Vocational Qualifications Bulletin October 2025
Welcome to your Vocational Qualifications Bulletin for October 2025. Highlights this month include your BTEC key dates and term-time checkpoints, updates on the BTEC National AAQs, a survey on your technology and assessment practices, and more.
Welcome to your October VQ Bulletin
On 20 October, the government published its Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, setting out significant reforms to vocational education in England. We know you'll have questions about what this means for you and your students. We’re working on a full response which we’ll share with you very soon.
You can continue to teach BTECs with confidence
You should continue to register students and deliver your programmes as planned in 2025/26. There are no immediate changes to your current provision, and BTECs continue to provide excellent outcomes for the thousands of students who choose vocational pathways each year.
Defunding of certain BTEC Level 3 qualifications will continue as planned, but our new BTEC Level 3 Nationals (AAQs) are fully approved and ready for registration. These new qualifications will remain in place until the introduction of V Levels, ensuring continuity for you and your students.
As soon as we have full details about the funding arrangements for 2026/27, we’ll share them with you straight away , so you can plan with confidence.
If you have any questions, you can reach 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
|
|---|---|
17 October |
Entry deadline for January 2026 series |
| 1 November | BTEC registration deadline*: register your students on programmes that follow the academic year |
| 14 November | High late fee entry deadline for BTEC January 2026 series |
| 15 November | BTEC registration deadline*: register your L4 HNCs and L5 HNDs students that follow the academic year |
| 21 November | Basedata available for BTEC Firsts, L2 Technicals, Nationals and Tech Awards (from 2022) for summer 2026 series |
| 31 December 2025 | BTEC deletion deadline: deadline to delete learner registrations and receive a full refund for registrations made this academic year |
*For programmes that don’t follow the academic year, learners must be registered within six weeks of enrolment at the centre.
In this month's update
It’s easier to stay on track throughout the year when you know exactly what’s coming up. That’s why, shaped by your feedback, we’ve created the BTEC key dates and term-time checkpoints guide for 2025/26 to help you plan with confidence for the year ahead.
To help you get off to a strong start, we've gathered everything you need for this term in on place. You'll find tailored guidance and resources for exams officers, teachers, quality nominees and senior leaders, all designed to make your job a little easier and give your students the best possible experience.
Explore your BTEC key dates and term-time checkpoints – colleges and schools
Explore your BTEC key dates and term-time checkpoints – training providers
Missed our email about key dates? Find out more about how you can get ahead before the first checkpoint opens on 1 December.
Heads of centre need to confirm their Edexcel Online accounts and accept the updated terms and conditions by 28 October. Exams officers, you’ll play a big part too. You’ll need to work with your head of centre to check accounts are up to date and make sure only the right people have secure access.
This protects student data and helps us reach the right people quickly when it counts.
We’ve sent full details, guidance, and step-by-step support directly to heads of centre and exams officers.
Welcome to the new BTEC National AAQs
If you're starting to deliver the new AAQs, make sure you're using the latest versions of the specifications and supporting materials and know which courses are funded in England. We emailed a quick summary of everything you need to know before you start delivery to all BTEC National centres at the start of September.
Summary of the new Level 3 BTEC National AAQs
Double-check registrations and funding in England
As you make your new student registrations for this academic year, you need to be aware of upcoming changes affecting centres in England who drawn down DfE funding.
Read our sector-by-sector guide to registrations and funding
Some predecessor BTEC National qualifications are still available for self-funded programmes, and students outside of England. So when registering students for any of the new AAQ qualifications, look for ‘AAQ’ in the title to avoid accidentally registering on predecessor qualifications.
Update to the N grade in Level 3 BTEC Nationals (AAQ)
We have removed the N grade (near-pass) hurdle for externally assessed units in all Level 3 BTEC National AAQs.
This change enhances the compensatory nature of the qualifications, allowing students to achieve the qualification with a U grade in external units, as long as they have gained sufficient points to meet the minimum threshold for a Pass at qualification level. The N grade remains available in externally assessed units, contributing points towards the qualification grade and providing an additional level of differentiation between the Pass and Unclassified grades, but is no longer a hurdle to qualification achievement. The specifications have been updated to reflect this change.
