Supporting BTEC International Learners following the Department for Education (DfE) announcement | Pearson qualifications

Supporting BTEC International Learners following the Department for Education (DfE) announcement

Fri Dec 04 10:34:00 UTC 2020

Yesterday, the UK Department for Education announced further adaptations to General Qualifications and as we recognise that many of the issues that impact learners in England also relate to our International learners we would like to provide you with an update. 

Read more

Read the DfE announcement - Extra measures to support students ahead of next summer’s exams

This update provides you with information on further adaptations available for learners studying BTEC International qualifications in the academic year 2020/21. Our BTEC International qualifications are subject to the same or equivalent mitigations as students studying towards General Qualifications. At Pearson, we are also conscious of ensuring fairness and parity of outcomes across all Pearson provision.

Reduced Optional Unit Assessment

In October we said that if disruption to teaching, learning and assessment increased due to COVID-19, we would look to put further adaptations in place to reduce assessments on optional units.

As BTEC International qualifications are modular, with a number of internal optional assessments, we believe that, in most cases, the reduction to optional assessment provides an appropriate solution to the challenges that you and other learning providers are facing.

In line with the DfE’s announcement, we are pleased to confirm that this has now been approved and the reduction to optional assessments will apply to most qualifications in the following suites:

  • BTEC International Level 3
  • BTEC Nationals QCF
  • BTEC International Level 2

It will apply internationally to learners certificating in Summer 2021, and learners who are registered in September 2020 and will be certificating in Summer 2022. We will be publishing further guidance in the coming weeks.

While we wait for this additional detail, please be reminded that teaching and learning should take place, as far as possible, under the current circumstances, and that all mandatory content needs to be taught and assessed.

The reduction in optional assessment is not under the Special Considerations category. We will publish further information about Special Considerations shortly.

There will be no optional unit reduced assessment for the following BTEC qualifications:

  • BTEC Level 1 and below
  • BTEC Specialist and Professional

We have already confirmed the adaptations available for these qualifications. These can be found on our Teaching and assessment support 2020-2021 page

Teaching and assessment support 2020-2021

Reminder – Please ‘bank’ internally assessed grades as you go along using the interim claims method. This enables us to have visibility of how your assessment is progressing this year and is a key mitigation should you not have access to assessment information in the event that you need to work from home at short notice due to COVID-19.

Thank you for your continued support and patience, we will continue to keep you updated.

{{ gatDoctitle }}

{{invalidUserName}}
{{invalidUserMail}}
{{errorMessage}}
×

Are you sure you want to exit this session?