Our latest updates

 November 2025

[Updated 11/11/2025]

News for all T Level providers

Autumn assessment series 

T Levels autumn assessment series: what you need to know 

We wanted to remind you that we’ve updated our website with essential information about the upcoming T Level autumn assessment series, focusing on the core exams and employer set projects (ESP) that students will be completing this autumn. 

Please visit our autumn assessment series webpage for more details. 

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T Level core paper start times  

For the 2025-26 academic session and beyond, we’ve aligned to the Joint Council of Qualifications (JCQ) Instructions for Conducting Examinations (ICE) document. This means that there’s a single set of exam regulations for you and your colleagues to follow across all T Levels.  

As part of this, we wanted to highlight a point about start times, specifically assessments that have an afternoon start time, to help to avoid any confusion. 

As our Key Dates Schedule shows, the scheduled start time for T Level core assessments is 1:00pm. The ICE document states that standard afternoon start times are 1:30pm, but please note that the NCFE Key Dates Schedule takes precedent, and so these assessments should start at 1:00pm. 

Therefore, the potential window for beginning an afternoon T Level core assessment is 12:30pm to 1:30pm. This takes account of the scheduled start time of 1:00pm and the 30-minute flexibility either side. Unless an approved assessment variation or timetable clash is in place, T Level core assessments should start no later than 1:30pm.  

We’re working with JCQ to update the ICE to reflect this exception to the standard scheduled afternoon start time, in advance of the published 2026-27 version. The reason for the difference is the relative length of T Level core assessments. These are often 2 hours or longer, and starting at 1:00pm ensures that, accounting for possible reasonable adjustment extra-time requirements, students can complete their assessment within a suitable timeframe allowing for standard provider finish times. 

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Advanced assessment materials   

This document shows when advanced assessment materials will be available, as well as who can access them and when. Download the autumn 2025 document here. 

Please note that live assessment materials (hard copies or downloaded electronic PDF versions) will be available three working days before the start date of the assessment or assessment window.   

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Invigilation requirements for autumn series assessments 

We wanted to remind you of the options and requirements for completing T Level external assessments with NCFE.  

T Level core exam assessment options  

All T Level core exams are externally assessed. Students can complete these either on paper or online, but regardless of the assessment mode, the regulations under which they must be completed are the same.  

Supervision requirements  

All core exams must be invigilated. This is a critical control to ensure security of assessment and validity of results. You must ensure that you have sufficient suitable and trained invigilators, who are able to conduct T Level external assessments under the required conditions, allowing assessments to take place without student or provider malpractice or maladministration occurring.   

Details on the specific requirements for how to arrange invigilation can be found in the JCQ guidance for exams, and further detail on malpractice, including definitions, rights and responsibilities, and procedures that you must follow are in the JCQ guidance for malpractice. The most important documents for you to follow are:  

• Instructions for conducting examinations (ICE): this is the primary JCQ instruction for conducting exams, covering the actions required to ensure assessments are completed in a secure and consistent manner, protecting the integrity of assessments.   

• JCQ Suspected Malpractice: Policies and Procedures: this document outlines examples of potential malpractice and maladministration, and sets out the potential sanctions that may be applied where cases are proven.   

It’s your responsibility, as outlined in the NCFE Centre Agreement, to ensure you and your colleagues are familiar with all mandatory policies and requirements, and that you take all reasonable steps to comply with them. We monitor for signs of potential malpractice and maladministration, through unannounced NCFE assessment monitoring visits, JCQ Centre Inspection visits, examiner and moderator notifications, digital and data checks for things such as AI misuse. All concerns are investigated.   

The invigilator register (IR) is an essential piece of evidence to confirm student attendance and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Please upload a fully completed Invigilator Register to the NCFE portal along with all student evidence. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Customer Support team in the first instance. 

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Key dates and important actions 

Arrangements for the timely delivery of VTQ results and term-time checkpoint dates for 2025-26 

We’ve communicated arrangements with your heads of centres and exams contacts to ensure the timely delivery of vocational technical qualifications (VTQ) results for learners in 2025-26.   

If we’ve identified that your centre runs one or more of the qualifications in scope of the government’s measures for these arrangements, we’ll have sent this information to you directly.   

We’ve created a webpage with everything you need to know ahead of our term-time checkpoints this year, including:    

• qualifications in scope of these arrangements    

• key dates for our two term-time checkpoints and results   

• information we need from you    

• consequences of failure to meet deadlines for information requests    

• further support and FAQs.    

Visit our term-time checkpoints webpage 

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Late registration period is now open 

As a reminder, you needed to register your new cohort of students before Saturday 1 November to avoid late registration fees. For any registrations after this date, you’ll be charged a late registration fee (from Sunday 2 November until Tuesday 23 December) or a very late registration fee (from Wednesday 24 December until Friday 31 July), in line with our fees and pricing guide: 

• Late registration or registration amendment (£21) - Sunday 2 November until Tuesday 23 December 2025  

• Very late registration or registration amendment (£42.50) – Wednesday 24 December 2025 until Friday 31 July 2026 

After Friday 31 July 2026 you won’t be able to register students for the 2025-26 session.  Take a look at our T Level Portal User Guide for instructions on how to register students.   

 Please see our Key Dates Schedule for full details of key dates throughout the year. If you require any additional information, please contact our Assessment Delivery team via email at [email protected].   

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Moderation key dates 

Our moderation webpage shows a visual timeline covering both visiting and remote moderation.   

The T Level timeline documents are designed to provide you with a clear overview of key events for both visiting and remote moderation, along with guidance on where to access further support.  

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Summer 2026 - Occupational Specialism bookings for second-year T Level students  

Please remember that you need to book your second-year students onto their chosen Occupational Specialism (OS) for the summer 2026 assessment series by the dates below at the latest. These are the final deadlines for booking, and we encourage you to make bookings as soon as possible, rather than waiting until the cut-off date.  

This is particularly important for Generation 1 of the T Level Education and Early Years (603/5829/4), as timely bookings are required to ensure that a visiting moderator can be allocated.  

Please follow the booking instructions in the T Level Portal Guide. 

If any students are no longer completing the qualification or they are deferring until next session, please notify our Moderation team at [email protected].   

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Supporting your delivery 

New T Level qualification materials 

Grade standard exemplification materials (GSEMs) for the summer 2025 assessment series are now available on the T Level qualification pages on our website. The GSEMs are accessible via ‘support materials’ on each T Level qualification page.    

These documents contain student responses, alongside examiner/moderator commentary, to support providers and students to prepare for their occupational specialism (OS) assessments. Please note, GSEMs are only produced for OS assessments that had students sitting in summer 2025 and where appropriate exemplar work was available.  

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Training and events 

Standardisation training  

We’ve listened to your feedback, and standardisation training materials are now available directly on our website instead of on our Portal. We’ve made this change to make access to these materials quicker and easier for you.  

The materials are available to download from each T Level qualification page, by clicking on the ‘Support Materials’ tab and selecting  the provider standardisation drop down menu.. 

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Administration training  

Administration training materials are available on our moderation page to support your teams in preparing for the 2025-26 assessment window.  

The training consists of a series of short videos covering essential processes, including:  

• how to access assessment materials 

• how to submit provider marks for moderation 

• how to view students selected for moderation and upload evidence. 

We recommend all colleagues involved in assessment administration view these videos regularly to ensure they remain confident and up to date with moderation requirements.  

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Keep your contact details up to date 

To ensure we can reach the right colleagues with important updates, please notify us of any staff changes by using our online form.