Service messages

Welcome to our service messages archive. Here you can find a record of our updates about our products, qualifications, processes and more.

Expand the accordions below to explore the archive.

Service messages for 2024

Service messages for 2023

March 2024

Important updates

VTQ term-time checks reminder: The first VTQ term-time checkpoint is now closed, and we want to thank you for submitting your information to us. If you haven’t yet completed your check, our team will have been in contact with you. The window for the second term-time checkpoint will open on 15 April 2024 and the deadline will be 3 May 2024. You can also access Ofqual’s VTQ information hub for further support.
Aspiration Awards: Nominations for our Aspiration Awards are closing this Friday (22 March), and we want to hear from you! Thank you to everyone who's already submitted a nomination – we’ve loved reading your inspiring stories. If you haven’t had the chance to submit a nomination yet, there’s still time, find out more about how to enter, browse the categories and submit your nominations.

Assessments and reviews

Model 5 (NEW) V Cert assessment support: As we approach the final stages of the assessment window for our Level 1/2 Technical Award qualifications, we want to remind you of some key dates and guidance. It’s important to meet all deadlines outlined to ensure your learners receive accurate and timely results. Visit our new V Cert assessment support webpage for more information on deadlines, how to access assessment materials, moderation and uploading of learner evidence, the benefits of online assessment and sources of support.

You can also sign up for our new V Cert Assessor and Internal Quality Assurer Training, a training opportunity for practitioners involved in the delivery, assessment and internal quality assurance of our V Cert technical awards. This training will provide the chance to expand your knowledge and understanding of the Model 5 qualifications. Find out more and sign up here.
Model 4 V Certs internal assessments: We wanted to share information about booking your learners onto the Model 4 V Certs non-examined assessment, withdrawing learners and upcoming submission dates. Please note that Model 4 V Certs require an external quality assurance review (Model 5 V Certs don’t require EQA reviews). To book this, please contact your External Quality Assurer as soon as possible. As a reminder, EQA reviews must be completed by 31 July 2024 to ensure timely results.

Qualification updates

Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.
Graded qualifications and External Quality Assurer (EQA) reviews: We wanted to remind you that EQAs must receive grades for at least one completed unit ahead of your EQA review, to select learners for sampling and make a judgement on whether the grading criteria has been applied in line with the qualification specification. These grades must be submitted via the Portal prior to your EQA review.

Following the review, the unit grades will either be accepted and banked by your EQA or, if they disagree with the grades, they’ll be rejected. If a grade is rejected, you must reassess, re-grade, internally quality assure and resubmit the new unit grade in line with EQA actions.
V Certs approved for 2026 performance tables: 11 of our V Certs will continue to be approved by the Department for Education (DfE) and count towards Key Stage 4 performance tables for 2026. This is great news for year 10 learners considering their options from September 2024.

Resources and support 

Functional Skills – a guide to compliance: Register for our upcoming webinar on 15 April, designed for all staff involved in maths and English Functional Skills assessments, where we’ll discuss regulations and how to ensure compliance.
Functional Skills onboarding: Catch up on our latest monthly onboarding webinar for information on our Functional Skills qualifications for new centres and staff. You can also find out more about all upcoming Functional Skills maths and English training events.
Have your say – V Cert in Business and Enterprise: To continue to improve our support package, we need your feedback on our tutor guidance for the NCFE Level 1/2 Technical Award in Business and Enterprise (603/7004/X). Have your say in our short survey before 12 April.
Sign up your learners for our first Health student conference: Taking place on 25 June from 10am-12pm, this student conference will focus on ‘Digital Healthcare Revolution: Transforming Healthcare with Technology’. Your students will delve into the dynamic realm of technology in healthcare and explore how healthcare professionals are using technology to enhance patient outcomes.
Education and Early Years teaching assistant forum events: Our free TA forum events offer interactive CPD opportunities, to help teaching assistants to build on their existing knowledge and skills in supporting children and young people within teaching and learning environments. Sign up for the next event in May, which will focus on supporting literacy skills.
Monthly exams officer update: View this month’s update which includes important reminders specifically for exams officers, upcoming events and resources to help you.

