Exams officers
Your monthly update (October 2023)
Below you’ll find your monthly update for October 2023, including key upcoming dates for your diary for reasonable adjustments, post-results and assessment and delivery support, and more.
Important reminders
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. Find out more about this process.
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.
Resources to help support exams officers in their roles from Ofqual
Delivering exams and assessments is a tough job and one that requires all-year-round effort as well as managing particular challenges. Ofqual recognises the pivotal role of the exams officer in the smooth running of exams and assessments in schools, colleges and other exam centres.
Ofqual has produced a range of resources to support exams officers in their important role, covering both GCSE and A Level, T Level and vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) assessments which you can find here.
Additional support from The Exams Office
The start to an academic year is always a busy period for Exams Officers, The Exams Office have a range of support available for exams officers to allow them to undertake their role throughout the academic year. This includes online training, key documents and online tools. Find out more here.
Below you’ll find the assessment dates for our CACHE, Functional Skills, T Level and V Cert qualifications for February 2023, and information on reasonable adjustments.
CACHE qualifications
Qualification |
Product Code |
Assessment |
Booking cut-off |
Assessment date |
|
Technical Level 3 Diploma in Early Years Education and Care (EYE) |
601/8438/3 |
EYE/SAE |
|
02/02/2023 |
|
Level 3 Certificate in Preparing to Work in Early Years Education and Care |
601/3955/9 |
|
||
|
Level 3 Diploma in Early Years Education and Care (EYE) |
601/2147/6 |
|
||
|
Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care (Adults) (Northern Ireland) |
603/5355/7 |
HSCNI/EDEA |
|
02/02/2023 |
|
Level 2 Technical Award in Health and Social Care |
603/3294/3 |
TAHSC/SAE |
|
03/02/2023 |
|
Technical L3 Diploma in Childcare and Education |
601/8437/1 |
DCE2 |
|
03/02/2023 – 28/02/2023 |
|
L3 Technical Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care |
601/8435/8 |
HSED2 |
|
06/02/2023 – 01/03/2023 |
|
Technical L3 Diploma in Early Years Education and Care (EYE) |
601/8438/3 |
DEYEC2 |
|
07/02/2023 – 24/02/2023 |
|
NCFE CACHE Level 3 Applied General Award for Early Years, Childcare and Education |
603/2987/7 |
AGAEYCE |
22/02/2023 |
|
|
NCFE CACHE Level 3 Applied General Award in Health and Social Care |
603/2913/0 |
AGAHSC |
23/02/2023 |
|
Functional Skills
As you may be aware, we aren’t introducing any new assessment papers in February, so results release for all modes of delivery is the normal six working days. As usual, booking cut-offs are six working days prior to the assessment date.
T Levels
If you have students planning to sit assessments in the summer 2023 session, please ensure they’re all booked onto their occupational specialism (OS) by the deadlines outlined in our T Level Technical Qualifications Key Dates Schedule 2022-23 and 2023-24. If you deliver the T Level Technical Qualification in Education and Childcare (Level 3) 603/5829/4, you’ll be allocated a Moderator within seven working days once your learners are booked onto the OS.
V Certs
Qualification |
Product Code |
Assessment |
Pre-release materials |
Results released |
|
NCFE Level 1/2 Technical Award in Engineering |
603/2963/4 |
TAE |
|
02/02/2023 |
|
NCFE Level 1/2 Technical Award in Business and Enterprise |
603/2955/5 |
TABE |
|
03/02/2023 |
|
NCFE Level 3 Applied General Certificate in Business and Enterprise |
601/8908/3 |
BE3 |
22/02/2023 |
|
|
NCFE Level 1 Technical Award in Music Technology |
601/6777/4 |
MTP12 (Practical) |
20/02/2023 |
|
|
NCFE Level 2 Technical Award in Music Technology |
601/6774/9 |
|
||
|
NCFE Level 1 Technical Award in Music Technology |
601/6777/4 |
MTW12 (Written) |
|
|
|
NCFE Level 2 Technical Award in Music Technology |
601/6774/9 |
|
||
|
NCFE Level 3 Applied General Certificate in Music Technology |
601/6779/8 |
MTP3 |
10/02/2023 |
|
Reasonable adjustment timescales
If you require a reasonable adjustment submission and/or paper modification, please ensure they’re booked before the below deadlines:
- Reasonable adjustments (PDF requests, language modifiers and speech recognition): prior to the booking cut-off date
- Paper modifications (braille): 30 working days before the assessment
- Paper modifications (enlarged paper or coloured paper): 15 working days before the assessment
- Reasonable adjustments (practical assistant): one day prior to the assessment
- All other reasonable adjustments: up to the assessment date.
