T Level Assessment Series: Autumn 2026

Core exams key reminders  

• You should visit the Portal in advance of the autumn series to confirm your students are booked onto the correct assessment series, paper, and mode (whether online or paper-based).  

• As a reminder, students must complete both core papers A and B in the same series, with a core exam sub-component result based on the combined outcomes within a series. They can’t split their attempts on each paper across different series, or resit just one of the two core exam papers. (Note: Generation 2 Education and Early Years [610/5748/4] has only one core exam paper, not two).  

• These assessments need to be completed under invigilated conditions, following the JCQ Instructions for Conducting Examinations. You can also find these regulations on this webpage.   

• Please ensure you've requested the correct access arrangements or extra time for your students on registration in our Portal. If further arrangements need to be added, they must be added before the date of assessment.  You can find details of how to do this in our T Level Portal User Guide.  

• Please remind your students that if they see claims on social media offering this year’s assessment questions or papers, they must ignore them. These papers will almost certainly be fake, but even accessing fake materials could result in investigation and possible disqualification. Please notify us immediately if you have any concerns about your cohort sharing questions or assessment papers.  

Invigilated assessments  

• We’d like to remind you that there is a 30-minute flexible window on the start time (from that indicated within the Key Dates Schedule) with no requirement to notify us.  

Paper-based assessments  

• If your students are sitting paper-based assessments, the papers will arrive by courier.  

• You should receive the papers three working days before the date of the assessment. If you are not available for any reason, there will be further delivery attempts each subsequent working day, until the day of the assessment if necessary.  

• You must store and handle papers securely, in accordance with the JCQ Instructions for Conducting Examinations.  

• You should return papers using the yellow label service. You can find further information on our yellow label webpage.  

• Please do not send any blank or unused papers back to us, including any blank unused white papers for students who have completed the assessment on coloured paper. Please securely destroy blank and unused papers on your premises.   

Online assessments on our Surpass platform – actions required ahead of assessments 

It’s vitally important that you check some elements of your students’ online assessments before the assessments are due to take place. 

1. Confirm bookings no later than two weeks before the date of the external assessment 

Please ensure your students have the correct booking by visiting the Portal and selecting Bookings > View external assessment and then enter your batch number(s). Once your existing bookings load, it’ll show whether the assessments are online or paper-based. If you think you have booked on the incorrect method, please review our online assessment guidance on set-up and delivery. If you still wish to move to paper based, contact our T Level Support team via email at [email protected] no later than two weeks before the date of the external assessment.  

If you have booked an online assessment, your booking will appear in the Surpass platform, on the ‘Invigilation’ tab, five days before the assessment start date and time.  

You’ll need a keycode for each student sitting an online assessment. These keycodes will be available from the above ‘Invigilation’ tab. 

2. Read our support and guidance 

Our guidance documents will take you through how to set your devices up in advance of the assessment so it runs smoothly on the day. You can also contact our T Level Support team via email at [email protected] for help with this.  

3. Install and test the student interface  

You must have installed and opened the student interface (SecureClient) on each device before the assessment; see guidance on this webpage. You should do this ahead of the assessment date in case any issues arise or you need further support. Doing this well in advance will also allow for any important updates to take place on the software.  

On the morning of the assessment, please open SecureClient on the devices before the students are there so they can just enter the keycodes and start their assessments.  

4. Disabling external aids and AI misuse

The use of external aids, particularly in relation to spelling, punctuation and grammar, for example, dictionary, spelling and grammar checking software, or other cloud-based or AI tools, is not permitted in any external online assessments. You must ensure these aids are removed or disabled before assessments take place. For more information and instructions on disabling some applications see this webpage.  

5. Check the assessment start times 

Please ensure that you’re aware of the start time of the assessment as this must be adhered to (with an allowance to start up to 30 minutes before or after this time, as per our regulations). The ‘Invigilate’ screen in Surpass will show that the assessment can be started between 8am and 4pm. This is not a variation to the set start time, or to allow an assessment to begin at any point in this window; this is to ensure that if you experience technical issues, you can have more time to manage and resolve them. If you’ve been unable to begin an assessment due to technical issues, please contact our T Level Support team via [email protected].  

6. 6. Check additional time has been added where agreed 

When the booking appears on Surpass five days before the assessment, you should check and confirm that your students have had their additional time added in Surpass. You’ll need to go to the ‘Invigilate’ screen and check the duration column for the durations below: 

If your student’s additional time hasn’t been added on, you will need to add it directly into Surpass. To do this, highlight the student’s assessment, and click the ‘modify duration’ button at the bottom of the screen. This will bring up the edit exam duration box where you can apply the additional time. All additional time added is checked after the assessment, and if students have been afforded more time than allowed, a potential malpractice investigation will be opened. 

