Digital Functional Skills pre-release files and guidance
Our Digital Functional Skills assessments at entry level 3 and level 1 include pre-release materials that must be made available to learners in advance of assessments to support with assessment tasks.
It is the centre’s responsibility to ensure that any pre-release materials are set up on the learner’s computer prior to the assessment taking place. At no point should learners set up their own pre-release materials independently without guidance and support from the centre.
What are these materials needed for?
Learners may be asked during any of their external assessments to locate and / or work with files and folders as part of their assessment. All files, folders and documents will be identifiable from the naming conventions within their assessment; until the learner accesses the assessment, they will not know which file, folder or document they will need to complete their assessment.
There may be occasions where the learner will need to upload the document that they have worked on into the assessment; on these occasions, this will be clearly indicated by an option to ‘Choose File’, and above that it will read ‘File upload’:
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Search qualificationsWhat needs to be downloaded from the NCFE website in advance of assessments?
All the data materials below should be downloaded and saved to your centre/learner’s network as early in the academic session as possible. However, as a minimum they must be downloaded before the learners sit the external assessment.
Whether your learners are sitting their assessment online or through our remote invigilation offer, it would be best practice to use the set up of the pre-release materials as a teaching opportunity for your learners with which you provide support and guidance.
How to manage zip files
Centres must ensure that all pre-release files are downloaded and unzipped prior to the learner sitting the assessment.
During the assessment your learners will be asked to zip their files prior to uploading them to the assessment platform. This is important because it ensures our examiners have access to all learners' work for marking. Centres must ensure that their learners are confident and competent in zipping files prior to sitting the assessments.
It is essential that learners are familiar with how to create zip files prior to sitting the assessment; further support is available within our demonstration functionality tool available on our qualification pages under Assessment Materials to show learners the functionality of the platform and allows them to practise zipping folders and uploading files. We have also created a how to manage zip files document. We have also created a guidance document on how to manage zip files at the bottom of the page.
Online assessment
For learners sitting their assessments through our online assessment delivery mode, we would encourage that centres download any pre-release materials independently or as a teaching opportunity with the learner.
Remote invigilation
For learners sitting their assessments through our remote invigilation delivery mode, we would encourage that centres follow the suggested methods below:
- learners can bring their computer equipment into the centre prior to the assessment taking place so that the pre-release materials can be set up on the computer that will be used for the assessment
- where learners are unable to come into the centre, we would encourage that centres use conferencing solutions such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom or any other screen sharing software; this will afford you the opportunity to guide them through the process of setting up the pre-release materials prior to the assessment taking place and, as previously stated, provide a beneficial teaching opportunity
Important: Throughout the academic session, additional pre-release materials may be added to this page (below) as we introduce new papers. It is vital that you check here regularly for any new pre-release materials.
We may also remove some pre-release materials from this page if the papers they are associated with are no longer live assessments. You can either remove these from your devices or leave them as they may be brought back at some stage.
Where to download them to?
The pre-release materials should be downloaded from below on this page and saved on your centre’s local network. The format of the materials must not be changed. They should be saved in a relevant file/folder as learners will be directed to access them during the external assessment.
What needs to be done on completion of the assessment?
Online assessment
Following the external assessment, you are responsible for making sure any materials saved by the learner are completely deleted from the computer used.
Prior to the assessment, learners should be advised to ensure they upload any evidence they have been asked to upload within the assessment as there is no opportunity to upload files once the test has finished or once the assessment is completed.
The invigilator for the assessment must check the device to ensure any completed files/folders have been deleted by learners and if not, then they must delete them.
Remote invigilation
Learners must be instructed in advance when provided with the set-up email that they must delete any completed files/folders after ensuring they have uploaded any evidence they have been asked to upload during the assessment.
Before closing the proctoring system, it must be clear that any files and folders have been deleted, or results could be delayed.
Are pre-release materials required for all DFSQ assessments?
Our Digital Functional Skills assessments at entry level 3 and level 1 may include pre-release materials that, if applicable, must be made available to learners in advance of assessment to support with assessment tasks.
Please note: Our new papers which went live for first learner sittings on the 01/03/2024 do not require any pre-release materials and all materials will be available to download from within the assessment.
However, please ensure that the pre-release materials already published below are downloaded as this is a possibility, depending on which paper has been allocated to your booking, that a learner may receive a paper that does require those pre-release materials. The need to use downloaded pre-release files, or otherwise, will become apparent when files are referred to during the assessment.
