Roles and responsibilities
To deliver and assess your BTEC programme effectively, it’s important that you have a strong team in place at your centre. This page provides an overview of the main quality assurance responsibilities for each role.
The Head of Centre is formally responsible for the management and delivery of BTECs at your school, college or training provider. Their main responsibility is to ensure that your centre acts in accordance with our conditions of approval, regulations and policies.
Other senior managers will often work with the Quality Nominee to ensure that all quality assurance processes are conducted efficiently. They may be required to support putting actions in place in response to reports on quality assurance.
The Quality Nominee is our point of contact at your centre for quality assurance. They are responsible for ensuring effective management of your BTEC programmes and actively promoting good practice within your centre.
As they are involved in monitoring and supporting the programme teams, the Quality Nominee usually has responsibility for the BTEC curriculum at your centre.
In larger centres, you may have a dedicated manager who oversees quality across higher level programmes. This is fine, but only one Quality Nominee can be identified on our systems so the Quality Nominee will need to liaise closely with the HE Manager to ensure that messages relating to higher level programmes are communicated effectively.
The Quality Nominee contact details need to be kept up-to-date on Edexcel Online, to ensure you receive the correct information.
Quality Management responsibilities
The Quality Nominee will be the main point of contact for all things related to quality assurance (from Pearson). They will need follow our quality assurance processes throughout the academic year.
Further details can be found within our Centre Guide to Quality Assurance located within our Home of Quality assurance BTEC web page.
Standards Verification responsibilities
The Quality Nominee will be the initial point of contact for the Standards Verifier and will work with other centre staff to ensure that Standards Verification can take place.
The Exams Officer is our point of contact for administration at your centre. They’re responsible for ensuring learners are registered on time and correctly. Exams officers are usually responsible for what's on our online administration system, Edexcel Online.
Roles with responsibilities at a programme level
The programme team consists of the teachers or tutors who are responsible for the delivery, assessment and internal verification of BTEC programmes.
The size of the programme team will depend on the number of units and learners. As no one can internally verify their own assessment, where a single specialist practitioner is delivering the programme, arrangements must be made for their assignments and assessment decisions to be internally verified by someone with appropriate experience.
For most programmes at Level 4 and above we would expect that programme teams include appropriate staff for specialised units.
A programme leader or programme manager has overall responsibility for the effective delivery and assessment of BTEC qualifications.
For Entry to Level 3 qualifications, the programme leader may also act as the Lead Internal Verifier if appropriate.
Standards Verification responsibilities
The programme leader will need to ensure assessment records and student work are retained within the centre for at least 3 years. They will work with their team of Lead IV's to ensure that appropriate sampling takes place.
The Lead Internal Verifier (LIV) acts as a single point of accountability for the quality assurance across a Principal Subject Area. This means that they’re responsible for managing the assessment of units and qualifications as well as signing off assessment and internal verification decisions.
For BTEC programmes at Entry to Level 3, LIVs need to register through the online standardisation system, OSCA, each year. For QCF programmes only, OSCA provides LIVs the opportunity to gain accreditation.
Find out more about Online Support for Centre Assessors (OSCA)
Lead Standards Verifier (LSV) activity
At the request of the Quality Nominee, LIVs may be required to attend a 1:1 meeting with the centres LSV to demonstrate their understanding of the role.
Further details can be found within our Centre Guide to Quality Assurance located within our Home of Quality assurance BTEC web page.
Standards Verification responsibilities
The LIV ensures that all assessment and verification records are available for Pearson to see alongside learner work, which they'll need to confirm is authentic and valid. They are also responsible for authorising resubmissions fairly and consistently.
Internal Verifiers are responsible for ensuring that assessment decisions are consistent across the programme by checking that assignments are fit for purpose, standardising assessors and sampling assessment decisions.
Anyone involved in the delivery and assessment of the programme can be an Internal Verifier, but you can’t internally verify your own assessment.
Standards Verification responsibilities
Internal Verifiers need to ensure that all assessment plans, assignments and assessment decisions have been internally verified and that assessors take appropriate action based on their feedback.
Assessors are responsible for teaching and assessing learners against the learning aims and assessment criteria of the course specification.
Standards Verification responsibilities
Assessors need to provide assessment records and learner work for Standards Verification, and undertake any action required to bring the assessment in line with national standards.
Our Lead Standards Verifiers are experts in BTEC quality assurance. Their job is to:
- confirm that you have adequate quality assurance processes
- confirm that your quality assurance processes are effective and in line with national standards.
- Work with you to ensure continual improvement
Our Standards Verifiers are subject specialists whose job is to confirm that you:
- are assessing your learners to national standards outlined in the specification
- have effective processes in place for internally verifying assessment decisions
- are accurately recording your assessment and internal verification decisions.
Senior Standards Verifiers and Senior Examining Standards Verifiers are subject experts responsible for maintaining standards across an entire sector. Their job is to:
- uphold the national standard
- train, standardise and provide ongoing guidance for Standards Verifiers
- provide support for queries and appeals
- support the management of external assessment
Principal Standards Managers work with you to agree an action plan if your first and second sample haven't met national standards.