Consultation on approach to regulating Technical Qualifications

Ofqual has today (10 July 2018) launched a consultation on our approach to regulating the new Technical Qualifications that will sit within T Levels. The Institute for Apprenticeships has overarching responsibility for the T Level programme and recently consulted on outline subject content for the first three pathways. Ofqual’s consultation provides an opportunity for anyone with an interest in the new Technical Qualifications to shape our thinking on how we will frame our rules, including on issues such as how assessments should be set and marked, when assessments and retakes can be taken, and certification requirements. The consultation will run for 4 weeks, until 6 August.

Commenting on today’s publication, Sally Collier, Chief Regulator, said:

It is important that the new Technical Qualifications play their part in delivering what employers need. To do this they need to be high quality, reliable, comparable, of the right level of demand and trusted. This consultation will help ensure that Technical Qualifications, and the T Levels of which they form a part, are set up to succeed. I would encourage anyone with an interest in these new qualifications to give us their views on the proposals we have set out.

We are consulting on our policy approach to regulating all parts of the Technical Qualifications and would welcome views in all aspects of this consultation. We recognise, however, that given the scale of our proposals, respondents may not wish to respond to the whole consultation. We would encourage individuals to respond to those areas that are of interest to them but we are particularly interested in views on:

• Setting and marking assessments (page 38)
• Results and certification (page 30)
• Retakes (page 24)

We also are holding three events in support of the consultation to give an opportunity for people to hear about our proposals, ask any questions and provide their views. These are:

• 23 July 2018, 10:30 to 3:30 – Park Plaza County Hall, London, SE1 7RY
• 24 July 2018, 11:30 to 16:30 – The Village, Coventry, CV4 9GZ
• 31 July 2018, 10:30 to 15:30 – Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester, M1 4PH

You can book your place on our event page. Please note, depending on the level of interest, we may need to restrict attendance to a maximum of 2 representatives from each organisation.

Following this policy consultation we will analyse responses in collaboration with the Institute and consult on the wording of the rules we will apply to Technical Qualifications. We anticipate running an 8-week technical consultation, beginning in early September.