7. 7. If you need technical support  

If you experience any difficulties or technical issues when preparing your devices before the assessment, or during the assessment, we have troubleshooting advice on our website, or you can contact our T Level Support team via [email protected]. However, you should also ensure the availability of technical support on site to respond to issues arising during online assessments, in line with the JCQ Instructions for Conducting Examinations. 

8. If you’ve chosen to download the assessment within Surpass, so that students can sit the paper offline within the Surpass software: 

• You must upload the students’ assessments after the session has finished. If assessments are not uploaded within 24 hours, students may be treated as a ‘did not attend’, potentially impacting results.  

• To upload assessments, you must open the SecureClient software on the device used for the assessment, connect to the internet, and the system will automatically upload. This may take up to a few minutes depending on the number of assessments uploading and the speed of your internet connection.  

• When the upload is complete, please close the SecureClient software.   

• You can check the status of the assessment on the Surpass ‘Invigilate’ screen. If the assessment has been uploaded, you’ll see a green tick.  

• If any of your assessments do not upload, please contact our T Level Support team immediately via 0191 239 8000.  

Employer set project (ESP)  

Pre-assessment   

• You can access assessment material digitally via the NCFE Portal  three working days prior to the assessment, unless otherwise specified in the Key Dates Schedule and Advanced Assessment Materials page on our website. These materials will include advanced assessment materials where available, and provider guides including checklists to support you with evidence upload.    

• Do not share advanced assessment material or project briefs with tutors before the assessment dates or start of the assessment window unless specified in the provider guide or the Advanced Assessment Materials page.   

• Please ensure you check the Key Dates Schedule and provider guides for requirements and completion deadlines, as some pathways have specified dates and times for tasks within the window.    

• You should test recording equipment before assessments to ensure there are no issues on the day. You should also have back-up systems and processes in place to ensure recordings are carried out, saved and stored securely. Please contact us on 0191 239 8000 or [email protected] if you encounter any issues. If you have any issues before the student has answered any tutor questions, received any feedback, or left the room, then the assessment can be re-recorded immediately. If the error is discovered after any of the above points, then you’ll need to request a special consideration.      

• We want to remind you that all T Level assessments should be completed independently by students who are demonstrating their own knowledge and understanding. Where AI is misused, you or your students may be investigated for malpractice and maladministration.   

Post-assessment – evidence upload   

• Following your feedback, we’ve made several improvements to our Portal to make things easier for your colleagues including improvements to its speed and capacity. The Portal will also now tell you how much of your evidence has uploaded and confirm when uploads are complete.   

• Although we’ve made many improvements to our Portal, upload speeds can be impacted when lots of providers are using it at the same time. In addition, poor internet connectivity can impact upload speeds. To support you with using the Portal, we’ve created an upload guidance document and handy video with all the information you need, including maximum file sizes and formats. Please also use the checklists which are contained within the assessment materials on the Portal. 

•  Important: we recommend files are no larger than 1GB and, you must ensure the maximum file size that you’re uploading is 2GB!  View our top tips for uploading ESP evidence. 

• The upload window is open from the start of the assessment window, this means that you can upload tasks as they’re completed to extend the available time to complete the upload. Evidence must still be uploaded within three working days of the assessment window closing.  

• We’ll check all evidence after it has been uploaded, and if necessary, we’ll let you know if we identify anything missing or if there are any other problems with what you’ve uploaded. We’ll apply strict timescales to our review and will expect a swift response where required. Our checks begin once the upload window closes and will last up to two weeks, and where we contact you with a query we’d ask for a responses within 2 working days.    

• If your students were booked onto the ESP this series but will not attend, please ensure you’ve notified us by submitting a completed and signed invigilator’s register, also uploaded via the Portal.   

Key dates 

What happens if I don’t upload all evidence by the published deadlines?  

This may result in delays to student results, could represent a breach to the NCFE centre agreement, and may lead to maladministration action. All cases will be referred to our Provider Assurance team for further review.  

Everything you need to know about Occupational Specialism (OS) assessments  

Pre-assessment key reminders  

• The OS is intended for students in the second year of their T Level qualification and all assignments must be completed within the same series to be eligible for certification. If you have year one students scheduled on the OS who are not intending to sit this summer, please amend the booking via the Portal.  

• You can access pre-release and live assessment materials digitally via the Portal. These will be available seven working days prior to the assessment for pre-release and for all other assessments three working days prior, unless otherwise specified in the Key Dates Schedule and Advanced Assessment Materials page on our website. These materials will include advanced assessment materials where available, and provider guides including evidence upload checklists to support you with uploading the evidence. Please note that where we refer to working days, this excludes school holidays, therefore materials will be released earlier if the dates don’t fall in term-time.  

