Today, 230,000 Level 3 Btec students will receive their grades, moving on to the next step in their education or career path. More than 6 million people have completed a Btec in the last 10 years alone, and this year’s students will join them as a vital part of the UK and global workforce.
As with A levels and GCSEs, Btecs and other vocational qualification results could not be awarded in the normal way this year owing to the disruption of the pandemic. Pearson has been working closely with England’s qualifications regulator Ofqual, the DfE, and other awarding organisations, to enable vocational students to receive their results. Our aim has been to allow them to complete this phase of their education and move on with confidence to their next step, in line with their peers taking A level and GCSE qualifications.
Results day 2021: We need to celebrate achievement
More on results: No evidence of teacher bias in VTQs
Student achievement: Celebrating the day lives get changed
How Btecs were disrupted this year
Btec qualifications are modular, consisting of units that can be taken throughout the course. In a normal year, students are given a unit grade for each one they successfully complete, these unit grades are then matched to a points score, which is then added up to an overall qualification grade once all units are completed.
For Btecs, the pandemic disrupted the external assessments (which account for around 40 per cent of the qualification) due to take place in February, March and June, which were cancelled by the Department for Education. It also affected students’ ability to complete internally assessed units (those marked by a school or college, such as written assessments, performances, or presentations, which usually account for around 60 per cent of a Btec qualification) since March 2020, due to disrupted teaching and learning.
Awarding bodies for vocational qualifications are issuing results in line with a framework set by Ofqual this summer
The Department for Education and regulator Ofqual put in place arrangements for issuing results this year for regulated vocational and technical qualifications. They have introduced a new regulatory framework, called the VTQ Contingency Regulatory Framework (VCRF), which qualifications providers such as Pearson worked under. As there are different types of vocational qualification, Ofqual split them into three groups, with separate approaches for each.
Btec students due to complete their course in summer 2021 will receive a Q-TAG (qualification-level teacher assessed grade)
In line with the process for A level and GCSE results, Btec unit level results were not issued this year and schools and colleges were asked to determine a final “Q-TAG” for each of their students - a holistic judgement based on the evidence they have of the learner’s performance in the qualification. This evidence could be from banked assessments that had already taken place, alongside alternative forms of evidence, like classwork, or mock assessments. This applied to Pearson Btec Level 1/2 tech awards, Level 1/2 firsts, Level 2 technicals and Level 3 nationals, as well as many of the entry - Level 1 Btecs. Level 3 qualifications are usually taken alongside or instead of A Levels, and the Level 1 Level 2 and technical levels are taken alongside GCSEs.
Evidence used to determine Q-TAGs
Students were graded by their teachers at their school or college based on their performance across a range of evidence, and only on subject content they have been taught. The Q-TAG was based on a holistic judgement arrived at through the evaluation of evidence of actual performance, either through completed unit level assessments or alternative evidence. Pearson worked with other awarding bodies who offer vocational qualifications to agree on a list of common sources of evidence that could be used, from completed units to classwork.
Both the head of department and then the head of centre reviewed and approved a teacher’s suggested grade, before they were submitted. Heads of centres also had to sign a declaration that the grades given were appropriate and fair.
Quality Assurance
Ofqual guidance stated that the Q-TAGs submitted this year needed to be quality assured by awarding organisations - in line with A level and GCSEs. It helps that teacher-led internal assessment has always been a large part of how Btecs are graded, so we used this familiar and established assessment process to underpin the way we awarded qualification results this year. Pearson used two methods to quality assure the grades submitted by centres for Btecs this year:
• As much of the evidence that was used to inform the Q-TAG was based on completed, or partially completed internal assessments, Pearson quality assured this work through a repurposed standards verification (sampling) activity. Where units are completed or partially completed, Pearson worked with centres to give feedback on unit-level marking, which supported centres when they went on to make their qualification-level TAG judgements.
• Pearson also reviewed a sample of centre’s final Q-TAG grades before issuing them, in line with the process used for A level and GCSE results. Centres were required to review Q-TAGs if evidence could not be provided to support grades put forward.
I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to every teacher, tutor, lecturer, school and college leader and parent for the incredible effort they have made to support students achieving the grades they have worked so hard for this year. These students have come through another extraordinary year with the qualifications, skills and experience to prepare them for the next stage of their journey - be it onto university, into an apprenticeship or into the world of work- setting them up to follow their aspirations and succeed in their future careers and life. Congratulations to the class of 2021! We wish each and every one of you all the very best on your next steps.
Support and information for colleges and schools issuing test results today can be found here.
Cindy Rampersaud is senior vice president for Btec and apprenticeships at Pearson
