Vocational Qualifications Bulletin March 2025
This month's VQ Bulletin covers support for the March entry deadline, results from the January exam series, our new interactive funding guide for Level 3 reforms and much more.
This month, results are being released for learners who sat external assessments in January. A huge congratulations to you and your learners on their well-earned results!
We know how much hard work goes into preparing learners for assessments, and we appreciate the dedication of tutors, teachers and exams officers in supporting them and managing the assessment and certification process.
This month also sees the 21 March deadline for making external assessment entries for BTEC Firsts, Nationals, and Technicals. Please work closely with your exams officer to ensure all necessary entries are submitted on time.
As ever, if you need any further support or just want to reach out to us with some feedback, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact us through the Pearson support portal and we’ll be happy to help.
Best wishes,
Nick Cutland
Director, Vocational Qualifications Assessment
Dates for your diary
Date
|
Description
|
Qualification
|
|---|---|---|
19 March |
Release of January series results to centres |
BTEC Firsts, Nationals, Tech Awards, Level 2 Technicals |
20 March |
Release of January series results to learners |
BTEC Firsts, Nationals, Tech Awards, Level 2 Technicals |
20 March |
Late certification window opens in Edexcel Online for cash-ins |
BTEC Tech Award |
21 March |
Entry deadline for June 2025 exams |
BTEC Firsts, Nationals, Level 2 Technicals |
28 March |
Re-entry deadline for learners who sat assessments in the January 2025 series |
BTEC Firsts, Nationals, Tech Awards, Level 2 Technicals |
In this month's update
We’ve collated some useful support and guidance we think you’ll find helpful as you prepare to receive your BTEC results in March.
Read the BTEC Tech Award section of this bulletin for more detail about understanding your BTEC Tech Award results.
Grade boundaries will be sent to your exams officer’s Edexcel online mailbox on 19 March for 8 a.m., and then on our website for 8 a.m. on 20 March. Find out more about how we set grade boundaries:
BTEC results guide for centres
You can also contact us through the Pearson support portal if you have any questions about grade boundaries and we’ll be happy to help.
Mark schemes and lead examiner reports will be published for results day on 19 March, on the relevant subject page under silver padlock download.
The deadline to submit your summer series entries for BTEC Firsts, Nationals and L2 Technicals is 21 March. It’s essential that entries are made on time for all learners. It means that you’ll receive any question papers on time, and we know that your learners are on track to receive their results when they expect them.
We’ve recently written to you to offer support ahead of the entry deadline, including useful support articles. We also ran a live webinar on 18 March, you can watch the recording if you couldn't make it.
Watch our entries support webinar
Missed the email? Find out more about our support
Join us at our next exams officer webinar
Did you know we host a monthly exams officer webinar where you can hear the latest updates from Pearson, with an opportunity to ask any questions you may have? In April we’ll be focusing on preparing you for the start of the summer exam series and talking you through the cohort confirmation term-time checkpoint. We’d love to see you there!
Book your place | 2–3 .pm., 3 April
Interactive calendar
Stay organised with our new interactive qualifications key dates calendar. It can also be downloaded and synchronised seamlessly with your own personal calendar, such as MS Outlook.
Calendar subscriptions allow you to automatically add important exam dates directly to your preferred calendar app (such as Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar). Once you click the subscription button, the calendar will update itself with any future changes or new dates, ensuring you always have the most up-to-date information without manually entering or updating dates.
The provisional timetables for BTEC external assessments for winter 2026 and summer 2026 exam series are now available on our timetables page. These timetables cover all BTEC qualifications (BTEC Firsts, Tech Awards, Technicals, Nationals. BTEC AAQ Nationals first external exam is summer 2026).
Download the provisional timetables
Please email any feedback or comments on these provisional timetables to timetables@pearson.com by the end of Friday 21 March 2025.
In December, the DfE published the outcome of their review of Level 3 qualifications. This confirms which qualifications will be funded for 16–19 learners in England for the academic years 2025/26 and 2026/27. Read our response to the DfE’s outcome of the rapid review.
Pearson's response to L3 review
Explore our interactive funding guide
We’re here to support you; we will keep in touch with colleges and schools to share more detailed sector-level support and guidance to ensure you can teach BTEC with confidence.
