Important update: release of the 2024-25 V Cert Non-Exam Assessment (NEA) brief 

We wanted to update you about the release date for the 2024-25 Non-Exam Assessment (NEA) brief for our Level 1/2 Technical Award (V Cert) qualifications. 

Last year, we released our NEA assessment brief on 1 September to give you and your colleagues time to familiarise yourselves with the requirements and context of the brief ahead of delivering the live assessments to learners. 

Throughout the first NEA assessment, we received feedback from teachers, and we’re using this valuable insight to make some improvements to support the NEA process in 2024-25. We’re working on: 

• making changes to address concerns with the scalability and manageability of the assessments for centres by reducing the volume of evidence required (for example annotated photographs or videos) 

• applying lessons learned to make improvements to tutor and provider guidance to reduce the complexity of instructions. 

Due to our continuing work on these changes, we’ve decided to reschedule the release date of the next NEA date. This will now be released on Tuesday 1 October 2024, rather than in September. We’re confident that this still provides you with adequate time to familiarise yourself with the assessment brief and timetable your NEA delivery accordingly. 

We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused by the delay, however, this will allow us to deliver the best possible experience for you during this year's NEA.  

What qualifications does this affect? 

The NEA brief will be available on 1 October 2024 for all of our Level 1/2 Technical Awards, which we’ve also listed below: 

What other support is available? 

Following the first year of awarding for these qualifications, training is available to support the completion of the NEA using real work examples and will provide all the information you need to deliver, assess and internally quality assure the NEA. 

Administration training: Administration training is available for the NEA component to view on our preparing for moderation page. The training consists of a series of videos supporting you through the administrative requirements associated with moderation, including but not limited to accessing and uploading assessment materials. Confirmation that your centre has watched the series of videos will be required upon completion of the standardisation training.    

Standardisation training: This continuous professional development package is designed to bring your teams together to align assessment decisions and expectations for the NEA component.  

It’s mandatory for centres to complete the training within the given window. Once completed, a declaration must be signed and returned to NCFE to show it has been done. This declaration will confirm that administration training has also been completed.  

The standardisation window will open from 1 October 2024 to 28 February 2025, and the materials will be made available to centres on the NCFE Portal once learners have been booked onto the NEA. 

To access the Standardisation Training materials, once you’ve booked your learners onto the relevant qualification, you’ll need to: 

• log on to the Portal  

• go to the ‘Bookings’ tab and click ‘View Assessments’  

• search for a batch number or product code to find learners on the relevant qualification/assignment you’d like to access training for  

• select all learners  

• scroll to the bottom and click ‘view bookings’  

• click on the desired assessment booking on the relevant session.  

You’ll see headings for each assessment, the standardisation materials for moderated assessments are located under the moderated assessment heading. Click ‘Show Details’ to view the materials and then click them to download. If there are two parts to the assessment the materials will be located under ‘Part 2’.  

Assessor and IQA events: These events are suitable for anyone involved in the assessment/IQA process of V Cert model 5 qualifications, whether they’re new to these and applying for our qualifications for the first time, or experienced and require CPD. Find out more. 

Provider Development team support: Our team offers bookable consultation calls, CPD sessions, Q&A drop-ins and other resources. We’ll share more details of these in our service newsletter in September. 

Sample assessment materials: The 2023 assessments will be uploaded to our website on results release day (Thursday 22 August) for you to use as practice papers for future assessments.  

How do I access the NEA brief on 1 October? 

To access the live NEA, you’ll need to follow the below steps: 

• log in to the Portal 

• go to the 'Bookings' tab and click ‘View Assessments’ 

• search for a batch number or product code to find students on the relevant qualification/assignment 

• select all learners 

• scroll to the bottom and click ‘View Bookings’ 

• click on the desired component and a drop down will appear 

• click the material link to download it. 

Further support 

If you have any queries regarding the release of the NEA, please contact us via email at [email protected] or through LiveChat.