Welcome to our service messages area. This area is regularly updated with the latest information about our products, qualifications, processes and more.
We’ll also send you a monthly newsletter where we’ll highlight any key updates, and you can click through to this webpage to read the full details. We recommend bookmarking this page so that you can check back regularly for any updates!
Page last updated: 17/07/2024
We recently communicated an update to our fees and pricing for 2024-25 to heads of centres and finance contacts.
We also wanted to make you aware that we're introducing a late registration fee from 1 August 2024 for all of our qualifications (with the exception of V Certs and Functional Skills, and T Level late fees which are calculated differently).
This is to ensure we’re able to support learners at every stage of their journey and that we have the appropriate resources in place to support you during busy assessment periods.
As this fee will apply to any new learner registrations with a learner start date of 1 August 2024 onwards, if you have any outstanding learner registrations to make, we recommend that you make these before 1 August 2024.Find out more
T Level results: Now that the summer series of T Level assessments has finished with over 90 assessments being delivered to students, please take a look at some key information on next steps and results release.
V Cert assessment support: This summer marked the delivery of the new model of V Certs for the first time, with around 35,000 learners completing these Level 2 assessments. Please take a look at the key information on next steps and results release.
We wanted to update you about the release date for the 2024-25 Non-Exam Assessment (NEA) brief for our Level 1/2 Technical Award (V Cert) qualifications.
Last year, we released our NEA assessment brief on 1 September to give you and your colleagues time to familiarise yourselves with the requirements and context of the brief ahead of delivering the live assessments to learners.
Throughout the first NEA assessment, we received feedback from teachers, and we’re using this valuable insight to make some improvements to support the NEA process in 2024-25.
Find out more about the support available
We want to remind you that External Quality Assurance (EQA) reviews should be arranged as soon as possible with a planned date of no later than 31 July 2024, to guarantee results can be issued in time for results day. Following the EQA review, certificate claims must be made with 48 hours and for centres with Direct Claim Status (DCS), all certificate claims must be completed by 31 July 2024.
For further information, please refer to our preparing for external quality assurance reviews webpage.
Changes to EQA review deadlines for summer 2025: We wanted to let you know that from summer 2025 onwards, we’ll be bringing forward the completion date for EQA reviews for VTQs to 30 June. Read more.
Horizons qualification updates document: View our recent qualification updates and maintenance information including qualification withdrawals, new qualifications, and qualification amendments.
JCQ are looking for your views on the use of AI in assessments, and their recent survey, AI Use in Assessments: Protecting the Integrity of Qualifications, has been extended to Friday 19 July. Your feedback will be used to help improve future versions of the guidance that JCQ produces on this matter, and it should take no more than 5 minutes. Complete the survey here.
Coming soon: Functional Skills Entry Level maths vocabulary lists
To help learners achieve in Functional Skills and better understand the contexts in our assessments, we’re introducing new vocabulary lists with all our Entry Level maths assessments. The vocabulary lists will be available for all entry level maths assessments booked from 1 September 2024. If you have any questions or would like more information, please email [email protected].
English Functional Skills Speaking, Listening and Communicating (SLC) Assessment Tasks
We’re making updates to the Assessor Guidance document for SLC, which will include support and guidance on how to lay out the SLC task and brief that centres design. The updated guidance will give you the flexibility to contextualise the SLC assessment component, while ensuring adequate evidence is provided to demonstrate the learners understanding of the task. Keep an eye out for the new guidance in the qualification pages throughout July.
Functional Skills training: Join our Provider Development team for their upcoming July CPD sessions, aimed at Functional Skills maths and English teachers. These sessions include ‘Error analysis for effective feedback’ for maths delivery staff and ‘Functional English’ for English delivery staff. Sign up now.
New assessor and internal quality assurance (IQA) training: We’ve got several new upcoming Assessor and IQA training events, which provide a great opportunity to meet with assessment and IQA professionals and like-minded practitioners to expand your knowledge and understanding of IQA, assessment, and our qualifications. Book onto our Assessor or IQA events today.
Professional Development Week: Last week, our second Professional Development Week took place, with a range of informative CPD sessions covering topics from AI in education to supporting SEND learners. If you missed it or were unable to make the sessions, don’t worry! You can recap all the sessions here.
View this month’s update which includes important reminders specifically for exams officers, upcoming events and resources to help you.
Explore a record of our historic updates about our products, qualifications, processes and more.
Learn moreExplore our Horizons portfolio update from 2024 and beyond below to learn more about our current offer.
