E-bulletins archive

November 2024

We recently communicated to you that we've taken the decision to step back as the awarding organisation for the Digital Business Services and Digital Support Services T Levels. We’ll continue to support all current students to success and will ensure a smooth transition for providers to Pearson, the new awarding organisation. The first cohort of students with Pearson will start in September 2025.

To help support you through this change, Pearson will need to get in contact with you directly. Therefore, in line with GDPR regulations, we need your permission to share your contact details with them, so they can provide the guidance and support you'll need during the transition.

If you’re happy for us to share your details with Pearson, please could you email Bradley Pearce, T Level Account Executive, to confirm as soon as possible.

After careful consideration, we’ve taken the decision to step back as the awarding organisation for the Digital T Level pathways. We’ll continue to support all current students to success and will ensure a smooth transition for providers to Pearson, the new awarding organisation. In order to do this smoothly and efficiently, we’ll be carefully navigating an exit plan for the Digital Business Services and Digital Support Services T Levels. If you have questions about this, please contact our T Level Support team via email at [email protected]

The Employer Set Project (ESP) advanced assessment materials were made available for the T Level in Digital Support Services and Digital Business Services on 9 October 2024 and can be accessed via the Portal.

Events and webinars

Our Professional Development Week will be making a return for its third instalment from 16-20 December! Keep your eyes peeled for more updates on the topics that will be covered and how they can enhance your CPD.

We have lots of upcoming events to help support your T Level planning, teaching and delivery for 2024-25. Please check out our Provider hub events page for more details and how to register.

September 2024

• After careful consideration, we’ve taken the decision to step back as the awarding organisation for the Digital T Level pathways. We’d like to thank all of our providers for working with us on these qualifications and share our congratulations to all your students who have achieved and progressed over the last few years.
• Test your digital skills with our free digital assessment, as part of our mission to bridge the digital divide and ensure everyone has access to digital resources and opportunities. Find out more.

Events and webinars

We have lots of upcoming events to help support your T Level planning, teaching and delivery for 2024-25. Please check out our Provider Hub events page for more details and how to register.

Get in touch with us any time via email at [email protected].

November 2024

• For 2024-25, we’ve made changes to the moderation process for both Occupational Specialisms within the T Level in Education and Early Years. Read more. 
• View our new timeline for visiting moderation and delivery of the Education and Early Years T Level. 
• Find out more about the new Early Years Educator criteria and how it affects the T Level content. 
• Join our Education and Early Years Assessor masterclass on 18 November, designed to help you identify strengths and areas for development in your assessment strategies. 

Events and webinars 

We have lots of upcoming events to help support your T Level planning, teaching and delivery for 2024-25. Please check out our Provider hub events page for more details and how to register. 

The Employer Set Project (ESP) advanced assessment materials were made available for the T Level in Education and Early Years on 2 October 2024 and can be accessed via the Portal.

For 2024-25, we’ve made changes to the moderation process for both Occupational Specialisms within the T Level in Education and Early Years. Read more.

Find out more about the new Early Years Educator criteria and how it affects the T Level content.

Join our Education and Early Years Best Practice Network (BPN) session on Monday 21 October, for an in-depth exploration of formative and summative assessment strategies and share experiences with fellow educators from the Education and Early Years sector. Register now.

Assignment 2 evidence upload checklists are now available in the assessment materials area of the Portal for:

• • Early Years Educator Assignment 2 Part 1
  • Early Years Educator Assignment 2 Part 2
  • Assisting Teaching Assignment 2.

Events and webinars

Our Professional Development Week will be making a return for its third instalment from 16-20 December! Keep your eyes peeled for more updates on the topics that will be covered and how they can enhance your CPD.

We have lots of upcoming events to help support your T Level planning, teaching and delivery for 2024-25. Please check out our Provider hub events page for more details and how to register.

September 2024

• For 2024-25, we’ve made changes to the moderation process for both Occupational Specialisms within the T Level in Education and Early Years. Read more.
• Download essential documents for Assignment 2 from the Portal. Read more.
• Find out more about the new Early Years Educator criteria and how it affects the T Level content.
• Join us for our milestone 10th student conference: Working in Education and Early Years! Taking place on Wednesday 9 October, 10:30am-12:30pm, we’ll explore what it’s like to have a career in this sector. Sign up now.
• Come along to our next Teaching Assistant Forum ‘Technology in Education’ on 26 September, 5pm-6pm. You’ll have the chance to hear from Yasmin Halverson, Level 4 and Level 5 tutor for Education and Early Years at Suffolk New College. We’ll celebrate the wonderful contributions that Teaching Assistants make in supporting children's learning ahead of National Teaching Assistants’ Day 2024. Register now.