Please join our ongoing sector-specific briefing sessions for updates of the impacts of the reforms for your subject area, ask questions and hear from other educators.
Book your place on a sector briefing
To keep up to date with the latest information, you can visit and bookmark our BTEC Level 3 reforms webpage.
Level 3 review updates | Pearson UK
Defunding affecting some qualification top-ups
The defunding of certain qualifications from 1 August 2025 will impact centres who use a top-up model with their learners. If you typically register learners on a one-year programme then top them up to a larger qualification for their second year, you will not be able to do so this year.
View all qualifications affected
If you have registered learners on any of these one-year qualifications with the intention to top them up, you will instead need to transfer your learners to the intended second-year programme before 1 August 2025 to maintain funding for these learners.
We’ve been in touch with all centres that will be affected by this to make sure this activity is completed and that funding remains in place for these learners to complete their programmes. Although defunding will take place on 1 August 2025, we’ll be working with centres to ensure any required transfers have taken place before our second term-time checkpoint on 2 May. This will ensure we have an accurate view of all your learners who should expect to receive an overall qualification result in August.
Funding secured for Alternative Academic Qualifications (AAQs) and Technical Occupational Entry Qualifications (TOEQs)
The DfE also confirmed within their review that BTEC National AAQs and TOEQs will remain funded from 1 August 2025. This means you can begin to teach these qualifications from 1 September 2025. These new Level 3 qualifications have been built in partnership with higher education institutes and employers, ensuring they are future-focused and deliver learners the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.
All eight new Level 3 Alternative Academic Qualifications BTEC Nationals submitted in Cycle 1 have been approved for funding for first teach from September 2025.
Standards verification
Most programmes will now have standards verifier allocations; please ensure your lead internal verifiers are maintaining open communication with the standards verifier and are providing the required documents when requested. Early sampling is recommended prior to the deadline of 15 May 2025.
If a lead internal verifier reports a breakdown in communication with their standards verifier, please report this to your named VQAM so that we can investigate and give support.
A small number of programmes are currently unallocated; don’t worry, but if you wish to speak to us, please use our chat function or the Meet your VQAM option.
QN face-to-face networking events
We’re excited to offer our face-to-face networking events again this summer! We have 24 in-person dates available across the country where you can meet with colleagues from a range of other centres, share best practice and explore key quality assurance topics for the year ahead.
Places are limited so please book your place early. You can find all our locations and the booking information on the events page of Vocational Quality Assurance and on Training from Pearson. Spaces will be prioritised for quality nominees; anyone who does not hold this role will be placed on a waiting list.
Getting ready for December/January series results
You will receive your December/January series results on Wednesday 19 March, which you can then release to learners on Thursday 20 March. Refer to our dedicated support articles for step-by-step guidance on how to access learner results:
BTEC Tech Awards results reports
Our understanding your results for BTEC Tech Awards page covers you everything you need to know about your learners’ results.
Understanding your BTEC Tech Awards results
Certification and resits
If learners sat their terminal external assessment in January and are eligible to certificate, you can either submit certification claims (cash-ins) or allow them to resit in the summer.
Certification claims for January assessments open on 21 March and close on 18 April via Edexcel Online.
Follow our guide to submitting a cash-in
You can use the grade calculator or check Section 8 of the specification to determine final grades. If a learner does wish to resit the terminal external assessment, you can still choose to submit a certification claim for them if they are eligible, or you can choose to wait until the summer. Read our certification FAQs for details on these scenarios, as well as the rest of the certification process
BTEC Tech Award certification FAQs
When considering resits, you should think about the likelihood of improvement and the potential impact on other assessments and learner wellbeing.
The BTEC Tech Awards are compensatory, meaning that even if a learner receives a U grade in one component, they may still achieve an overall qualification grade if their total UMS points across all components are sufficient.
Did you know we send a monthly newsletter to all BTEC Tech Award centres with more detailed guidance and support? Sign up to receive this directly in your inbox.
We send a monthly newsletter to keep you up to date with the latest news about T Levels. We send this to all T Level providers, but you can sign up to receive it directly in your inbox.