Early Childhood Development Extended Certificate
We’ve made a few small updates to the Pearson set assignment briefs (PSABs) for Units 3 and 4 to make them clearer and correct minor errors. These changes won’t affect your teaching, but please make sure you’re using the latest versions, published in September.
Medical Science: the successor to Applied Human Biology
Our new BTEC National in Medical Science (AAQ) takes that same Applied Human Biology foundation and connects it directly to clinical and diagnostic practice. It includes familiar concepts in pathology, immunology, pharmacology, clinical biochemistry, and molecular diagnostics—so you can link human biology mechanisms to real healthcare decisions. This clinical relevance positions students for progression further study and professional training for roles in hospital laboratories, diagnostics and biotech.
We’d love to hear how your centre uses digital tools, including learning management aystems (LMS), and how you manage assessment for BTECs and Functional Skills qualifications.
This will help us understand what works best for you today and make sure future developments are designed around your needs. The survey takes less than five minutes to complete, and every response helps shape what comes next.
Changes to sample sizes
Starting from the December/January series, we're asking for slightly larger moderation samples upfront for BTEC Tech Award qualifications. Why? It means fewer last-minute sample requests during your busiest periods. We’ll be in touch ahead of the 15 December submission deadline with more information and support.
Update on moderation sample size for internally assessed work
Making entries for internally assessed components
Don’t forget, you need to make entries for your internally assessed components (Pearson set assignments, or PSAs). This is so we can assign you a moderator, and you can submit your marks and learner work successfully.
Book on to our exams officer training event
Join us for our annual exams officer and administrator training event on 4 November, 12:00–1:00 p.m.
This online event is for anyone involved in the administration of the Technical Qualification, covering everything from undertaking provider approval to making registrations and entries and assessment scheduling.
Exams officer training for T Levels
4 November 12:00–1:00 p.m. | Book your place
Register your students
You can now make new registrations on the Technical Qualification for your cohorts starting this academic year.
The deadline to make your registrations is 1 November. Late fees will apply to registrations received from 2 November onwards.
Need help? You’ll find guides to making registrations and managing student details on our admin support page.
Explore our training and admin support
You must be approved by Pearson for each Technical Qualification you plan to deliver. If you didn’t apply for approval during the approval window (February–June 2025), please contact us as soon as possible.
T Levels Week 2025
On 13-17 October, we celebrated T Levels Week – a week dedicated to sharing student success stories and highlighting the great work done by students, educators and employers as part of this fantastic qualification.
Catch up on T Level news
Read October’s T Level update for all the latest news, key dates and sector updates.
Are you missing out on these updates? Make sure you receive the latest news and updates about T Levels directly to your inbox by signing up.
New to Pearson Functional Skills? We've got you covered
If you've recently moved to Pearson for your Functional Skills, we have two new training sessions designed to get you up and running with confidence.
- Entry Level verification requirements
- Registering learners and booking assessments
- Your guide to ExamWizard and ResultsPlus
- All the free support resources at your fingertips
- Level 1 and 2 Speaking, Listening and Communicating verification requirements (English only)
These sessions will be perfect for anyone managing or planning to manage Pearson Functional Skills provision.
Choose your session:
Maths: 12 November, 4–5pm | Book your place
English: 19 November, 4–5pm | Book your place
New Functional Skills monthly drop-in clinic
Join us on the second Thursday of each month for our new Functional skills drop-in clinic. Each month we will have a different theme where you can ask questions and share good practice. In November, we’ll be looking at internal assessment and verification for Entry Level Functional Skills. Suitable for Functional Skills leads and tutors.
Meet your VQAM
Need to talk through something? Your VQAM is here to help. You can book a chat with your VQAM any time – they're there to support you.
