Service messages

Updated on [14/11/2025]

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!

November 2025  

Registrations 

Remember to register your learners to avoid late registration fees 

We wanted to send another reminder about our late registration fees to ensure you have all the information you need to register your learners on time and avoid any additional charges.  

T Levels: the late registration period is now open, in line with our fees and pricing guide.  

V Certs: the registration deadline for V Certs is 31 January 2026.  

All other qualifications (excluding Functional Skills): 

• Learners should be registered within 3 months of their start date.  

• Registrations made after the 3-month period will incur an additional 10% of the registration and certification fee.  

Read more about late registration fees, and which products they apply to, in our fees and pricing guide. 

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Term-time checkpoints (timely delivery of VTQ results) 

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.    

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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Qualifications updates and withdrawals 

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

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Updates to our travel and tourism qualifications 

We’ve refreshed our qualification specifications for our travel and tourism qualifications. The changes are focused on ensuring alignment with current industry practice, improving readability and updating references. 

The updates include: 

• New references to the business travel association (BTA), travel management companies (TMCs), online travel agents (OTAs), and the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions sector (MICE). 

• Inclusion of electronic travel authorisation (ETA), sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), air passenger duty (APD), and updated European Union (EU) aviation security regulations. 

• Updated traveller types and job role examples and modernised terminology (for example, remote work hubs). 

• Improved inclusivity in wording, clearer timelines, and additional environmental considerations in event planning. 

Please ensure you are using the most up-to-date qualification specification from our website. You can access these through the qualification webpages. 

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Direct claims status (DCS) for Spectator Safety qualifications  

From 1 January 2026, the following qualifications will be eligible for DCS:  

• 603/6703/9 NCFE Level 2 Award in Understanding Stewarding at Spectator Events  

• 603/6704/0 NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Spectator Safety  

• 603/6756/8 NCFE Level 3 Certificate in Spectator Safety Supervision  

We will get in touch with programme contacts at centres currently delivering these qualifications with further information. FAQs are also available on our website. 

If you’d like to move your EQA review forward to earlier in 2026 to gain DCS, please contact your Sport, Exercise and Fitness EQA as soon as possible. Please note: EQA capacity may be limited as demand increases.  

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Supporting your delivery 

Sign up for our upcoming assessor and IQA training events 

Sign up now for our assessor and IQA training events.  

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Learning resource offer update: Level 3 Early Years Educator qualifications  

We’ve updated our learning resources for our Level 3 Early Years Educator qualifications.   

If you’ve previously purchased or downloaded our learning resources for the following qualifications, please download the new versions:   

• NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for Working in the Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator) (610/4164/6)   

• NCFE CACHE Level 3 Technical Occupational Entry for the Early Years Workforce (Early Years Educator) (Diploma) (610/3984/6)  

• NCFE CACHE Level 3 Extended Diploma for Working in the Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator) (610/6133/5)  

The updated learning resources can be accessed from the ‘Teaching Materials’ tab on the relevant qualification pages on our website. If you’ve previously purchased resources, you’ll find the updated version on your centre dashboard.   

What learning resources are available and what updates have been made?  

If you have any queries about the updated learning resources, please contact our Learning Resources team via email at [email protected]  

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Qualification-specific updates

• Exams Officers
• Functional Skills  

• • Including information on the last date your learners can sit paper-based bookings before the break and the first date your learners can sit paper-based bookings in the new year.  

• • Details on our upcoming CPD events. 

• T Levels  

• V Certs 

Horizons archive

Explore our Horizons portfolio archive below.