Posted: 28 April 2020
Ofqual consultation on the assessment and grading of vocational and technical qualifications; how this affects you and what you can do
Earlier this month, we shared CIMPSA’s policy on delaying summative practical assessment for Gym and Personal Training qualifications while gyms and leisure facilities remain closed and social distancing guidelines are in place. We also confirmed our next steps were to continue to work with CIMSPA and our regulators (Ofqual in England, CCEA Regulation in Northern Ireland and Qualifications Wales in Wales) to do everything we can to make sure that there are no unnecessary barriers to a learner achieving their qualifications as a result of Covid-19. We are working hard on exploring all practical measures that could be put in place to enable you to continue delivery and assessment for your learners whether they are undertaking one of our fitness and physical activity qualifications or a qualification from our education and training suite.
You may be aware that our regulators are rapidly taking steps to bring in extraordinary regulation that will allow awarding organisations to issue results to learners for a range of qualifications from GCSEs to BTECs and Functional Skills qualifications. The intention is that awarding organisations should, wherever possible, offer adaptions to assessments or calculate learner results through teacher-led estimations so that learners are not held back in their education (for example for learners who need results this summer to progress from year 11 to year 12, or from year 13 to HE). The focus initially was on general qualifications – GCSEs and A Levels – but the principle of not holding learners back is also, rightly, also being applied to vocational and technical qualifications. Those awarding organisations that have funded qualifications are all being asked to identify the primary purpose of each qualification they provide and to consider whether it is appropriate to put in place adaptation or estimation for their qualifications or if delay is the only option.
So that the regulators can enable awarding organisations to make adaptations to what we would do in normal circumstances, they are consulting on a set of detailed proposals which will come into force as rapidly as possible. Ofqual is leading on this activity for qualifications regulated in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The consultation relates to almost all YMCA Awards qualifications. End-Point Assessments are not covered by the consultation, although many qualifications taken as part of an apprenticeship framework are.
We encourage you to look at the proposals set out in the consultation and to consider how these may affect your learners. It’s important to know that awarding organisations are being asked to make decisions at qualification level so even if your learners are not funded, any facility to amend or calculate a result for a qualification could also be available to your learners; where amendments are granted.
The consultation is published here and has a deadline for responses of 11.45pm on 8 May.
Our priority remains to help learners progress to the next stage in their lives, and we will endeavour, with you, to help as many learners as possible achieve the qualifications they have worked towards. To do this we will continue to work within the Ofqual guidelines, and with professional bodies such as CIMSPA and the Education and Training Foundation as well as other awarding organisations.
We want to make sure you are getting the support we can offer you at this time. We are keen to hear from you if you have feedback on Ofqual’s proposals that we could include in our response. We are also keen to hear from centres who have learners who are at risk of exiting from their programme with no subsequent opportunity to be assessed, in circumstances where learners will be disadvantaged if delay is the only option.
Thank you for your time to read this message and for your continued work with us.