Level 1 and Level 2 Technical Award qualifications – 2024 reforms
What are the reformed L1/L2 Technical Award qualifications?
Level 1/Level 2 Technical Award qualifications are available to 14-16 year olds to take alongside GCSEs and are approved by the Department for Education (DfE) for inclusion in KS4 performance tables.
Changes to the requirements of a Technical Award (set out by the DfE) and the conditions for the design, delivery and awarding of these qualifications (set out by Ofqual) were due to be implemented for the 2022 performance tables but were delayed because of the pandemic. They have been implemented for 2024 performance tables and first teaching of reformed Technical Award qualifications began in September 2022.
What do you need to know about the reformed L1/L2 Technical Award qualifications?
With the first certifications for the reformed L1/L2 Technical Award qualifications being available this academic year, we thought it would be useful to summarise some of the answers to key questions that are being asked.
What qualifications are L1/L2 Technical Awards?
- L2 Technical Awards (City & Guilds)
- L1/L2 V Cert Technical Awards (NCFE)
- L1/L2 Cambridge Nationals (OCR)
- BTEC L1/L2 Tech Awards (Pearson)
- L1/L2 Vocational Awards (Technical Awards) (WJEC)
Are the L1/L2 Technical Award qualifications the same as the legacy qualifications?
As with any reform there will be some similarities and differences between the legacy and the reformed qualifications. The extent of the changes will vary across the different awarding organisations and subjects and more detailed information can be found on the awarding organisations website (see links below).
However, as part of the reform there are some key features that all Awarding Organisations must include in their L1/L2 Technical Awards in order for them to count in performance measures. It means there is more alignment with the Technical Award qualifications, which are:
- The non-exam assessment must be set by the Awarding organisation
- The non-exam assessment must have marks and be moderated¹
- Learners must take one or more assessments by examination, worth at least 40% of the qualification, in the series in which they certificate – The terminal rule (see below).
¹Moderation is a quality assurance process for checking that assessment standards have been applied correctly and consistently between assessors, between centres and over time, and making adjustments where required to compensate for any differences in standard that are encountered.
What does the terminal assessment rule mean and how is it different from the legacy qualifications?
There was no terminal assessment rule in the legacy qualifications which meant that a learner’s best banked grade in the assessment by examination would have been used towards the qualification result.
The terminal assessment rule in the reformed L1/L2 Technical Award qualification means that a learner must now take at least 40% of the assessment by examination in the series in which they certificate. It is their final attempt result which will be used towards their qualification grade.
Please see individual Awarding organisation’s website for more details on the terminal assessment rule and how this rule applies.
Can I expect the grade boundaries to be similar or different to the legacy qualifications?
It is always difficult to compare grade boundaries between old and new qualifications in a meaningful way. Changes in the assessments such as maximum marks for the assessments, the total number of assessments in a subject and the type of assessment can all be different. Some of the old qualifications had non-exam assessments that were grades based, these will now have changed to marks-based assessment.
Further information on the L1/L2 Technical Award qualifications can be found on individual awarding bodies websites:
New Ofqual VTQ Information Hub:
Ofqual has also launched a new vocational and technical qualifications Information Hub which brings together the key dates from awarding organisations into one central location for schools and colleges to view and download.
