Key Information for first teaching of the new BTEC Tech Awards (2022)

Centre Approvals

UK schools who have offered any Pearson Edexcel GCSEs in the last three academic years will be automatically approved to deliver BTEC Tech Awards 2022 across all subject areas, therefore no further action is required.

UK schools that offer BTEC Tech Awards or BTEC Firsts, but not Pearson Edexcel GCSEs, or offer them alongside GCSEs with another awarding organisation, will need to fill out a fast-track approval form. 

This will take up to five working days to process, dependant on internal checks. For fast-track approval, please contact us.

Other UK providers that wish to offer theses qualifications will need to submit a full application, including a JCQ Centre Approval application if not already JCQ inspected (CCEA Centre Approval in Northern Ireland, WJEC Centre Approval in Wales).

Registrations and Assessment Entries

The deadline for on-time registrations is 1st November 2022. Before you register, please read this important guidance to ensure learners on registered for the correct Tech Award depending on their year of completion.

The first Pearson-Set Assignments (PSAs) for internally assessed components are now available for all subjects for the December 2022 to January 2023 assessment series*. As the internal assessments are now moderated within the series, please note entries must be made for learners wishing to sit the assessment for this series. The deadline for on-time entries for the December/January series is 18th October 2022.

You can access the PSAs using an Edexcel Online password in the Course Materials section of your subject’s qualification page, under ‘Internal Assessments’. These can be administered to learners to begin assessment at any time, for completion and internal centre assessment before the mark submission deadline of 15th December 2022.

Please note that the first assessment series is intended to facilitate those learners who have been taught a sufficient portion of the content for the component to contend with the assessment, such as those who have been taught from Year 9. Please consider carefully when deciding whether to enter learners for the initial assessment.

Full guidance on making registrations and entries for new Tech Awards can be found in our Tech Awards Support Index.  For the full list of key dates for the 2022/23 academic year, please refer to the Tech Awards Key Dates Schedule.

Standardisation Materials and Training Events

We have published the initial set of Exemplar Standardisation Materials (ESMs) for teachers to refer to for internal standardisation prior to marking learner responses to PSAs. You can access them using an Edexcel Online password in the Course Materials section of your subject’s qualification page, under ‘Teaching and Learning Materials’. Further ESMs will be added in early 2023 following the first moderation series.

Live online Getting Started training sessions and Marking and Moderation training sessions are being run throughout October and November. They are free to attend and filling up fast, so be sure to book your space. If you can’t attend one of our Getting Started sessions, you can access the recordings, and we will release recordings of the Marking and Moderation training in the coming weeks.

Key Dates and refreshed Quality Assurance

Refer to the Key Dates Schedule for the first academic year of the new BTEC Tech Awards to help you prepare and plan. You’ll find it on the BTEC Tech Awards (2022) landing page alongside plenty of other helpful information, including bitesize videos, links to published resources and information about our streamlined Quality Assurance processes.

We ran several Quality Assurance networking events in June and will repeat them this September. You can register for the ‘Quality Assurance for the BTEC Tech Awards 2022’ sessions shortly on our Quality Assurance webpage.

Updates to Specifications and Sample Assessments

Some clarifications and amendments have been made to our Specification and Sample Assessment Materials (PSAs and External Assessments). Please be sure to download the updated versions for reference before first teach.

Key amendments and clarifications are:

• Where relevant, some Pearson-Set Assignments have added clarification that learners can refer to course notes during task taking sessions.
• Where relevant, some Pearson-Set Assignments have added clarification that monitored use of internet is allowed for the purposes of sourcing audio/visual content.

ExamWizard for External Assessments

You can also now access exam questions through our examWizard service to create your own mock assessments catered to your learners. Questions are taken from the Sample Assessment Materials (SAMs) and from legacy Tech Awards exams where applicable, so you will have a good bank of questions to support your learners right from the start, with further questions to be added in the new year. Travel and Tourism resources are still in production and will be available as soon as possible.

Please note, Exam Wizard is only available for subjects with written external assessments.

£50 Amazon Vouchers for Learner Work produced using sample PSAs

We are currently producing marked samples of learner work for use as centre and moderator standardisation materials and as part of teacher marking training events. We know that some centres have begun delivering the new BTEC Tech Awards and may have undertaken mock assessments based on the Sample PSAs. 

If you have done any mock assessment for internal components, your learner’s work can help us to train teachers and moderators throughout the UK. Please contact Robert.East@Pearson.com for more details. We will be providing £50 Amazon gift vouchers for each piece of learner work used.

We are recruiting moderators for all new BTEC Tech Awards

The new BTEC Tech Awards will be moderated in line with new DFE requirements, and we are currently recruiting moderators across all subjects. Working with Pearson as a moderator brings you the added benefit of being standardised directly by the Senior Assessment Team in your subject and seeing the work produced by many other schools throughout the moderation process. 

Requests for modified Pearson-Set Assignments

If you have learners entering for the first available assessment series who require modified versions of PSAs, please request them as soon as possible from the beginning of September to ensure delivery in October. All requests require approximately four weeks to fulfil. 

Please contact additional_requirements@pearson.com to place your order. Please note that these will not be available to order on Pearson Access Arrangements Online.

Final Assessment for current (2017) BTEC Tech Awards and Extension of current BTEC Tech Award in Engineering

As a reminder, the final registration date for the current (2017) suite of BTEC Tech Awards qualifications is 31 December 2022, with final certification 31 August 2023. The final external assessments will be summer 2023.

The current BTEC Tech Award in Engineering has been extended to 2026 so you can continue to deliver it. However, please note that this will not be included on 2024 performance tables.

From September 2022:

• Learners who plan to certificate in summer 2023 can continued to be registered onto the current qualifications. The current qualifications will run with no change to assessment timelines or Quality Assurance model.
• Learners who plan to certificate in 2024 onwards will need to be registered on the new 2022 versions of the qualifications.