• Advanced assessment material or project briefs should not be shared with tutors prior to the assessment date/ start of the assessment window unless specified in the provider guide. 

• Please ensure you check the Key Dates Schedule and tutor guides for requirements and completion deadlines, as some pathways have specified dates and times for tasks within a window, but others have more flexible opportunities within windows.  

• We have a range of useful resources to support you in preparing for the OS, including provider guides which you can access via the Portal. For the Health OS we have instructional videos which you can access on our YouTube playlist. For Education and Early Years, you can access these here. 

• If you encounter any issues before the student has answered any tutor questions, received any feedback or left the room, then the assessment can be re-recorded. If the error is discovered after any of the above points, then you’ll need to request a special consideration.  

• Where an assessment requires an audio or video recording, you should test all recording equipment before the assessments to ensure there are no issues on the day. You should also have back-up systems and processes in place to ensure recordings are carried out, saved and stored securely. Please contact us on 0191 239 8000 or [email protected] if you encounter any issues.  

Post-assessment – submit marks for your students  

• The Portal will close at the end of the assessment window, as outlined in the Key Dates Schedule. 

• All student marks must be entered before the Portal closes and any students who did not attend must be marked as Did Not Attend (DNA). The sampling plan will not generate until all students with a booking have marks entered. If the student attempted the assessment but achieved no rewardable marks you must enter a 0. 

• Providers must inform students of their marks prior to submitting them to us on the Portal to allow students the opportunity to request a review of provider marking. 

Post-assessment – moderation   

• Viewing students selected for moderation: For guidance on viewing students selected for moderation and uploading student evidence in the Portal, please refer to our T Level Portal and Online Assessment User Guide.   

• Submitting student evidence for moderation: You must upload the required evidence for each student in the Portal within three working days of the assessment window closing. You must ensure that adequate resource is available during this time to upload evidence required for moderation. Checklists detailing the evidence requirements are included within the assessment materials. Following initial moderation, we’ll contact you if our moderator needs to moderate further students. We’ll contact the programme contact and exams contact to request additional student evidence so please be prepared. Once prompted, we’ll require evidence to be submitted via the Portal in three working days. It’s important that we maintain the correct contact details for your centre. If there are any changes, please complete this form to notify us so you don’t miss any communications from us. 

• Resources to support the moderation process: To support you with the moderation process, we’ve included various resources on our moderation page. Following results release, a range of reports and results information will be available on the Portal for you to download and you can read more about these on our moderation page.  

• Guidance for uploading moderated student evidence: To efficiently upload the relevant supporting electronic evidence (referred to in the individual evidence upload checklists), please refer to our upload guidance.  

• • File names must include the student’s name and the name of the task.   

• • Where possible, files should be no bigger than 1GB.   

• • Up to 10 files, with an individual file size limit of 2GB can be uploaded at one time .  

• • Larger file sizes will take longer to upload.   

• • Files larger than 2GB will need to be compressed.  

• • Zip files cannot be uploaded.   

It’s your responsibility to ensure that all files produced by students for moderation are uploaded and that all files can be opened and aren’t corrupted or password-protected in any way. Please ensure that this evidence is stored in a central location and that the staff who will be responsible for uploading it to the Portal for moderation have appropriate access.   

Post-assessment: T Level Education and Early Years (Generation 1 only) – submitting evidence for remote moderation (stage 2 and 3)  

• Moderation visits have been taking place throughout the assessment window for Assignment 2 of the OS; these visits are stage one of the moderation process. If a provider is marking within tolerance during stage 1 no further sampling will be required.   

• Stage 2 and 3 moderation for Education and Early Years will take place remotely once the assessment window closes on 15 May. These stages are only required if a provider is marking out of tolerance. If so, students will be selected for remote moderation and will be displayed in the Portal in a sampling plan the following day. For more information, watch our ‘view students selected for moderation and upload evidence’ video. 

• You must upload the required evidence for each student to the Portal within three working days of the assessment window closing. Checklists detailing the evidence requirements have been supplied by your moderator and saved within the OneDrive folder used for stage one sampling evidence. The evidence required for each stage of sampling remains the same. Please see the moderation section above for guidance on how to upload evidence.  

• Following stages 2 and 3 sampling if the moderator requires further student samples they will contact your programme contact and exams contact to request this so please be prepared. Once we’ve reached out to you, we’ll require evidence to be submitted via the Portal within three working days.  

• Failure to submit evidence within the required timescales will result in delays to final moderation and student results. This will also affect your provider's risk rating following moderation. Failing to submit evidence may be maladministration and will be referred to our Provider Assurance team for review.     

We’re here to support you every step of the way with the autumn assessment series. If you have queries before, during or after an assessment, you can contact us by email at [email protected], or by phone at 0191 239 8000.