Teaching, learning and assessment 2024/2025
Support for vocational qualifications
Last updated: 7 February 2025
Use this page to keep up to date with all the latest news and activites for our vocational qualifications.
Make your entries
The external assessment entry deadline for the summer exam series for BTEC Tech Awards is 21 February.
The entry deadline for the summer exam series for BTEC Firsts, Nationals and Technicals is 21 March.
We also have some extended deadlines where learners are awaiting external assessment results for the winter series, and you can find these in our key dates timeline.
Getting the most out of the VQ Learner Tracker
You can view any outstanding actions for learners expecting results this summer, including missing external assessment entries, in the VQ Learner Tracker.
Submit cash-ins for your Tech Award learners
You may also be submitting cash-ins for your learners being entered for their terminal assessment to claim their overall qualification result for the summer.
Remember, the terminal assessment rule means learners are only eligible for an overall qualification result if the external assessment is the final component they complete, so don’t make external assessment entries for learners unless they will have completed their internal components before sitting the external assessment.
Maintaining your summer tags and estimated completion dates
Please continue to monitor your learner registrations in the VQ Learner Tracker and update any changes to your summer cohort.
Where you have already added summer 2025 tags to learner registrations, we will change the estimated completion date for these learners to 5 July 2025 by the end of February.
If we identify learners whose estimated completion dates have passed but who are not part of your summer cohort and have not yet been claimed, we will contact you to ensure they receive their results on time.
Your key dates and term-time checkpoints for 2024/25
Following feedback from you, our BTEC key dates schedule for 2024/25 has been designed to ensure BTEC results are delivered successfully to all learners expecting a result in summer 2025.
This year we're giving you more time to complete key term-time checkpoints following several improvements to streamline the process. You can find a summary of these updates, along with the improvements planned for 2025, in the new BTEC key dates schedule.
This schedule covers BTEC Firsts, BTEC Nationals, BTEC Tech Awards and BTEC Technicals only.
We're opening this six weeks earlier to give you more time to complete the necessary tasks before signing your declaration.
We’ve brought the BTEC deletion deadline forward so you can complete this work
alongside the cohort declaration, ahead of the busy January exam season.
The deadline for your head of centre to confirm which learners are expecting a qualification result in August 2024, following a check that all estimated completion dates are accurate in VQ Learner Tracker.
The deadline for your head of centre to reconfirm which learners are expecting a qualification result in August 2024, following any changes you might have made since your January declaration.
All internally assessed unit grades to be submitted and full award claims to be made by 5 July.
We are unable to guarantee learners will receive a qualification result on learner results days if qualification claims or internal assessment grades are provided after 5 July. If we do receive qualification claims or internal grades for learners after the 5 July deadline, Pearson reserves the right to charge centres £100 for each of these BTEC Level 3 National learners that receives a result on learner results days.
Catch up on what's been happening this month for Vocational Qualifications.
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What to expect in the winter term
Exams officers
Your winter term checklist
Not sure where to start? Download our exams officer January–March checklist: five things to help you meet the first deadlines of 2025 and have asuccessful January exam series.
If you’re a new exams officer, we need to know so we can make sure you are fully onboarded with all the access you need to begin making registration and entries.
We have produced a new series of short interactive walkthroughs, available on our main exams officer support page. These use a quick and intuitive format to help you navigate common processes on Pearson systems.
Explore our support for exams officers
We have a range of bitesize on-demand training modules to cover all the important administrative processes for the new term on the Pearson Development Hub.
Find out more about training on the Pearson Development Hub
We've also created a dedicated support article providing quick links to all the information you'll for a successful start to the year.
Exams officer support: autumn and winter essential information
Quality nominees
Our dedicated team of Vocational Quality Assurance Managers have a wealth of support to help you get the year off to a great start, whether you’re a new or experienced quality nominee. From detailed centre guides to regular live events, be sure to make the most of the resources and support available.
Explore support for quality nominees at the home of quality assurance
Heads of centre
We want to work in partnership with you and your vocational team throughout the year. Make sure you are familiar with the processes and deadlines involved in delivering vocational qualifications so you can best support your administrative and delivery teams.
As head of centre, you should ensure your exams officer has the support they need to complete your centre's cohort declaration by 31 January. They will ask for your authorisation before submitting the cohort declaration, and you should be confident that this work has been completed.
Teachers
Our team of subject advisors are experts in their fields, many of them former teachers. They are here to support you throughout the year and can help with all your subject-specific queries. They offer monthly newsletters and one-to-one appointments, and you can raise cases with them via the Pearson support portal.
ResultsPlus is our online results analysis tool for teachers. Included as part of your qualification fees, ResultsPlus gives you a detailed breakdown of your students’ performance in Pearson Edexcel exams and BTEC external assessments.
We have a wealth of training events available for teachers, with both live, in-person events and recorded sessions you can access at a time that suits you.
Learners & parents
Replace your original certificate for your qualification, change your name on your certificate and more.
If you’re a private candidate looking for information on where you can take Pearson qualification exams, where to find past papers or if you’re not happy with your results, we’re here to help.