Events and webinars

We have lots of upcoming events to help support your T Level planning, teaching and delivery for 2024-25. Please check out our Provider Hub events page for more details and how to register.

Get in touch with us any time via email at [email protected].

November 2024

• To support your delivery of the T Level, we're working with the Association of Colleges (AoC), Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and Gatsby on a series of webinars for you and your colleagues. These sessions will cover the range of resources available to support effective formative and summative assessment, pedagogy and placements. Register now.
• Join our webinar on 20 November, ‘Tackling Year 2 - how to support, teach and assess your T Level Health students to achieve the best learning outcomes’, to understand the challenges and requirements of teaching the second year of the Health T Level course. Secure your place.

Events and webinars 

We have lots of upcoming events to help support your T Level planning, teaching and delivery for 2024-25. Please check out our Provider hub events page for more details and how to register. 

Join our drop-in clinics for support with Employer Set Project (ESP) resits in the Autumn series. These sessions offer a flexible and supportive environment where educators can ask questions, receive guidance, and share resources related to the ESP resit process. Sign up now.

The Employer Set Project (ESP) advanced assessment materials will be made available for the T Level in Health on 14 October 2024 and can be accessed via the Portal. Please note there are no advanced assessment materials for the T Level in Healthcare Science.

Webinars to support your Health T Level delivery

To support your delivery of the Health T Level, we're working with the Association of Colleges (AoC), Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and Gatsby Technical Education on a series of webinars for you and your colleagues.

These sessions will cover the range of resources available to support effective formative and summative assessment, pedagogy and placements.
Sign up for the webinars using the links below. If you're unable to attend live, don't worry - we'll share the recordings in December.

• Session 1: Resources and CPD materials to support effective formative and summative assessment for the Health T Level - Tuesday 19 November, 4-5pm
• Session 2: Resources and CPD materials to support effective pedagogy for the Health T Level - Tuesday 26 November, 4-5pm
• Session 3: Resources and CPD materials to support effective placements for the Health T Level - Thursday 5 December, 4-5pm

More events and webinars

Our Professional Development Week will be making a return for its third instalment from 16-20 December! Keep your eyes peeled for more updates on the topics that will be covered and how they can enhance your CPD.

We have lots of upcoming events to help support your T Level planning, teaching and delivery for 2024-25. Please check out our Provider hub events page for more details and how to register.

September 2024

• Join us for our upcoming provider Q&A clinic, ‘Delivering T Level Optical Care Services and Dental Nursing’, taking place on 23 September from 4:30pm-5:30pm. This clinic offers the perfect opportunity to clarify your queries, share experiences and connect with a supportive community of peers. Sign up now.

Events and webinars

We have lots of upcoming events to help support your T Level planning, teaching and delivery for 2024-25. Please check out our Provider Hub events page for more details and how to register.

Get in touch with us any time via email at [email protected].

Key dates and reminders:   

T Levels autumn assessment series – what you need to know

Remember to visit our website for everything you need to know for the T Level autumn assessment series, including information on core exams and Employer Set Projects (ESP), as well as key dates for each T Level. If you have students booked for either or both of these components, please visit our autumn assessment series webpage for more details on: 

• special considerations and reasonable adjustments  

• core exams key reminders, including: 

• • reminders on decoupling the core exams and ESP  

• • bookings and access arrangements  

• • details on invigilated, paper-based and online assessments  

• ESP key reminders, including: 

• • key dates across each subject area 

• • pre-assessment information, including a reminder to test recording equipment ahead of assessments  

• • post-assessment information, including clear steps on when, where and how to upload evidence, as well as tips for checking your evidence and troubleshooting. 

Visit the autumn assessment series page now.  

Access our standardisation pack and complete the standardisation and administration training  

Our standardisation packs are now available on the Portal, and you must complete the relevant training by 28 February 2025. These training materials support your delivery teams by looking in more detail at the moderated components of the Occupational Specialism, focusing on assessment criteria and marking bands, giving you the opportunity to discuss marks and develop a standardised approach.  

To access the standardisation training materials, once you’ve booked your learners onto the relevant assessment, you’ll need to:   

• log in to the Portal    

• go to the ‘Bookings’ tab and click ‘View Assessments’    

• search for a batch number or product code to find learners on the relevant qualification/assignment you’d like to access training for    

• select all learners    

• scroll to the bottom and click ‘view bookings’    

• click on the desired assessment booking on the relevant session.    

