Head of Centre
Here you’ll find all the key information on vocational assessment for heads of centres in schools, colleges and other institutions offering Pearson qualifications.
Level 3 reforms
For the latest news and updates on the future of post-16 level 3 vocational qualifications in England, please visit our dedicated web page.
Read the latest updates on level 3 reforms
BTEC deletion deadline
We wanted to highlight a change this year to the BTEC deletion deadline. We’ve brought the this deadline forward to 31 December so you can complete this work alongside the cohort declaration and ahead of the busy January exam season.
If your programme follows the academic year, you will have until 31 December to delete your BTEC registrations (or withdraw a BTEC Tech Award registration) and receive a refund, provided the learners have not completed any units and no test bookings have been made. After this date, you will need to withdraw the learner instead.
Vocational cohort declaration
The cohort declaration is now open for your centre to complete in the VQ Learner Tracker by 31 January 2025. We’ve opened the cohort declaration earlier than before to give you as much time as possible to review your registrations before the January exam series begins. Submitting this mandatory declaration ensures we have a shared view of your learners expecting results in August 2025, forming your summer 2025 cohort. Your cohort declaration will cover BTEC Firsts, BTEC Nationals, BTEC Tech Awards, BTEC Technicals and T Levels.
We’ve contacted exams officers with detailed information about the cohort declaration. We are asking them to review your centre’s registrations within the VQ Learner Tracker, ensuring that all learners who are expecting a result on August results days are tagged correctly as summer 2025 learners. This will then form your summer 2025 cohort and we can work together to ensure we deliver results on time.
They can complete the cohort declaration with your authorisation. You should ensure they have the support they need to complete this activity, and that you feel confident this work has been completed before the cohort declaration is submitted.
If you need further support, please call us on 0344 463 2535 or contact us via the Pearson support portal
