ITQ: Centre guidance on adaptations for 2021/22

Overview

We have prepared this guidance to support centres during 2021/22 in the delivery and assessment of our ITQ qualifications. 

We have updated this guidance document following the publication of the outcomes of the Department for Education and Ofqual’s joint consultation on the arrangements for assessment and awarding of VTQs in 2021/22.

The Government’s policy position is that for all VTQs assessment should go ahead.  All content should be taught, as far as is feasible, so that students are as well-prepared as possible for progression to the next stage of their education, training or employment. Given the disruption to students’ education that will be carried over into 2021 to 2022, to support education recovery it may be necessary and appropriate for adaptations to be made to assessments to free up time to focus on catch up and teaching the remaining qualification content. Where the assessment is unable to proceed, in their normal or adapted form, some students may be delayed in receiving a result.

The regulatory framework put in place by Ofqual through the VCRF is flexible and allows, but does not require, assessments to be adapted.

Reduction in assessment and permission to take CLAiT and CLAiT Plus assignments in an alternative setting will not be available in 2021/22. 

The remaining guidance we gave you last academic year on:

• alternative forms of evidence to demonstrate competence of producing hardcopy documents, and
• alternative forms of evidence to demonstrate the assessment criteria in the evidence checklists

has now been incorporated as standard guidance in our centre handbooks for the ITQ suite. It means there are no adaptations to the normal assessment arrangements for ITQ in 2021/22. By including these as standard assessment arrangements we hope the flexibilities they permit alongside the flexibilities in ways to generate evidence that already existed will support students to complete assessments.

ITQ assesses occupational competency. Their main purpose is to support progression into and within employment.  They are sometimes used by students in schools and colleges to support progression onto further study. 

Assessment guidance for 2021/22 If for any reason you cannot complete the assessments by following guidance from the centre handbook, the assessments will have to be rescheduled until students are able to continue with them as normal. 

Assessment requirements for printing/reproducing hard copy – this is now incorporated as standard guidance in the centre handbook and applies to all students for the lifetime of the qualification.

Assessment requirements in units/OCR assignments that require the candidate to print and/or to produce hard copy documents can be carried out using alternative forms of evidence to demonstrate competence. Alternative forms include: 

• Cross-referencing to previous achievement in other units.
• Printing to pdf.
• Submitting a screenshot of the print preview screen.
• Professional discussion and witness testimony.

The centre assessor must be confident that the student has demonstrated competency.

Evidence Checklists – this is incorporated as standard guidance in the centre handbook and applies to all students for the lifetime of the qualification

If you are not using an OCR set assignment, you must use the evidence checklist. The assessment criteria for each unit must still be covered but the evidence requirements can be met in different ways to those listed on the evidence checklists.

Alternative forms of evidence include witness testimonies, professional discussion, tutor observations or audio/video evidence of a real or simulated work activity.

The Centre Handbook provides useful information on these forms of evidence including advice on their use. Most importantly, witness testimonies and professional discussion cannot be used to evidence achievement of the whole qualification.

Taking CLAiT and CLAiT Plus assessments in an alternative setting

This adaptation is not permitted in 2021/22.  You must plan for students to take all CLAiT assessments at your centre

Should the situation change and disruption means we need to implement further adaptations we will consider if we need to reinstate the adaptation.  To enable us to do that if necessary we are withdrawing access to Level 1 CLAiT 2005-2006 Set A and B Live Assignments and datafiles and Level 2 CLAiT Plus 2005-2006 Set A and B Live Assignments and datafiles. 

Centres are no longer permitted to use these assessments as live assignments or practice assignments.  Students should complete 2006-2010 assignments only now following the guidance in CLAIT and CLAIT PLUS handbooks.

Summer 2020 adaptations that have been removed

Evidence review forms 

The summer 2020 adaptations permitted teachers to hold a conversation with a student and capture the individual and authentic responses of the student.  This adaptation has been removed and the students must complete the information in the form independently with teachers/assessors marking the student output as usual. 

Candidates usually complete the evidence review form in typed format, however, it also acceptable to audio/video record a candidate’s responses and reference accordingly on the evidence review form.

Quality assurance

It is important for all internal assessments that robust monitoring processes are implemented by your centre. These monitoring processes should include effective dialogue with students where needed to ensure the evidence being generated is both individual and authentic.

There are no changes to the sampling rules for these internal assessments. We require you to submit the same amount of work for external moderation as you would under normal circumstances. 

These adaptations are in place for 2021/22.  There is no set date during this year by which assessments using adaptations must be completed but we encourage you to complete the assessment and submission process at the earliest opportunity.

You must complete the standard ITQ cover sheet when you submit candidate evidence and a copy of the Interchange claim. We have removed the 2020-21 Submission cover sheet, which included an adaptation declaration from the OCR website, used in 2020/21.

Completed assessments can be submitted to OCR in the normal way for external moderation.  We would strongly advise the use of electronic evidence during this period, guidance for which can be found in the Centre Handbook.