Reforms

Reminder: we’re here to support you through the post-16 reforms: As other awarding organisations look to stop provision after the post-16 reforms, we’re supporting you with a positive future. We’re working with industry specialists to develop a suite of new qualifications and ensure no learner is left behind.

If you have concerns about the future, here’s what you can do:

Talk to our experts who can offer you hands-on support and continuity for your learners.
Stay informed about the post-16 reforms through our dedicated webpage.

Approvals

The T Level approval window is now open: If you’d like to deliver T Levels for the first time from September 2024, or deliver additional T Levels, you’ll need to apply for approval via our website before 28 June 2024.

February 2024

Important updates

First term-time checkpoint now closed

To ensure the timely delivery of vocational technical qualifications (VTQ) results for learners in 2024 and beyond, we have two term-time checkpoints this academic year that you must complete. The first checkpoint is now closed, and we want to thank you for submitting your information to us. If you haven’t yet completed your check, our team will have been in contact with you about next steps. The next checkpoint will open on 15 April and the deadline for completion will be 3 May. Find out more.  

You can also access Ofqual’s VTQ information hub for further support.

Reminder on resilience arrangements and contingency planning

Please ensure you familiarise yourself with Ofqual’s guidance on resilience arrangements and our information on contingency planning. 

Assessments and reviews:

V Certs non-examined assessments – submission of learner marks and uploading evidence: We’re fast approaching another significant period in delivering our non-examined assessment (NEA). Most of you will be working your way through the marking of the NEAs soon and you’ll need to turn your attention to submitting marks and uploading evidence on the Portal. Find out more about how to do this and the key things to remember.
Skills for Care’s additional assessment principles guidance for adult social care qualifications: Skills for Care and the Joint Awarding Body Quality Group (awarding organisations that develop and offer adult social care qualifications), have produced a guidance document to support best practice in maintaining standardised approaches and to uphold the rigour and integrity of qualifications in the sector.

Qualification updates:

Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments. This month we’re updating you on the withdrawal of the Level 5 Diploma for Assistant Practitioners in Healthcare.

Resources and support:

Maths and English CPD and intensive onboarding: Find out more about our upcoming CPD and training events.
Monthly exams officer update: View this month’s update which includes important reminders specifically for exams officers, upcoming events and resources to help you.

Approvals:

Approval window for T Levels opening on 26 February: The approval window for T Levels opens on 26 February 2024 and closes on 28 June 2024. If you already deliver any of our T Level qualifications and are planning to deliver additional NCFE T Level qualifications in September 2024, you’ll need to apply for additional product approval with us via our website before you can start the delivery of them.

If you don’t deliver T Levels but plan to from September 2024, please follow the steps on this page to apply for approval. Please be aware that if your college has multiple campuses, you’ll need to apply for approval for each campus to deliver these additional qualifications. Similarly, if your academy is part of a Multi Academy Trust, each academy will require separate approval.

January 2024

Important updates

First term-time checkpoint open to ensure the timely delivery of VTQ results

To ensure the timely delivery of vocational technical qualifications (VTQ) results for learners in 2024 and beyond, we recently shared our plan and timelines with you for these arrangements, which you can find on our VTQ timely results webpage. If your centre runs one or more of the qualifications in scope of this year’s arrangements, you must complete the actions required for the first term-time checkpoint, which is open now, and will close on 9 February 2024. Find out how to complete the required actions.

Resilience arrangements

Ofqual has published guidance on measures to ensure resilience in the qualification system which focuses on gathering and retaining evidence on learner performance for potential grading decisions in the event of government decisions to cancel exams or other formal assessment.

Whilst the guidance primarily targets GCSE and A level qualifications, this also includes T Levels, and other NCFE qualifications are also in scope. For further details including guidance and information on the NCFE qualifications in scope, visit this page.

