A small number of vocational and technical qualifications will be reviewed as a result of the government’s u-turn on A-level and GCSE grades yesterday, Ofqual has confirmed. According to the Federation of Awarding bodies, this will affect around 5,000 results.
According to an Ofqual statement published today, many VTQs were able to use evidence of work completed during the course and use this as a basis for calculating results. “Indeed, for many qualifications, learners had taken adapted assessments and so there was no calculation process needed at all. For those qualifications that did use calculation, not all used [centre assessment grades (CAGs)]. Where they did, it was often at unit level - so the CAGs did not weigh so heavily in arriving at the final result,” the statement said, explaining this was fundamentally different to the grading of A levels and GCSEs this year.
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Banked unit grades
“In BTECs, for example, students complete modular units and are assessed at regular stages during their course of study. This summer, Pearson was able to use those banked unit grades and CAGs for units that hadn’t been completed - and all but a fraction of unit-level CAGs were accepted - after quality assurance checks - to generate the final overall qualification-level grade,” said the regulator.
For the very small number of unit-level CAGs that were adjusted down - about 0.5 per cent of the total - Pearson would now be reviewing results with centres on a case-by-case basis, “following the same principles as those announced for A levels”, said Ofqual.
“A small proportion of qualifications did use a statistical standardisation approach similar the one used for A levels, and those awarding organisations are reviewing their approach in light of what was been decided about GCSEs and A levels yesterday. As a result, we are starting to see them re-running their awarding processes, to ensure that learners are not disadvantaged when compared to their peers taking GCSEs and A levels. We think that a small proportion of Level 3 VTQ results that were issued last week will be regraded upwards as a result.”
Ofqual’s approach to VTQs was confirmed in a letter to MPs by education secretary Gavin Williamson, where he said the “overwhelming majority” of grades submitted by teachers in technical qualifications had not been altered.
Speaking on social media earier today, FAB chief executive Tom Bewick said grades for about 5,000 vocational results would be reissued as soon as possible.
Mr Bewick tweeted that organisations would do so “in line with CAGs [centre-assessed grades] as soon as possible”.
Ofqual said that as a result of the changes announcement by the government yesterday, there could be a delay for a small proportion of learners expecting results at Level 2 and below this Thursday, because these will need to be recalculated. “It is possible that they may not be available until a few days later than expected and any awarding organisations in this position will provide information as soon as possible about when this will be.”
Tes reported last week that some BTEC students did not receive their results on Thursday - and Pearson has asked students still waiting to contact them directly.
Ofqual said this afternoon: “The overwhelming majority of VTQ learners have now received the results they expected last week. Some awarding organisations did notify us of late results and we understand the anxiety this causes every single learner who is still waiting. We are monitoring this very closely and can confirm that all the awarding organisations are working as fast as they can with schools and colleges to resolve the remaining issues so that learners are not being disadvantaged when it comes to applications to higher education.”
According to Pearson, grades were accepted with “very little change following quality assurance checks”. Those grades formed evidence, alongside previously completed assessment unit grades, to award grades for the externally assessed units and the final overall qualification grade.
Pearson said that there had been “stable outcomes for BTEC and other vocational qualifications” this year.
The organisation said: “For the very small number of grades that were adjusted, we will be reviewing them on a case-by-case basis with centres following the same principles as those announced on Thursday”.
This morning, education secretary Gavin Williamson told BBC Breakfast that 2 per cent of BTEC results had been moderated.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Our priority is to ensure all students are treated fairly, including those who received vocational and technical results last week, such as BTECs and Cambridge Technicals. These subjects are rightly assessed differently to A levels, and the overwhelming majority of results are in line with centre assessment grades.
“A minority of vocational and technical qualifications used a statistical model similar to the one Ofqual used for A levels and GCSEs, and Ofqual has asked these awarding organisations to review their approaches to make sure no student is disadvantaged.”
