December 2025 Engineering update
This is the December 2025 Update for Engineering.
In this update:
- Key dates
- Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper
- BTEC Key dates and term time check points
- BTEC Nationals in Engineering (AAQ)
- NEW! Updated grading information
- Centre Standardisation Materials (CSMs)
- Live training events
- Teaching, learning and assessment support page
- BTEC Specialists updates
- NEW! Properties & Applications of Engineering Materials AABs
- Authorised Assignment Briefs (AABs)
- Mapping to Apprenticeships and T level Engineering.
- NEW! Properties & Applications of Engineering Materials AABs
- Exam Timetables
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 12 December 2025 | Access to Scripts deadline |
| 20 March 2026 | Entry deadline for BTEC Nationals Summer 2026 exam series |
| 15 May 2026 | Standards verification first sampling deadline |
| 15 June 2026 | Second sampling deadline (if required) |
| 5 July 2026 | Deadline to report internally assessed unit grades on edexcel online for time release of results in summer. |
Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper
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, and we want to provide you with clear information and reassurance.
What it means for you
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.
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.
What does the White Paper propose?
The government has announced plans to introduce "V Levels" as a new vocational qualification pathway at level 3, sitting alongside A levels and T Levels. These qualifications aim to simplify the current vocational landscape and will be designed to be similar in size to A levels, allowing students to combine vocational and academic study more flexibly.
The government has opened the consultation to test the key design principles of V Levels, and new qualifications at level 2 that sit alongside GCSEs. It invites views on size and subject areas, information advice and guidance, new T Levels, level 2 qualifications and pathways, non qualification activities, the transition plan, the co-design approach to setting content, and qualification branding. The deadline for responses in 12 January 2026.
BTEC key dates and term-time checkpoints
We recently published the BTEC key dates and term-time checkpoints for 2025/26. While your exams officers will take the lead on most of these activities, your support will be important to help meet these deadlines, so it’s useful to be aware of what is required and when
Grading information updated to remove requirement for students to achieve a Near Pass (N) or above in external units to achieve the qualification.
Centre Standardisation Materials for Unit 3 are now available. These resources are ready to support teachers delivering BTEC Nationals in Engineering (AAQ), helping ensure assessments align with national standards and expectations.
Alongside the recorded sessions, we’re running a series of live events to help you get started with teaching BTEC Nationals in Engineering (AAQ). These interactive sessions offer practical guidance, updates, and the chance to ask questions directly to our subject experts.
To book on to one of these session please go to the training page and use the filters on the left hand side. Select Qualification: BTEC Nationals and Subject: Engineering.
| Event | Date and Time |
|---|---|
| Getting Ready for Internal Assessment: BTEC National (AAQ) in Engineering (2025) | 02 February 2026 at 16:00 - 17:30 GMT |
| Preparing for External Assessment: BTEC National (AAQ) in Engineering (2025) | 04 February 2026 at 16:00 - 17:30 GMT |
| Preparing for External Assessment: BTEC National (AAQ) in Engineering (2025) | 09 February 2026 at 16:00 - 17:30 GMT |
| Getting Ready for Internal Assessment: BTEC National (AAQ) in Engineering (2025) | 10 February 2026 at 16:00 - 17:30 GMT |
A dedicated support page for the new BTEC Nationals in Engineering (AAQ), with essential guidance, links to downloadable templates, training links, and materials to support qualification delivery.
Properties & Applications of Engineering Materials AABs are currently being uploaded and you will be able to access this from relevant qualification pages.
Access from links below:
We are pleased to share that we have now created new Authorised Assignment Briefs for our level 3 BTEC Specialists, including for Advanced Manufacturing Engineering (the common mandatory units) and a range of shared optional units, common to these qualifications as follows:
Qualifications with new AAB's include:
- Advanced Manufacturing Engineering
- Advanced Manufacturing Engineering (Machining)
- Aerospace and Aviation Engineering
- Engineering and Manufacturing Support Technologies
- Rail Engineering
Following requests from centres we have updated mapping between the knowledge, skills and behaviours of apprenticeship standards to our BTEC Specialist qualifications as follows:
We are also aware of centres who have taken on T Level learners onto level 3 apprenticeships where, for example, they must then achieve level 3 BTEC's as part of the apprenticeship. Due to the similarities of the core content to the knowledge units in the BTEC's, and to help you avoid having to re-teach this content, we have provided the following mapping document as a guide to help with this process
Exam Timetable
January 2026 and Summer 2026 timetables for all qualifications can be accessed from the link below.
Subject advisor
Evren Alibaba
Engineering