We also want to remind you about contingency planning and preparing for unexpected events. You must have a contingency plan in place, which can be deployed if required, and be written in consideration with DfE, JCQ, and NCFE contingency planning documents. Find more information on contingency planning.

Guidance issued by the National Cyber Security Centre

We want to support you in maintaining the highest standards of cyber security to safeguard your sensitive information, including student personal data, and to protect the integrity of secure assessments. In today's digital landscape, it’s crucial to adhere to industry best practices to mitigate the risk of cyber threats. We want to share with you some key guidelines that align with industry standards and will help protect your digital assets.

You can find top tips and guidance here Top tips for staying secure online - NCSC.GOV.UK which covers various topics including the use of strong passwords, backing up your data and using 2-step verification.

Assessments and reviews:

Suspected malpractice policies and procedures – prohibited use of AI: We wanted to highlight our policies and procedures around malpractice to remind you about the regulations surrounding the use of tools – particularly ones that use artificial intelligence (AI) – that could provide students with an unfair advantage, resulting in investigation, sanctions and the possible disqualification of students from external assessments. Please ensure that all spelling and grammar-checking applications and/or extensions, and any AI applications or tools, have been disabled before learners sit assessments.
Digital Functional Skills external assessments now live on Surpass: Our Digital Functional Skills external assessments are now live within our online assessment platform, Surpass.
Functional Skills alignment to the JCQ instructions for conducting Functional Skills assessments (English and Maths): We’ve aligned our Functional Skills external assessment regulations to the JCQ instructions for conducting Functional Skills assessments (English and Maths).
Updates to Functional Skills assessment tracking document (ATD): The ATD has been updated with a new column in the SLC tab to document if an assessment has been recorded or not. You should use the new tracker (V1.3) going forward, which can be found on the relevant qualification pages under assessment materials. If you use your own version of this document, please ensure to add this additional column for SLC assessments.
Portal bookings for Speaking, Listening and Communicating (SLC) assessments: Since September 2023, SLC tasks have been devised and managed by centres, in line with information contained in the SLC assessments are therefore no longer available for booking in the Portal, but should still be recorded on the assessment tracking document (ATD) under the SLC tab.

Qualification updates:

Horizons qualification updates document: View our most recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments. No updates were published in January, so please refer to our December document.

Resources and support:

Updates to our complaints policy: If you’re not satisfied with any aspect of our products or services, we want to put it right for you as soon as possible. To ensure we can support you in the best way, we’ve updated our complaints policy and you can find more details on our website.
Change of contact details: If any contact details at your centre have changed, such as programme contact, head of centre, finance, or exams contacts, it is important that you let us know. Please complete our change of centre contact details form.
Important V Cert updates to support your delivery: Read our updates regarding the completion of teaching and learning for the Model 5 V Certs, the withdrawal of Model 4 V Certs, and the actions you need to take.
Monthly exams officer update: View this month’s update which includes important reminders specifically for exams officers, upcoming events and resources to help you.
Post-16 reforms update: keeping you informed every step of the way: Throughout the post-16 qualification reforms, our aim is to ensure that you have expert guidance and up-to-date information to support you along the way. Take a look at our dedicated landing page to download our essential guide to the reforms, watch our FAQ videos and more.
Upcoming Functional Skills events: See our upcoming events to support your delivery, including our onboarding webinars, drop-in clinics and Teach, Share, Transform events. We’re also hosting a ‘Power of Phonics and Magic of Morphemes’ interactive session which explores both phonics and morphemes and how these can be used to develop reading and spelling skills, on 25 January 3:30-5pm. In February, we’ll be delivering training events for Assessors and IQAs.

December 2023

Important updates

Delivery of VTQ results for 2024 and beyond 

To ensure the timely delivery of VTQ results for learners in 2024 and beyond, we’ve contacted your centre if you deliver one or more of the qualifications in scope of the government’s measures for the timely delivery of VTQ results. If this applies to you, please ensure that you visit our results webpage for more information and share this with your colleagues, including exams officers, curriculum teams and senior leaders.