You’ll see headings for each assessment, and the standardisation materials for moderated assessments are located under the moderated assessment heading. Click ‘Show Details’ to view the materials and then click them to download. If there are two parts to the assessment, the materials for this will be located under ‘Part 2’.    

Administration training  

You can watch administration training for the moderated component on our Preparing for moderation page. The training consists of a series of videos supporting you through the administrative requirements associated with moderation, including but not limited to accessing and uploading assessment materials. Once you’ve completed the training you need to sign a declaration and return it to us via Microsoft Forms: Administration and Standardisation Training Declaration form.

If you have any queries about these materials or the training, please contact our Moderation team via [email protected].  

Changes to our Key Dates Schedule (KDS) 

We’ve added two additional dates to our KDS to provide clarity on start and end dates for the occupational specialisms (OS) for Early Years Educator (EYE) and Supporting Healthcare: 

• The start date for Education and Early Years OS EYE for Assignment 2 Part 1 is 30 September 2024. The end date of 16 May 2025 remains unchanged. 

• The final deadline to submit marks for Health OS Supporting Healthcare Assignment 2 Part 1: Practical Activity Assessment (PAA) Core is 4 April 2025. The start date of 24 March 2025 remains unchanged. 

Access the revised KDS 

Occupational Specialism (OS) booking for second year T Level students 

You need to book your second year T Level students onto their chosen Occupational Specialism (OS) for the summer 2025 assessment series, if you haven’t done this already. Please ensure you complete this process no later than the deadline outlined below and in the Key Dates Schedule.  

Please ask your exams team to follow the booking guidelines on the T Level Portal Guide detailed from page 28.  

Our T Level Provider Impact survey 

As T Level providers, your insights and experiences play a vital role in the continued growth and success of the T Level qualifications. Your feedback enables us to understand what’s working well and where improvements can be made, ensuring that T Levels provide the best possible outcomes for both providers and students.  

Please take a few minutes to complete our Provider impact survey, and share your perspective with us before Friday 29 November. We take every piece of feedback seriously and it directly informs our next steps in developing and enhancing T Levels to better meet the needs of all stakeholders.  

Gatsby’s Technical Education Networks (TEN) teacher survey 

One of our partners, Gatsby, are interested to find out about awareness of their TEN amongst T Level teachers and providers across the UK, and also where teachers are finding, accessing and using teaching materials. Complete their short survey (only 2 minutes!) to share your thoughts and feed into their work going forwards. Please note that responses will be anonymised.  

Support and resources: 

Join our new WhatsApp channel 

We’ve launched our new WhatsApp channel, to keep you up to date with key deadlines and reminders for T Levels, and the other qualifications in our portfolio. Click this link from your mobile to join the channel.

Announcing our new partnership with Sim & Skills  

We’re excited to announce a new partnership between us and Sim & Skills, enhancing support for T Levels in Health, Healthcare Science, and Science. Sim & Skills specialises in medical simulation and immersive learning resources, offering innovative tools to engage students and improve educational outcomes. Through this partnership, T Level providers will be able to access webinars and events focused on using simulation equipment effectively within delivery of the T levels. 

Join us for the webinar Tackling year 2: How to support, teach, and assess your T Level Health students on 20 November from 2- 3:30pm, featuring insights from experienced T Level teachers and a showcase of available resources. 

Professional Development Week 

Calling all teachers, assessors, senior leaders and support staff who want to enhance their teaching and learning, improve learner engagement and develop confidence! Our Professional Development Week is back from 16-20 December. Register early interest now.

T Level timeline for the moderated component 

Check our new T Level timeline, for the delivery of the moderated component, to help you prepare for upcoming milestones within the second year of the T Level. This has been designed to help provide you with a timeline of events and expectations, inform you of any training to complete, support you with where to access support and let you know what to expect during the moderation period.  

We’ve also created a new timeline for visiting moderation and delivery of the Education and Early Years T Level.  

If you have any queries on this, please contact our Moderation team via email at [email protected].  

Grade Standard Exemplification Materials (GSEMs) for the summer 2024 assessment series 

GSEMs for the summer 2024 assessment series are now available and accessible via the ‘support materials’ tab on each individual T Level qualification page.   

