Regulating post-16 VTQs at L2 and L3

Assessment structure and availability

The Secretary of State expects Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates to have a modular assessment structure, so assessment can take place at appropriate points during the course of study. The approach to assessment availability needs therefore to allow for this.

Modular approaches can range from on-demand, where assessments can be taken at any time, to other approaches with a more limited number of assessment opportunities. Centres can often choose when to enter students for modular assessments – they may choose to make use of all assessment opportunities, taking some assessments in one year and some in another, or may decide to enter students for all assessments at the end of the course.

The flexibility provided by modular assessment approaches needs however to be considered alongside the impact on the teaching and learning, manageability for schools and colleges and the impact on maintenance of standards. Having frequent assessment opportunities may disrupt teaching and learning, lead to students being entered for assessments before they are ready and be administratively burdensome for centres. A more limited number of assessment opportunities could free up time for teaching and learning, helping students develop a more secure understanding of the material they are studying. It would also mean that awarding organisations have a larger volume of student work during each assessment series, which supports setting and maintaining standards.

Proposal

We propose to require awarding organisations to design their qualifications to have a modular assessment structure, where Components can be assessed at different points during the qualification, with results combined to give an overall result, and to make both Foundation Certificate and Occupational Certificate assessments available as follows:

• one or two assessment series each academic year for timetabled assessments
• one or two submission windows each academic year for centres to submit marks or grades for centre-marked assessment to awarding organisations for Moderation.

Awarding organisations will be able to decide whether to offer one or two assessment series or submission windows for each assessment method, based on their specific qualification. We also propose that it will be for awarding organisations to determine whether to make the timetabled assessment or other assessments available at the same time, or to make them available in separately. We do not propose to specify the precise timing of any of the assessments, but would expect for one of these to take place in the summer to support progression

We think it is important there is flexibility for awarding organisations to determine an approach that reflects the design of their qualifications. It is also important to give schools and colleges some flexibility to tailor assessment opportunities to meet student needs. Setting some restrictions on the availability of assessments will, however, support the setting and maintenance of standards, as it means in each series there will be a larger volume of student evidence available for use in standard setting than if assessments were available on-demand.

Our proposed Conditions FC7 and OC7 and associated requirements are set out in Annexes B and C.