For more information on reasonable adjustments and how to submit an application, visit this page.
Below you’ll find the upcoming post results deadlines for assessments for our CACHE, T Level and V Cert qualifications for February 2023.
Qualification |
External Assessment |
When can Exam Officers start to submit requests for post-results services? |
Enquires about results deadline |
Access to scripts deadline |
|
NCFE CACHE Level 3 Extended Diploma for Children’s Care, Learning and Development (Wales & Northern Ireland) 600/7093/6 |
CCLD T1 – T7 |
From the result release date – 12/01/2023 |
20 working days from result release |
Priority requests to be submitted within 5 working days from result release.
Non-priority to be submitted within 30 working days from result release. |
|
T Level Technical Qualification in Health 603/7066/X
T Level Technical Qualification in Healthcare Science 603/7083/X
T Level Technical Qualification in Science 603/6989/9
|
Employer Set Project |
From the result release date – 20/01/2023 |
5 weeks from result release |
20 working day from result release. |
|
NCFE Level ½ Technical Award in Art & Design 603/2964/6 |
External Assessment Component |
From the results release date – 23/01/2023 |
20 working days from result release |
Priority requests to be submitted within 5 working days from result release.
Non-priority to be submitted within 30 working days from result release. |
|
NCFE Level ½ Technical Award in Health and Fitness 603/2650/5 |
External Assessment Component |
From the results release date – 25/01/2023 |
20 working days from result release |
Priority requests to be submitted within 5 working days from result release.
Non-priority to be submitted within 30 working days from result release. |
|
NCFE Level ½ Technical Award in Performance Skills 603/2960/9 |
External Assessment Component |
From the results release date – 31/01/2023 |
20 working days from result release |
Priority requests to be submitted within 5 working days from result release.
Non-priority to be submitted within 30 working days from result release. |
|
NCFE Level ½ Technical Award in Engineering 603/2963/4 |
External Assessment Component |
From the results release date – 02/02/2023 |
20 working days from result release |
Priority requests to be submitted within 5 working days from result release.
Non-priority to be submitted within 30 working days from result release. |
|
NCFE Level ½ Technical Award in Business and Enterprise 603/2955/5 |
External Assessment Component |
From the results release date – 03/02/2023 |
20 working days from result release |
Priority requests to be submitted within 5 working days from result release.
Non-priority to be submitted within 30 working days from result release. |
The Exams Office National Conferences
These conferences are the largest and most significant events relating to examination administration and management for exams officers during the academic year. Each conference is supported by the major awarding bodies, JCQ and a range of key exams-related stakeholders.
We’re excited to be attending the National Exams Office Conference on 9 February in London.
We also attended a previous Exams Office conference on 12 January. If you missed this event or would like to catch-up, you can access the recording on demand.
AoC Exams Conference
With the introduction of T Levels and shift to even greater external assessments in vocational and technical qualifications, the exams function in colleges is facing even more challenges. ThWe also attended a previous Exams Office conference on 12 January. If you missed this event or would like to catch-up, you can access the recording here. e AoC Exams Conference will virtually bring together exams professionals to share and discuss the key challenges facing the FE sector.
Delegates will have the opportunity to hear from and ask questions to the key stakeholders, ensuring their knowledge is up to date on the latest rules and regulations. There will be plenty of dedicated time to share, debate and gain solutions to the common challenges you face on topics such as training and managing invigilators, access arrangements, avoiding malpractice and managing the logistics of high volumes of assessment.
Taking place on Wednesday 1 March and Thursday 2 March, we’re looking forward to delivering a drop-in session on the first day of this event. Follow this link to book your place today.
Visit our assessment support page where you'll find everything you need to support you with assessment, including policies, forms and guidance on online assessment, remote invigilation, assessment and results queries, appeals, certificates, special considerations, access arrangements and reasonable adjustments, and much more.
Visit our delivery support page where we have over 1,000 informative and engaging learning resources. Here, you'll find all you need to deliver our qualifications and support your learners.
View our Qualifications for Specific Delivery (QSID) document which provides qualification specific instructions relating to the administration of external assessments for NCFE qualifications.
The Exams Office, in conjunction with their training partner Exams Training, offers a range of face-to-face training events delivered by industry experts, supported by high quality resources and held at 4/5-star venues across England. Events are available for:
- Exams officers
- Senior leaders/line managers
- Invigilators.
Learn more about how you can keep up to date with your training