These documents contain student responses, alongside examiner and moderator commentary, to support providers and students prepare for their occupational specialism (OS) assessments. Please note, GSEMs are only produced for OS assessments that had students sitting in summer 2024 and where appropriate exemplar work was available. 

Change of contact details 

If any contact details have changed at your centre, it’s important to let us know. It’s quick and easy to notify us by filling in this form: change of centre contact details form, and this will allow us to continue communicating important updates to the correct individuals.  

Our impact

Social Impact Report 2024 

We’ve released our Social Impact Report 2024. Visit our webpage to explore the initiatives, insights and stories that make up the second edition of this milestone publication that forms a key part of our charitable purpose. 

From improving outcomes for learners from diverse backgrounds to increasing the capabilities of educators through CPD, from providing clear access to lifelong learning using platforms like CACHE Alumni to investing in assessment innovation, or accrediting qualifications for charities such as Save the Children – read more about our impact on students, institutions, educators and the wider society. 

Download the report and explore the stories. 

Key dates and reminders:

Access our standardisation materials and complete our compulsory administration training

You can now download our standardisation packs from the Portal, and you must complete the relevant training by 28 February 2025.  

The standardisation training materials are compulsory. They’re designed for your delivery teams. They contain detailed information about the moderated components of the Occupational Specialisms (OS), focusing on assessment criteria and marking bands. They’ll give delivery teams the confidence to discuss marks and develop a standardised approach, ensuring that you’re marking consistently and are prepared for the 2025 assessment window.  

To access the standardisation training materials, you’ll firstly need to book your students on to their OS. Then you’ll need to:  

• log on to the Portal
• go to the ‘Bookings’ tab and click ‘View assessments’   
• search for a batch number or product code to find learners on the relevant qualification/assignment you’d like to access training for   
• select all learners   
• scroll to the bottom and click ‘view bookings’   
• click on the desired assessment booking on the relevant session:   

• a further screen will drop down, where you’ll see sections for each assessment. The standardisation materials for moderated assessments are located under the moderated assessment heading:

• click ‘Show Details’ to view the materials and then click to download. If there are two parts to the assessment, the materials will be located under ‘Part 2’:

Compulsory Administration training 

You can find administration training relating to the moderated components on our Preparing for moderation page. The training consists of a series of videos supporting you through the administrative requirements associated with moderation, including but not limited to accessing and uploading assessment materials. Once you’ve completed this training, you must sign and return a declaration form via Microsoft Forms. This will confirm that you’ve completed both the standardisation and administration training.

If you have any queries about these standardisation materials or training, please contact our Moderation team via [email protected]  

Annual Monitoring Review (AMR): complete your self-assessment forms

Last month, your Quality Reviewer (QR) will have confirmed the date of your AMR for this session and given you a link to a self-assessment declaration. This should be completed and returned within 10 working days.

The self-assessment declaration asks you to detail any policies or procedures that have been updated or changed since your last AMR, or approval review for new providers. It also asks you to confirm which T Level qualifications you’re running this session and if you have the correct staff, work placements and physical resources to support delivery. 

The final deadline for all forms to be returned is 14 October. 

Key dates for the autumn 2024 Employer Set Project (ESP) including a reminder to register your students by 1 November

Key dates for the autumn 2024 Employer Set Project (ESP) including a reminder to register your students by 1 November.

Following on from provider consultation throughout 2023-24, we wanted to share the following key date information for the employer set project (ESP) and booking cut offs for the autumn 2024 series.

Remember to register your new students and book second year T Level students onto the Occupational Specialism (OS)

You must register your new cohort of students before 1 November 2024. After this date, you’ll be charged a late registration fee or very late registration fee, in line with our fees and pricing policy. You’ll be unable to register students for the 2024-25 session after 31 July 2025. 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]. 

Book your second year T Level students onto the Occupational Specialism (OS) 

You must book your second year T Level students onto their chosen Occupational Specialism (OS) for the summer 2025 assessment series and ensure to complete this process before the deadline outlined within the Key Dates Schedule. Please ask your exams team to follow the booking guidelines in the T Level Portal Guide (from page 28).   

Once you’ve booked your students onto their chosen pathway, you’ll gain access to our provider standardisation materials, which were released on 1 October 2024 and must be completed by 28 February 2025. These training materials will support your delivery teams by looking at the moderated component of the OS, focusing on assessment criteria and marking bands and help you to feel confident that you’re marking consistently and are prepared for the 2025 assessment window. 

