full refund.

Don’t forget you can still access your lead examiner reports and principal moderator reports for June 2024, which you can find on the relevant specification page under Course Materials > External Assessment > June 2024. 

We have training courses running throughout September and October. Whether you’ve just started delivering the qualification, or you just need some more support or a refresher, we’ll have something for you.

Explore our BTEC Tech Award training

We host a monthly exams officer webinar, where we’ll always have BTEC Tech Awards on the agenda. Providing you with the latest news and updates, and the upcoming tasks and deadlines.

Register for our next exams officer webinar | 17 October 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Teachers

If you are a teacher who is new to delivering BTEC Tech Awards this academic year, we’ve rounded up all the support we have available to get you started. Remember, if there’s anything you need help with you can contact us through the Pearson support portal and we’ll be happy to help.

Your key resources are all accessible from the ‘Course Materials’ and ‘Training’ tabs at the top of your subject’s qualification page, which you can find from our BTEC Tech Award web pages. On the course materials tab under the ‘teaching and learning materials’ category, you’ll find Teacher Guides, Transition Guides, Exemplar Standardisation Materials and more.

Our live training events cover: 

Recordings of past training events as well as bitesize videos are available from the Training webpage if you can’t attend the live events. 

Exams officers

If you are an Exams officer administrating the BTEC Tech Awards for the first time, head over to out Exams Officer Guidance Page. This is a handy reference page with key information, links to Key documents and a step-by-step guide to registrations, entries, assessment, results and certification.

Quality Nominees

Explore out Quality Assurance Page which includes key Quality Assurance guides, quick guides, bitesize videos and live ‘Catch-ups’ schedule.

Subject Advisors

Experts in their fields, and many of them former teachers, our subject advisors are here to support you throughout the year and can help with all your subject-specific queries. You can contact our Subject Advisors by email, book a short meeting and sign up for Subject Advisor updates. Meet our subject advisors here.

While we’ll be sending this directly to you every month, there’s a wealth of support available on our website. Bookmark our BTEC Tech Awards FAQ webpage, where we’ll keep you updated.

As always, we’re here to help you, so if you have any questions, please contact us via the Pearson support portal.

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