Assessment regulations, external assessment timetable and guides

Internal controlled assessment regulations

Our approved centres are required to adhere to specific regulations and guidance for qualifications with an internal controlled assessment component. This applies to Functional Skills and our newly-approved combined Level 1/2 Technical Awards. These qualifications currently have their own regulations.

External assessment regulations

Our approved centres are required to adhere to specific regulations for qualifications with an externally-assessed component (online and paper based) for all NCFE qualifications, including those which may be offered and/or delivered under an NCFE-owned brand name (such as CACHE).

From September 2025, we are pleased to announce that we’ve aligned our regulation for the conduct of external assessment to the JCQ Instructions for Conducting Examinations (ICE) and the JCQ Supervised Assessments – Vocational and Technical Qualifications. This further alignment helps our centres by minimising the administrative burden of maintaining compliance with multiple sets of regulations, and helps provide more consistency and clarity in our approach to centre regulatory requirements.

All NCFE set date and time external assessment will be subject to the requirements of the JCQ Instruction for conducting examinations (ICE), and all NCFE windowed external assessment must follow the guidance as set out in the JCQ supervised assessments – vocational and technical qualifications. Given this increased alignment, centres should note that the JCQ will now coordinate Centre Inspections based on NCFE assessments on our behalf.

Our Functional Skills external assessments are already aligned to the JCQ instructions for conducting Functional Skills assessments (English and Maths). The Functional Skills Supplementary Booking Document (English and maths) below outlines the NCFE specific requirements and flexibilities that are not covered within the JCQ instructions for conducting Functional Skills assessments (English and Maths).