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

Support and resources:

Support for delivering NCFE T Levels

We look forward to working closely with you in the coming year to support you and your students to achieve the best T Level outcomes. We want to remind you about what we have in place to support you, including:

• regular communications you can expect from us
• the support and resources that’s available from NCFE.

Regular communications and our provider hub

• T Level provider hub: This is a central place on our website to access useful resources and information, including our Key Dates Schedule, events, resources and communications.
• Monthly provider newsletter and communications hub: We provide regular updates on this page and we’ll notify you when there are updates to this via our monthly T Level provider newsletter. Checking our communications hub regularly will ensure you can stay up to date with all the latest information and news.
• End-of-month round up email: This newsletter will share reminders from the last month and anything you might have missed. From time to time, we’ll send emails outside of our newsletters focused on important milestones, for example the upcoming assessment series.
• Keeping us up to date with the right contact in your organisation: If you’re not the most relevant person at your organisation to receive our emails, or you want to add anyone else to our email contact list, please let us know via [email protected].

Resources 

We have a wide range of targeted resources to support your delivery. These include:

• free materials such as schemes of work, sample papers, project briefs, mark schemes and more, and
• additional teaching resources that you can purchase.

We've recently updated the suite of materials and resources available, which can be accessed from the ‘Teaching materials’ tab on the relevant qualification pages on our website. View the full list of resources available, and updated resources that will be available from 16 October 2024.

You can also find information about resources from external specialists, including Gatsby Technical Education Projects and RCNi on our Provider hub.

Support from our Provider Development team

Our dedicated team of experienced teachers and subject specialists provides both general and bespoke support directly to you and your team.  You can access:

• events and webinars
• one-to-one curriculum consultations.

Further support

If you have queries about industry placements, please refer to the Department for Education’s guidance document. Visit this webpage for a list of universities that include T Levels in their entry requirements.

We look forward to working with you over the coming months but in the meantime, if you have any further queries relating to T Levels, please contact us via [email protected].

Special Considerations Policy update

We’re pleased to announce that as part of our ongoing integration with JCQ, we’ve aligned our Special Considerations Policy with theirs, and all applications made will now be under this policy. As a result, we’ll be removing links to our current policy in the coming weeks and replacing them with the JCQ criteria under NCFE branding. Please familiarise yourself with JCQ’s policy.

Should you have any further questions regarding this topic, please contact the Assessment Delivery Team ([email protected])

Have your say:

Complete our provider annual review surveys

To ensure that T Levels remain at the forefront of education, each year they’re reviewed by industry representatives and providers, so that they remain valid and reflective of current industry practice.

We’d like you to have your say and share your feedback with us to inform the review process. Click the links below to tell us your thoughts about our qualification content and learning resources. Please complete the surveys before 31 October 2024:

• annual review of qualifications content
• annual review of learning resources.

Take part in our delivery and assessment focus groups

We’d like to gather insight from you about the delivery and assessment of the T Levels in Digital, Education and Early Years, and Health, Healthcare Science and Science. The information gained will be used to inform our future support and CPD offer.

We’re inviting you and your colleagues to share your views with us as part of a virtual focus group. These will take place in the first term of 2024-25 and will run for approximately one hour each.

We’ll explore topics including:

• managing and getting the most out of industry placements
• the challenges of 'upscaling' and increasing student numbers
• how to prepare students for assessments.

We’ll also share the feedback we’ve received on T Levels during our first four years of delivery and how we’ve responded to this and made improvements for you and your students.

The focus groups will take place at the following times:

• Education and Early Years – 8 October, 10:30-11:30am and 3:30-4:30pm
• Health, Healthcare Science and Science – 9 October, 10:30-11:30am and 3:30-4:30pm
• Digital Business Services and Digital Support Services – 10 October, 10:30-11:30am and 3:30-4:30pm

We'd like as many of you represented as possible, so if you’d like to be involved, please email [email protected] stating which date and time best works for you.

Changes to centre contact details

If any contact details have changed at your centre such as programme contact, head of centre, finance or exams contact, it’s important to let us know as soon as possible. It’s quick and easy to notify us by filling in this form: change of centre contact details form.

With the right contacts, we’ll be able to communicate important updates to the correct individuals and our External Quality Assurers (EQAs) will be able to organise your reviews more efficiently. We also send out automated emails when planning and completing EQA reviews and it's vital that we have the most up-to-date contact, so you can receive a copy of your visit report and Direct Claims Status (DCS) outcome for qualifications that are eligible for DCS.