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Blog posted by: Kievah Wallace, PR and Social Media Officer, Friday 26 January 2018.

We believe that it’s important to be open with our customers and let you know of any changes in policy that may affect the planning, delivery or assessment of any of our qualifications, Therefore, we’d like to share with you some information based on recent correspondence with the Department for Education (DfE). This information is in relation to qualifications on the published list of approved qualifications, for key stage 4 and key stage 5.

2018 Performance Tables

Tech Levels and Applied General Qualifications

Current guidance from the DFE is that learners are allowed a maximum of two attempts in the external assessments. This is currently provided by NCFE and CACHE as one attempt at the external assessment and one resit opportunity, if necessary.

On 19 January 2018, we received the following communication from the Department for Education.

“Ministers have decided that students who are due to complete key stage 5 in summer 2018 and are taking Tech Levels or Applied General qualifications on the 2018 list should be given an additional opportunity to retake their external assessment(s). It has become apparent that some providers may not have fully understood the more challenging nature of the reformed qualifications when students were enrolled, and the additional retake opportunity is designed to mitigate the impact of this. “

For your clarification, the NCFE and CACHE qualifications affected are:

• NCFE Level 3 Applied General in Music Technology 601/6779/8
• NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Certificate in Childcare and Education 601/8436/X
• NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Diploma in Childcare and Education (Early Years Educator) 601/8437/1
• NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Diploma in Early Years Education and Care (Early Years Educator) 601/8438/3
• NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Certificate in Health and Social Care 601/8434/6
• NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care 601/8435/8

Only those learners who are due to complete key stage 5 in summer 2018 will be eligible for the additional (third) attempt, if necessary.

The information about assessment windows for the 2017 – 18 session for NCFE qualifications can be found here. The information about assessment windows for the 2017-18 session for CACHE qualifications can be found here. The information for assessment windows for the 2018 – 2019 will be released later in the year.

2019 Performance Tables

The guidance for the 2019 key stage 4 and key stage 5 Performance Tables remains the same. To find out which CACHE and NCFE qualifications are on the published list of approved qualifications from the DfE, you can consult this document.

2020 Performance Tables

The date of the first published list of approved qualifications for inclusion in the 2020 Performance Tables was expected at the end of January 2018. In our regular dialogue with the DfE, we’ve been advised that there will be a delay to this publication lasting approximately 2 weeks.

In further conversations with the DfE, we’ve also been informed that the second submission window for the 2020 Performance Tables, has also been delayed until 16 March 2018. This means that the anticipated update to the published list of approved qualifications for this second window will be mid-June 2018.

2021 Performance Tables

We’ve previously communicated on our website, information relating to the Performance Tables beyond 2020.

It’s the DfE’s intention to suspend the approval processes for technical education after the current process for approval for the 2020 Performance Tables has concluded.

The DfE have said:

We will keep the list of approved qualifications under review and, if any are found not to meet our requirements, they may be removed from Performance Tables. We anticipate that the moratorium will last for a minimum of two years, during which time the Department will continue to engage with awarding organisations.

We’re committed to keeping our customers up to date with any future information that is released and that will have an impact on the delivery and assessment of our qualifications. We’ll let you know of any changes as soon as we can, so you can reflect this in your planning.