Pearson Update on BTEC grade award timings
Following @Ofqual’s announcement that A Level and GCSE students would receive centre assessed grades, we took the decision to apply the same principles for students receiving #BTEC results this summer, and review the grading for our BTEC Level 1-3 qualifications. We know this has caused frustration and additional uncertainty for students and we are truly sorry. No grades will go down as part of this review.
We believe this will result in the fairest outcomes for the 2020 cohort of BTEC learners, and ensure they are not disadvantaged in relation to their peers who have taken A level and GCSE qualifications.
We have now written to colleges to confirm that all eligible results will be available by August 28. Thank you to all the schools and colleges who have been working so collaboratively with us to support their students at this time.
Update on BTEC grade award timings
Let me start by apologising again for the timing of the update we shared with you on Wednesday about our decision to review BTEC grading for our BTEC Level 1/2, Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications. I know this placed an additional burden on you and your teams at an already very busy time, as well as further worry for your students. Please accept my sincere apologies for this.
As I mentioned then, we took this difficult decision in the interests of BTEC learners and to ensure fairness for them following Ofqual’s decision to award centre assessment grades for A levels and GCSEs. Our priorities are to deliver fair outcomes for BTEC students in relation to A levels and GCSEs and to ensure that no student is disadvantaged.
As a reminder, the following BTECs are being reviewed and regraded where appropriate:
- BTEC Level 3 Nationals (2010 QCF and 2016 RQF)
- BTEC Level 1/2 Tech Awards
- BTEC Level 2 Technicals
- BTEC Level 1/2 Firsts.
All eligible BTEC results will be available by August 28
We promised to share an update with you as soon as we could on timings for the release of revised grades and I am now able to confirm that all eligible results will be available by August 28. We are reviewing results at Level 3, including those with UCAS requirements, as an absolute priority and will start releasing those to schools/colleges from August 25. The results will be available on Edexcel Online. We will send Exams Officers further information about accessing results on Monday 24 August 2020.
Level 3 students have already received their grades and no grades will go down as part of this review
As in every year, we need schools and colleges to ensure they have submitted all the necessary internal assessment grades so that we can award final grades for students. If we have incomplete information, we cannot award a result for that learner. Where we believe we have areas for clarification, our teams will continue to work closely with you to collect remaining data and we will do our best to process this as quickly as we can. We understand data will continue to be submitted as students become eligible from now into September, and we will work with you to award grades for those students in the usual way. If you have any queries, please contact our team urgently using our details below.
We appreciate these are very busy times for schools and colleges as you prepare for the return of students and we’re sorry to add to your workload. We also want to thank the many schools and colleges who have been working with us so collaboratively to resolve issues and support students. As always, we appreciate your support, advice and feedback and thank you for bearing with us while we ensure we have the fairest outcomes for learners.
Cindy Rampersaud, Senior Vice-President, BTEC and Apprenticeships
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