Suspected malpractice policies and procedures – prohibited use of AI
We wanted to signpost you to all our policies and procedures around malpractice so that you can be reminded about the regulations around the use of tools, particularly ones that use Artificial Intelligence (AI), that could provide students with an unfair advantage, resulting in investigation, sanctions and the possible disqualification of students from external assessments.

Christmas opening hours
We’re closing for the Christmas break from 4:30pm on Friday 22 December 2023 until 8:30am on Tuesday 2 January 2023. This means our customer support services (by email, phone and LiveChat) will be unavailable during this time, but you'll still be able to access our website and the Portal, as usual.

Professional Development Week: From 18-21 December, our Provider Development team is hosting a Professional Development Week, where you can access a variety of live and recorded remote sessions to support and enhance your teaching and learning practice.

Assessments and reviews:

Removal of CYPOP5 Y/600/9770 (Paper based only) : As of 1 December, there we’ll no longer be a paper-based option for booking any CYPOP5 assessments. The CYPOP5 assessment will only be available to be taken online via our online assessment system Surpass.

Qualification updates:

Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.
Updates on Digital Functional Skills: We want to share some key upcoming dates, covering registrations, bookings, assessments and results release.
Qualification specifications translated into Welsh: We’re now offering a comprehensive range of qualifications which are now available translated into Welsh and regulated by Qualification Wales.
Model 4 Technical Awards: View our important updates for Model 4 Technical Awards including Synoptic Project briefs, actions you need to take for registered learners, and more.

Resources and support:

Brand new online Functional Skills IQA and assessor training events: In February 2024, we’ll be delivering brand new online training events specifically for Functional Skills Assessors and IQAs which you can sign up to now.
Sign your learners up for our Education and Early Years student conference: Taking place on 21 February 2-4pm, our next student conference focuses on ‘the unique child’. Your students will learn vital skills and knowledge to support them on placements or in the workplace, centring around the critical importance of recognising, valuing and respecting the holistic needs of each child.
Functional Skills events: See our upcoming events to support your delivery, including our teach, share, transform virtual meet-ups and monthly drop-in clinics. We’re also hosting a CPD session on ‘relatable maths’ which explores strategies to relate maths to real, everyday life, and a session on ‘questioning techniques’ to use in your teaching.
Monthly exams officer update: View this month’s update which includes important reminders specifically for exams officers, key upcoming dates for your diary, and resources to help you.
Level 1 and 2 English Functional Skills practice paper guidance: Guidance documents are now available for Level 1 and Level 2 English Functional Skills and will support centres in preparing learners for assessments. These documents include practice questions and marked sample answers (with rationale) and can be found on the qualification pages on our website.

November 2023

Assessments and reviews:

Post-16 reforms update: keeping you informed every step of the way: Throughout the post-16 qualification reforms, our aim is to ensure that you have expert guidance and up-to-date information to support you along the way. Take a look at our dedicated landing page to download our essential guide to the reforms, watch our FAQ videos and more.
Quality Assurance Policy for 2023-24: We’ve now published our latest Quality Assurance Policy, which covers what we’ll do to support you through the external quality assurance process, how to prepare for reviews, as well as what we need from you.
Functional Skills paper-based bookings over the festive period: With the festive period fast approaching, we’re sharing the last date of when learners can sit paper-based bookings before the Christmas break and the first date learners can sit in the new year.
Amendments to coloured paper options: As part of our ongoing monitoring and evaluation process, in relation to the presentation of external assessment papers in various coloured options for accessibility, we’ve taken the decision to amend the range and number of options available from 1 December 2023.

Qualification updates:

Important V Cert updates to support your delivery: Read our updates regarding the completion of teaching and learning for the Model 5 V Certs, the withdrawal of Model 4 V Certs and the actions you need to take.
Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.