Join us in Northern Ireland this November
We're bringing together our quality nominee network for two essential sessions. You'll get the latest curriculum updates straight from Fiona, our Country Manager, plus quality assurance insights from Sally, your VQAM.
Choose what works for you:
Wednesday 19 November, 1:00 – 3:30pm
Thursday 20 November, 10:00am – 12:30pm
Quality assurance jobs this month
Make sure that you have checked all assessment plans so that the correct units are being delivered and that you have a plan in place for standards verification. It will soon be time to let you know which control measures will be applied to your BTEC programmes and we will be releasing the Centre Guide to Standards Verification to support you with this.
Assessment booking deadlines
As we look ahead to the Christmas break, here are the key dates you need to know for EPA assessments and knowledge test components in December.
- Book by 5 December for EPA assessments to be completed before 17 December.
- Book by 12 December for knowledge tested components (final assessment date: 19 December).
Want grades before the break? Make sure assessments are completed by 15 December 2025. Anything after this date will have grades released in the New Year.
We'll do our best to help with any last minute requests, but these depend on assessor availability, so earlier is always better.
The EPA team will be taking a well-earned break from 23 December 2025, returning 5 January 2026.
Annual Programme Monitoring Report (APMR)
The Annual Programme Monitoring Review (APMR) for the 2024/25 academic year will be available from 3 November 2025. All Quality Nominees at Higher National centres that recruited learners in 2024/25 will receive an email with instructions to complete your APMR.
What you need to do
Make sure your quality nominee details are up to date in Edexcel Online so you don’t miss any important updates. You’ll need to complete the APMR by 20 February 2026.
Need help accessing it?
After 3 November, just email HNQA@pearson.com and we’ll send you the link and help you get started.
BTEC Higher Nationals Creative Suite
We've published new teaching resources on HN Global to support delivery of the new Higher National Music and Performing Arts Suite, which includes example assignment briefs:
Assessment and Assignment Guidance Booklet for the Higher National Diplomas in the Creative Suite (2025)
We're running a range of training dates for these new Higher Nationals throughout November. Book your place now:
18 November: Introduction to the new Higher Nationals in Music
25 November: Introduction to the new Higher Nationals in Performing Arts
27 November: Introduction to the new Higher Nationals in Creative Arts
These qualifications are available for delivery from September 2025. However, we recommend using the 2025–26 academic year to explore the content in depth and consider delivering from 2026 for the best onboarding experience.
If you're deliveirng the existing qualifications, you’ll receive automatic approval and the new qualifications will be added to your portfolio. If you're looking to deliver a new subject area, this will require a new approval. For approval support, contact our Quality Assurance team at HNQA@pearson.com.
Register your interest in delivering the new qualifications
Retiring the Pearson set units
As part of the move to the full updated Higher Creative suite, Art, Design, Media, Performing Arts and Music will no longer use Pearson Set units. The last published Pearson Set themes remain valid and you can use them until the end date of each existing qualification.
If you have any questions about assessment planning under the new model, reach out and we'll be happy to help.
Higher Nationals in Health and Social Care Practice: authorised assignment briefs (AABs)
An updated booklet of authorised assignment briefs (AABs) for the HN Health and Social Care Practice (first teaching Mar 2025) is now available on HN Global. These AABs can be used as off-the shelf assignments or adapted as the centre staff see fit with minimum to maximum changes as required. The updated booklet offers a diverse range of assignment briefs that cater to various assessment styles, allowing you to tailor the learning experience to your students' needs.
Your new Security SharePoint is now live
Your new Security SharePoint site is now live, giving you a more secure way to manage learner evidence. You should have received an email with everything you need to know, including how to access the new site and what’s changing.
If you need a quick reminder or extra help, take a look at our support:
Step-by-step guidance
SharePoint: registering your guest account
Complete your centre self-assessment
The window for you to complete your centre self-assessment is now open and will close on 3 November 2025. If you need to complete this, you’ll have received an email from us with guidance and support.
Complete your centre self-assessment
Missed the email? Read more about the centre self-assessment.
