Vocational Qualifications Bulletin July 2025
This special edition of the VQ Bulletin focuses on the 5 July claim deadline, wrapping up standards verification and quality assurance activities, and looking ahead to results.
With the 5 July BTEC claiming deadline just days away, this special edition of the VQ Bulletin brings you the key reminders and support you need to wrap things up smoothly.
We know how much work has gone into getting to this point. From planning and teaching to assessments and admin, your commitment has made a real difference. Thank you for everything you’ve done to support your learners and make the summer series a success.
We’ll be in touch again soon with guidance to help you get ready for results. In the meantime, if you need support, you can contact us through the Pearson support portal. We're here to help.
Best wishes,
Nick Cutland
Director, Vocational Qualifications Assessment
Dates for your diary
Date
|
Description
|
Qualification
|
|---|---|---|
5 July |
Deadline to make full award claims or cash-ins for all students expecting a result in August 2025. | BTEC Firsts, BTEC Nationals, BTEC Tech Awards, BTEC Level 2 Technicals |
| 6 August | Release of BTEC Level 3 results to centres under embargo | BTEC Nationals |
| 13 August | Release of Technical Qualification component results to centres under embargo | T Levels |
| 14 August | Level 3 results day: release of Level 3 results to students | BTEC Nationals, T Levels |
| 15 August | Release of Level 2 results to centres under embargo | BTEC Firsts, BTEC Level 2 Technicals, BTEC Tech Awards |
| 21 August | Level 2 results day: relese of Level 2 results to students | BTEC Firsts, BTEC Level 2 Technicals, BTEC Tech Awards |
In this month's update
The 5 July BTEC claiming deadline is almost here, so now's the time to wrap up your final actions to make sure your learners get their results on time this August.
Use the VQ Learner Tracker to check what's left
The VQ Learner Tracker is your go-to tool for spotting anything that still needs doing. Use it to:
✔ check for outstanding actions
✔ confirm all internally assessed grades are submitted
✔ check your BTEC full award claims and BTEC Tech Award cash-ins
✔ remove the ‘Summer 2025’ tag from any learners no longer expecting results this summer.
Find out more about using the VQ Learner Tracker
Check your UCAS candidates
To help you manage your UCAS students easily, we’ve kept things simple this year. You don’t need to sign a confirmation, but you can filter using the ‘UCAS’ tag in the VQ Learner Tracker to see all your UCAS students in one place. If any of your UCAS students aren’t expecting results this summer, remove the ‘Summer 2025’ tag and let them know so there are no surprises.
The ‘UCAS’ tag is based on information provided directly from UCAS. If you notice a learner without the tag who should have one, double-check that their details have been sent to UCAS.
Join our final live webinar
Need a quick refresher or have last-minute questions? Join our final live webinar before the deadlineon 2 July to learn how to use the VQ Learner Tracker, resolve any remaining actions, and make sure everything’s in place.
Can’t make it? Don’t worry; watch one of our previous sessions.
With the summer results just a few weeks away, our exams officer training team are running dedicated results webinars to help you make sure you’ll have everything you need on the day. We'll cover receiving results, organising post results requests, resolving potential problems, and of course, you can ask any questions you may have.
We’re running two identical sessions, so join us at whichever best suits your schedule.
Exams officer update: BTEC results special
Claiming certification (cash-ins) by 5 July
If students are expecting an overall qualification result in August, you need to claim their certification by submitting a cash-in on Edexcel Online by 5 July.
To help you know your students are on track, and to identify any actions that need to be taken ahead 5 July, you can use the VQ Learner Tracker. If you’re new to the VQ Learner Tracker this year, you can join one of the weekly webinars we’re hosting throughout June and we’ll talk you through it.
Understanding the terminal rule
The terminal assessment rule requires learners to take the external assessment at the end of their qualification (the series in which the learner certificates). This means that learners must sit internal component assessments either prior to, or in the same series as, the external assessment to fulfil this terminal rule.
If a learner chooses to retake an internal assessment in a series after they sat the terminal external assessment, they will also need to resit the external component to satisfy the terminal rule. Learners are allowed one retake of each internal component and one resit of the external assessment within the programme.
Read our terminal rule guide for more information, including detailed scenarios.
BTEC Tech Awards (2022): Understanding the terminal rule
Did you know we send a monthly newsletter to all BTEC Tech Award centres with more detailed guidance and support?
Last call for our QN face-to-face networking events
We’re down to the last few events now but there are still places to join us.
Already booked on? Make sure you’ve received a confirmation email with the date/time and location of the event. If you’ve not received one of these emails, please contact us via the portal or chat and we’ll check the booking for you.
As schools and colleges are hosting for us this year, it will be essential that you have pre-booked to ensure safeguarding processes can be supported at the host centre.
You can find all our locations and the booking information on our events page.. Spaces will be prioritised for quality nominees; anyone who does not hold this role will be placed on a waiting list.
Find and book your nearest network event
Preparing for successful results
We're now very close to the end of the standards verification window, so it's important that the progress of all sampling is checked and chased where needed. Your VQAMs are available to help with this.
Once sampling is done, please make sure that teaching teams are checking that all learners have final grades for all their units and that these units match those that were planned to meet any rules of combination that apply to their programme. Teams should also check that all external unit entries are up to date as well. Careful checking before you make claims avoids having to deal with any errors later.
You should also give some thought to who will be available to deal with any queries that may arise from your claims and whether they will have access to all information required to resolve these, since they can often occur during the holiday period.
Standards verification sampling deadlines for Entry Level Functional Skills and Essential Digital Skills Qualification
If you have already received a visit from your allocated standards verifier this academic year, please check your standards verifier report for ‘limited release’. This could mean that you need to provide further samples are required before 31 July. If you haven’t heard from your standards verifier, please let us know as soon as possible.
The deadline to claim certificates for this academic year is 31 August.
End-of-year review
As the academic year comes to an end, we’d like to hear from you. Let us know how your Functional Skills delivery has gone this year and what we could do to improve our offer to you in this short survey.
Quality assurance
Please continue to liaise with your lead standards verifier and standards verifier as to complete the quality assurance model and certificate learners as appropriate.
Not all centres are in scope for lead standards verifier allocation. You can find out more about thelead standards verifier model and the qualifications in scope in the WBL centre guide to quality assurance.
Final lead standards verifier reports
Final lead standards verifier reports will be submitted no later than 15 August. These reports will be available to you on Edexcel Online.
Outstanding standards verifier activity
All standards verification reports are due by 31 July unless otherwise arranged with your standards verifier.
Work-based learning does not have a designated results day; however, we recommend submitting your learner claims at least one week prior to the anticipated results date to allow enough time for the eligibility review process. Please make sure you have included the correct estimated completion dates on your learner registrations. If they need to be amended, you can do this on Edexcel Online.
Certificates will only be issued to centres that receive positive outcomes on their standards verification reports.