Resources and support:

Assessor and Internal Quality Assurers events: We’re now offering centres half-day remote training sessions for Internal Quality Assurers and Assessors.
Functional Skills events: See our upcoming events to support your delivery, including our CPD session on ‘relatable maths’ which explores strategies to relate maths to real, everyday life. There will also be a session on ‘questioning techniques’ to use in your teaching.
Monthly exams officer update: View this month’s update which includes important reminders specifically for exams officers, key upcoming dates for your diary and resources to help you.
Professional Development Week: From 18-21 December, our Provider Development team is hosting a Professional Development Week, aiming to deliver a variety of live and recorded remote sessions to our centres that will support and enhance teaching and learning practice whilst also providing insight into our processes.
V Cert examiner opportunities: We’re currently recruiting for flexible examiner roles to join our team across a number of V Cert subject areas. Find out more on our careers webpage and contact the Assessment Delivery team with any queries you may have.

October 2023

Important information

Introduction of ‘learner start date’ in the NCFE Portal: We’ve introduced a new mandatory field in the learner registration process on the NCFE Portal. This will ensure that we can fully support you and your learners at every step of their journeys. This field went live on the Portal on Monday 2 October, and here you’ll need to enter the date that each learner commenced the qualification.

Assessments and reviews:

Functional Skills new assessment paper introductions: To help you plan your assessments, we want to share the dates we intend to introduce new assessment papers.
Functional Skills paper-based bookings over the festive period: With the festive period fast approaching, we’re sharing the last date of when learners can sit paper-based bookings before the Christmas break and the first date learners can sit in the new year.
Regulations for the Conduct of External Assessment 2023-24: Please see our updated Regulations for the Conduct of External Assessment and accompanying Qualification Specific Instructions for Delivery documents for 2023-24.

Qualification updates:

Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.
Our Digital Functional Skills qualifications are now live: Find out everything you need to know and what support is available.

Resources and support:

Functional Skills events: See our upcoming events to support your delivery, including our webinar on the changes to the speaking, listening and communicating component of English Functional Skills and our session for Functional Skills maths teachers on exploring a range of methods to teach no calculator skills.
New members needed to join the Foundation for Education Development (the FED) Practitioners Council: The FED is currently recruiting members to their Practitioners’ Council. The role of this council is to learn from those who work directly with children and young people whether in a formalised school or college setting or in more informal or alternate education provisions or services.
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) and affected centres: There have recently been concerns raised regarding reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) used in the construction of many school buildings built between the 1950s and 1990s. We’ve identified a small number of centres who we believe to have been required to put in place mitigations, and we’ll work with you directly to ensure that the impact on learners is minimised.
Useful V cert updates to support your delivery: See our range of support for the delivery of V Certs, which includes updated teaching materials, Prepare to Assess events, exemplar non-exam assessment (NEA) responses and more.
What do the post-16 reforms mean for adult learners? Our Learning for Work Product Manager, Emzi Mills-Frater, explains what the post-16 reforms will look like for adult learners and when these changes will come about.
Monthly exams officer update: View this month’s update which includes important reminders, key upcoming dates for your diary and resources to help you.

September 2023

Service messages for 2023 - Last updated: 29/09/2023

September 2023

Important information

Added 29/09/2023 - Introduction of ‘learner start date’ in the NCFE Portal: We’ve introduced a new mandatory field in the learner registration process on the NCFE Portal. This will ensure that we can fully support you and your learners at every step of their journeys.
External assessment timetable for 2023-25: We’re pleased to share with all centres our updated external assessment timetable for all our CACHE and V Certs qualifications for 2023-24 and 2024-25.
A reminder of fees and pricing for 2023-24: We’d like to remind you about our fees and pricing approach for 2023-24. As an educational charity, we aim to keep our prices as low as possible for customers and last year we were able to support the sector with a below-inflationary rise in fees. However, due to the recent financial landscape, we’ll be increasing our fees up to 8%, in line with the consumer price inflation rate for April 2023.

