What is a BTEC?
Updates to BTEC Nationals (2016) specifications
Following the release of the initial Lists of Applied General and Tech Level qualifications in January 2016, we've published revised specifications for your new BTEC Nationals (2016).
We've re-submitted the amended qualifications to the Department for Education (DfE) for the final Lists of Applied General and Tech Level qualifications which will count towards post-16 performance measures in England for summer 2018 results.
We expect DfE to publish the final Lists around Easter 2016.
What’s changed across all BTEC Nationals (2016)?
We've adapted the model used to calculate final qualification grade. This means that all learners should now achieve a consistent foundation of knowledge and skills within the mandatory content to support their progression to higher education or employment.
BTEC Nationals in Children’s Play, Learning and Development (2016)
The following two qualifications are tailored to the needs of the Early Years Educator (EYE), and already meet DfE requirements:
This means that there is no change to these qualifications.
We are introducing an opportunity for one re-take for internally assessed units for all BTEC Nationals (2016), in line with the existing re-take rules for the current BTEC Nationals (2010).
This means that:
- learners will have one opportunity to re-take an internal assessment
- the re-take will be a new assignment, targeted to Pass criteria only.
We will update our guidance for internal assessment to reflect these changes.
We’ve also added an additional January sitting for 22 task-based assessments across the BTEC Nationals (2016) suite. This means learners will now have the opportunity to re-take most task-based assessments.
You can see the availability of tasks in section 2 of your qualification specification.
For qualifications which have mandatory Employer Involvement (Tech Levels), we have clarified the Quality Assurance process supporting these requirements.
What's changed in your sector?
We have also been listening closely to your feedback on individual qualifications.
While in most subjects we have only updated grading and employer involvement, there are some individual qualifications where we have made changes to content to ensure your BTEC Nationals are fit for purpose.
Here’s a summary by sector of the changes:
After careful consideration, we've decided to withdraw:
- Diploma in Social Care
- Diploma in Health Care.
This means they will no longer be available for first teaching in September 2016, and we will not re-submit them to DfE for inclusion in the final Tech Level List.
All other BTEC Nationals in Health and Social Care (2016) will still be available from September 2016.
We've listened to your feedback and decided to redevelop key units in this suite to ensure the qualifications fully meet your students’ needs.
We can therefore confirm we are withdrawing the following qualifications, and they will not be available for first teaching in September 2016:
- Extended Certificate in Music
- Foundation Diploma in Music
- Diploma in Music
- Extended Diploma in Music
We have started the development of a replacement suite, intended for first teaching in 2017.
Your BTEC Nationals in Music Technology (2016) qualifications are still available for first teaching in September 2016, and not affected by the decision to redevelop the Music qualifications.
To give the BTEC National Diploma in Retail (2016) a more practical focus, we've made some changes in to the balance between mandatory and optional units.
We have re-submitted this qualification to DfE for the final post-16 Lists (2018 results).
There are no changes to content in the other BTEC Nationals in Business (2016) qualifications.
We've made some changes to units and content which affect three qualifications in the suite:
More information
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