BTEC First Awards and Certificate in Digital Applications (CiDA) Resit Rule Change - FAQs

Q: What is happening?

A: Learners registering on Level 1/Level 2 vocational qualifications from 1 September 2018, which count towards 2019 and 2020 DfE performance measures, will only be allowed one resit opportunity for external assessments.

Q: Which qualifications on 2019 and 2020 measures does this affect?

A: 
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Animal Care -  601/4530/4
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Art and Design -  600/4781/1
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Children's Play, Learning and Development - 600/6814/0
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Construction and the Built Environment (both 2012 and 2018 versions) -  600/6817/6
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Music - 600/6818/8
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Sport (both 2012 and 2018 versions) -  600/4779/3
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Travel and Tourism (both 2012 and 2018 - 600/6512/6
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Business (2012 version) – 600/4786/0*
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Business (2018 version) – 600/4786/0 - under review with DfE for 2020
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Engineering - 600/4788/4*
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Engineering Design and Product Investigation - 601/0924/5*
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Engineering Electronics and Computer Control Technologies - 601/0925/7*
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Hospitality - 600/7044/4*
BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Creative Digital Media Production - 600/6831/0*
Edexcel Level 2 Certificate in Digital Applications (CiDA) - 600/6627/1*

(*These qualifications are on 2019 performance measures, not 2020.)

Q: Are any other qualifications affected?

A: Edexcel Level 2 Diploma in Digital Applications (DiDA) - 601/4650/3,
which is not on 2019 or 2020 performance tables, is also affected.

Q: Why do this academic year’s learners have fewer attempts, when in previous years learners had more opportunities to resit?

A: When these qualifications were originally created in 2011 for first teaching in 2012/2013, there were no resit rules for Technical Award qualifications. Following recent discussions with the DfE, it is clear that all qualifications on performance measures need to conform to the resit rule for that qualification category, including older qualifications created before that rule.   

Q: When will the new rule take effect?

A: The new rule will apply to all registrations from 1 September 2018.

Q: Will this change affect learners mid-programme, who registered in 2016/17 and 2017/18?

A: No, this change only affects new learners registering from 1 September 2018.

Q: Could new learners registering from 1 September 2018 take more than one resit?

A: From 1 September 2018 learners will not be able to resit more than once. After they have completed a First Award and certificated, if they would like to continue to gain desirable outcome, they would need make a new registration to start again. Please note that their previous result(s) on the external unit would not carry forward to the new registration. Also, only their first certification of the qualification would be counted in performance measures by the DfE. This means that the learner could still gain the qualification and have evidence for their learning, enabling them to progress in their lives.

The ability to re-register does not apply to the Certificate in Digital Applications (CiDA) or to the Diploma in Digital Applications (DiDA).

Q: Can learners who top up from the First Award have unlimited resits on the larger size qualification?

A: Yes, this rule does not apply to the larger sizes of the BTEC Firsts.

Q: Does the new rule only apply to learners in England?

A: No, it will apply to all learners on the affected First Awards and CiDA.

Q: Why do other awarding organisations (AOs) allow learners to resit more than once?

A: All AOs have been asked by the DfE to ensure that they are compliant with the one resit rule for qualifications on the Technical Awards performance measures list.

Q: Why are you implementing this change now for learners registered from September 2018, whilst other AOs have said that they're not implementing it until late in 2019?

A: The DfE has recently asked all AOs to ensure that they're implementing the one resit rule. Where other AOs have stated that they're not applying the rule until next year, it's likely they have other measures in place to ensure that all new starts from September 2018 have only one resit opportunity, for example, limited assessment windows (twice in an academic year), which mean that learners cannot actually exceed the number of resit opportunities

Q: Our learners have already been entered for an external assessment, but if we'd been advised earlier regarding the changes we would have waited before entering them.

A: Centres who have entered learners for a January 2019 sitting, but now wish to delay these learners’ first sitting, should withdraw these entries in the normal way by 21 November 2018.

Q: What happens if our learners are registered on larger sizes of the BTEC Firsts, e.g. Certificate, but wish to claim and certificate on the Awards size for performance measures and have taken more than one resit?

A: Learners who have exceeded the number of resits allowed for the Award size will no longer be eligible for claiming it. If you are expecting to certificate learners on the Award who are taking a larger size you must ensure that they haven’t taken more than one resit.

Q: For CiDA, can learners who made an entry for the external assessment (DA201) last academic year, retake DA201 more than once?

A: Yes, if the learner entered for an external assessment/was registered prior to 1 September 2018, they can resit more than once and the best result will count.

Q: If a CiDA learner has not yet made an entry or a registration, can they resit more than once?

A: No, in this case they will only be able to resit once, whether they are completing in 2019 or 2020.