Assessments and reviews:

Annual Monitoring Reviews (AMR): Following your feedback, we’ve made improvements to our AMR process.
External Quality Assurance (EQA) reviews: Remember to register your learners and book your EQA reviews as early as possible to ensure that we can arrange suitable dates that are convenient to both you and your EQA.
Regulations for the Conduct of External Assessment 2023-24 update: Later this month we’ll be publishing the revised Regulations for the Conduct of External Assessments.
Updates to Surpass platform: We’ve moved all of our online assessments within Surpass from Flash to HTML, due to the withdrawal of Adobe Flash Player.

Qualification updates:

Changes to Functional Skills English Speaking, Listening and Communicating (SLC) assessments: We’ve updated SLC assessments so that they’re all internally set assessments. You're now able to devise and manage your own topics, in line with our new guidance for assessor documents, without submitting a contextualisation request.
Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.

Resources and support:

Functional Skills events: See our upcoming events to support you in your delivery, including our webinar on approaching the assessments Level 1 and Level 2 English and adapting maths strategies by Delivery Mode.
International learners: To support our external quality assurance process and provide better visibility of international learners and their country of origin at the time of delivery, we’ve added a new field to the Portal to allow you to specify where your learners live at the point of registration.
Useful V cert updates to support your delivery: As you start the new academic year, we wanted to update you on a few things which will support you in your delivery of V Certs, which includes the publication of the non-exam assessment (NEA) brief to help you plan your assessment timetable, updates to tutor guides to help with planning and preparation and subject-specific updates to qualification specifications and content.

Share your views:

VTQ 2023 Results Action Plan post-results survey: Ofqual is seeking your views on the measures put in place as part of the VTQ Results Action Plan. Your feedback will help Ofqual to consider improvements for 2024.

July 2023

Service messages for 2023 - Last updated: 01/08/2023

July 2023

Important information - updated 01/08/2023

Fees and pricing for 2023-24: As we move towards the new academic year, we’d like to update you on our fees and pricing approach for 2023-24.

Assessments and reviews:

External Assessment timetable: We’re pleased to share with all centres our confirmed external assessment timetable for all our CACHE and V Certs qualifications with an external assessment for 2023-24 and 2024-25. Follow this link to view the timetable and supporting documentation.
VTQ results release: To ensure you receive results as expected in August for learners on Level 1/2 and Level 3 qualifications, there are some final and additional checks you can do in the coming weeks to avoid any unexpected delays.

Qualification updates:

Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.
Speaking, Listening and Communication (SLC) changes from September 2023: We’re changing the way our SLC assessments are delivered in September. If you’re delivering Functional Skills English or looking to offer this in the upcoming session, it’s important that you register* for our webinar on 18 July to ensure you understand the changes being implemented.
*The session will also be made available on demand after the event.

Important V Cert updates for 2024 performance tables: As we approach the end of the school term, we wanted to share some guidance with you to help you prepare for the first year of assessments on the reformed V Cert technical awards.
Legacy V Cert Technical Awards (for 2023 performance tables): Access important information on assessment bookings, withdrawals and grade submission deadlines for our legacy V Cert qualifications.

Resources and support:

NCFE Portal update for international learners: We’ve added a new field to the NCFE portal that enables centres to specify if they have international learners and their respective countries when registering learners. This development improves our quality and reporting processes and ensures accurate documentation of learners’ locations around the world.
Ensuring your contacts are up to date: It's crucial that we have up-to-date contacts for any queries during the marking and results release window. If you need to check and update your contacts, please contact our Customer Services .
Monthly exams officer update: View this month’s update which includes key upcoming dates for your diary for reasonable adjustments, post-results and assessment and delivery support, and more

June 2023

Last updated: 14/06/2023

June 2023

Action required: Complete your term-time checks as soon as possible

As a reminder, the deadline has now passed for you to complete both your term-time checks. If you haven’t already done so, we need you to complete these as soon as possible.

View more information, a step-by-step guide and FAQs on our results webpage.

Assessments and reviews:

Updated External Assessment Contingency Planning Policy: We ask that you review our new policy and that Exams Officers in particular become familiar with the content, making any necessary updates to your own contingency planning.