Entry Level Functional Skills
External verification activities 2024/25
You should have been contacted by your standards verifier; if not, please let us know. The deadline to complete sampling activities is 31 July 2025. The deadline to claim certificates for 2024/25 is 31 August 2025.
Keeping your data up to date
Remember to withdraw old, unclaimed registration numbers. If a learner has been registered and is not going to complete any assessments, they must be withdrawn. This avoids any unnecessary complications with your standards verifier requesting work, for example, for a learner who is no longer taking a course.
Support materials
Don't forget our handbooks and examplar videos are available to support you:
Level 1 and 2 Speaking, Listening and Communication
If you are delivering Functional Skills Level 1 and 2, you should have been contacted by your standards verifier (SV) to begin the sampling process for this year. If you have not been contacted by your SV, please let us know.
Essential Skills Wales: confirmatory tests for Applications of Number Skills or Communication Skills
The confirmatory tests are multiple-choice tests. Learners will be presented with a question paper and an answer sheet; they must complete the answer sheet and must not put their responses in the question paper itself. If responses are not added to the answer sheet and are recorded within the question paper insteafd, there is a risk these responses will not be uploaded to our systems, thereby leading to learners needing to re-sit the test.
Business version 4 programme specification
If you’re running the Higher Nationals in Business, you’ll need to make any new registrations from 1 September on version 4 of the programme specification. The version 3 specification is still available to use with continuing students and is accessible in the useful documents section of the specification page, and from the HN Global Business subject page.
BTEC Higher Nationals in Business specifications
Final registration date reminders
With your support, we extended the following BTEC Higher Nationals programmes last year.
The following titles now have last registration dates of 31 August 2025 and final certification dates of 31 August 2030:
- Pearson BTEC Level 4 Higher National Certificate in Agriculture (603/2796/0)
- Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Agriculture (603/2794/7)
- Pearson BTEC Level 4 Higher National Certificate in Horticulture (603/2853/8)
- Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Horticulture (603/2852/6)
The following titles now have last registration dates of 31 August 2026 and final certification dates of 31 August 2031:
- Pearson BTEC Level 4 Higher National Certificate in International Travel and Tourism Management: 603/2280/9
- Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in International Travel and Tourism Management: 603/2281/0
Changes to Functional Skills as a gateway requirement
Following on from the press releases last week regarding changes to Functional Skills requirements, a new version of the 2024-25 funding rules have been published.
Read the updated 2024–25 funding rules
Within the funding rules, it clarifies that:
“Only apprentices who began their apprenticeship training when aged 16-18 will continue to be subject to the mandatory requirement to study towards and achieve English and maths. Apprentices who began their apprenticeship training when aged 19+ will no longer be subject to the mandatory requirement to study towards and achieve English and maths. However, for apprentices aged 19+, the apprentice or their employer can still choose for the apprentice to study towards an English and maths qualification.”
With the clarity provided above, we will review gateway evidence for apprentices aged 19+ without the Functional Skill requirements as dictated by the assessment plan.
On the gateway declaration form, where it states Functional Skills has been achieved, please indicate that the apprentice is now exempt following this policy change.
To ensure ACE360 allows you to progress to confirm that the apprentice is gateway ready, please upload a copy of the gateway form into the component.
Quality assurance
Please continue to liaise with your lead standards verifier (LSV) and standards verifier as appropriate to complete the quality assurance model and certificate learners as appropriate.
As a reminder, not all centres are in scope for LSV allocation. You can find out more about the LSV model and the qualifications in scope in the Pearson WBL Centre Guide to Quality Assurance.
WBL Centre Guide to Quality Assurance
For a brief overview of our WBL quality assurance model and the process following allocations, please see our dedicated guide:
How does the Work-Based Learning quality assurance model work?
We have updated our quality assurance handbooks for 2024-25 and these are now available to download.
Download updated quality assurance handbooks
Security tests
The available Security tests are rotated monthly. Please ensure that, when making bookings and preparing for paper-based Security tests, you access the current materials via the usual area of the website that you access your test materials from.
SQA-accredited qualifications
As of 31 December 2024, Pearson is no longer an SQA-regulated awarding body, as the certification end date for all SQA-accredited qualifications has now passed. All WBL handbooks are in the process of being updated with this information.
Please submit any questions you have regarding the vacancies to us via the Pearson support portal.