Qualification updates:

Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.
What do the changes for the Early Years Educator criteria mean for the sector?: The new Early Years Educator (EYE) criteria has now been published and the new standards will come into effect from 1 September 2024. In our recent webinar, we discussed the changes and what these mean for the EYE sector.
Introducing Digital Functional Skills: We’re delighted to announce that we’ve now been approved to offer the new Digital Functional Skills qualifications (DFSQ), having successfully completed the Ofqual technical evaluation process.
Legacy V Cert Technical Awards (for 2023 performance tables): Important information on assessment bookings, withdrawals and grade submission deadlines for our legacy V Cert qualifications.

Resources and support:

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) area now live:We’ve created a FAQs area on our website, so you can find answers to your most common queries in just a few clicks.
Upcoming Functional Skills English and maths event: Sign up for our upcoming review and refresh face-to-face event in London.
Monthly exams officer update: View this month’s update which includes key upcoming dates for your diary for reasonable adjustments, post-results and assessment and delivery support, and more.

May 2023

Action required: Complete your term-time check by 26 May

Last week we contacted you if you needed to complete a term-time check. If you have learners registered on any qualifications that support with progression to further or higher education, have UCAS tariff points attached or feature in Level 3 performance tables, and you’re expecting these learners to certificate this summer, you need to complete this check. You can view the list of the qualifications that require a term-time check here.

Please note that if you currently have no registrations on the qualifications in scope but intend to make registrations for learners who are expected to certificate this summer, you must do this as soon as possible and then complete the check.

You can find more information on what action you need to take and instructions on our results webpage. You can also take a look at Ofqual’s information hub of key dates and deadlines for Level 3 qualifications. Thank you to everyone who has completed your check so far.
External assessment timetable consultation
We’re pleased to share with all centres our proposed external assessment timetable for all our CACHE and V Certs qualifications with an external assessment for 2023-24 and 2024-25, and we’re now seeking feedback from centres on the content and structure of this document. To ensure the most accurate feedback, we’re carrying out this consultation over a prolonged period, from today until Monday 19 June 2023. Follow this link to see the feedback we’ve had so far and learn how you can submit your own feedback.

Assessments and reviews:

Where can I access assessment material? For many external assessments, we now share assessment material digitally via the NCFE Portal rather than printing and dispatching physical papers. Find out how to download assessment material and upload electronic evidence.
Grading exams and assessments in summer 2023

Qualification updates

Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.
Functional Skills ICT withdrawal dates: These qualifications are being replaced by Digital Functional Skills at the end of this academic session to complete the overall reform of Functional Skills qualifications. Find out the withdrawal dates.
Legacy V Cert Technical Awards (for 2023 performance tables): Important information on assessment bookings, withdrawals and grade submission deadlines for our legacy V Cert qualifications.
Level 4 Certificate in Professional Development (Youth Work): We’ve launched our new youth work qualification, offering professional development opportunities for individuals working with young people, including social workers, police officers, teachers, and emergency service workers.
What do the changes for the Early Years Educator criteria mean for the sector?: The new Early Years Educator (EYE) criteria has now been published and the new standards will come into effect from 1 September 2024. In our recent webinar, we discussed the changes and what these mean for the EYE sector.

Policies and regulations

Changes to our appeals policy: From June 2023, our policy will be aligned with JCQ, except for any EPA appeals. More information to follow.

Resources and support:

Monthly exams officer update: View this month’s update which includes key upcoming dates for your diary for reasonable adjustments, post-results and assessment and delivery support, and more.
Upcoming Digital Functional Skills events
Upcoming Functional Skills English and maths events
V Cert resources: Since January, we’ve published over 497 guided learning hours of teaching and learning materials to support your delivery of our V Cert qualifications. Log into your Portal account to download the resources.
Artificial intelligence (AI) use in assessments
New Early Years Educator criteria: Join our webinar on Wednesday 31 May, which will help you to understand the new criteria, any potential impact on our qualifications and what this means for you and your learners.

Have your voice heard

Take part in a focus group with our V Cert team at NCFE: We want to understand how you’ve found the first year of delivering our reformed V Cert Technical Awards, and to hear your ideas on what we could do next year to support you through the first year of assessments. Express your interest.

April 2023

Term-time certification check

In March, we contacted you if you needed to complete a term-time certification check. If you have learners registered on any qualifications that support with progression to further or higher education, have UCAS tariff points attached or feature in Level 3 performance tables, and you’re expecting these learners to certificate this summer, you need to complete this check. You can view the list of the qualifications that require a term-time certification check here. Please note that if you currently have no registrations on the qualifications in scope but intend to make registrations for learners who are expected to certificate this summer, you must do this as soon as possible and then complete the check.

Please ensure to complete these actions by Friday 28 April. You can find instructions on how to do this on our results webpage. Thank you to everyone who has completed your check so far.

Assessments and reviews:

Qualification updates

Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.

Resources and support

Sharing best practice and feedback

You said, we did

March 2023

Assessments and reviews:

Qualification updates

Resources and support:

Monthly exams officer update

Sharing best practice and feedback:

February 2023

Assessments and reviews:

Changes to our NCFE website:

Exciting changes coming soon to our NCFE website

Qualification updates

Horizons qualification updates document

Resources and support:

Changes to how to access our past papers, mark schemes and chief examiner reports
Monthly exams officer update: Following your feedback on our communications and services for exams officers, each month we’ll be sending you a monthly update for exams officers within the service newsletter. View this month’s update.
Standardising marking of Level 1 and 2 mock assessments
Teach, share and transform with our virtual meet ups

Sharing best practice and feedback:

January 2023

Potential impact of industrial action on external assessments

Assessments and reviews

Changes to our NCFE website

Exciting changes coming soon to our NCFE website

Resources and support

Qualification updates

Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information, such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments.

Surveys

Changes to the early years educator Level 3 criteria

Service messages for 2022

December 2022

Assessments and reviews

Qualification updates

Important updates for Graphic Design, Interactive Media and Music Technology V Certs
Horizons December 2022 - This document hosts any recent qualification updates and maintenance information such as qualification withdrawals, new qualifications and qualification amendments. This ensures we’re keeping centres fully up to date on any updates/changes that may affect delivery to learners.

Policies and regulations

Support

Our Christmas opening hours

Surveys

Changes to the early years educator Level 3 criteria

November 2022

Important changes to how you access and submit digital assessment materials for V Certs and CACHE assessments

October 2022

Returning papers – postal strikes impact

L1/L2 Technical Awards training (V cert model 5)

September 2022

Centre risk rating

Your questions answered

August 2022

N/A

June 2022

V Cert prepare for first-teach sessions

Level 3 qualification consultation – FAQs

May 2022

V Cert prepare for first-teach sessions

Level 3 qualification consultation – FAQs

March 2022

Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care approved by Skills for Care and regulated

Update on approved standards 

Approaching the assessments: Functional Skills

February 2022

January and March 2022 V Cert Discovery Events

Functional Skills CPD webinars

V Cert qualification pre-approvals

January 2022

New Processes with Digital Links for External Assessments – Exams Officers

Bite-sized English and maths qualification redevelopment

Practitioners: get involved in developing Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs)

Functional Skills webinars to support delivery

Service messages for 2021

November 2021

Our new apprenticeship standards

October 2021

Safeguarding Bitesize Webinars

September 2021

From 22 September, controlled assessments for Reformed Functional Skills must be booked by component level. For example, English Reading, English Writing, Speaking, Listening & Communicating (SLC) and Mathematics should be booked in the Portal by selecting the qualification and then component and topic.

The assessments will be available to download directly from the Portal and no longer need to be retrieved from QualHub.

Component level bookings can be made for English in the order assessments are required and each will be available for 6 weeks from the point of booking, giving more flexibility to sit components over longer periods of time.

The new booking process will count learners as ‘complete’ for DCS calculations once all components are booked.

You will be able to view a bookings report from the Portal, showing learners booked by qualification and component.