BTec Nationals: Who are the students who didn't just do A-levels?

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The summer ritual of A-level results day is so well known it's easy to forget the thousands of students receiving their BTec National results.

Coronavirus has disrupted all courses, including vocational qualifications, so what is happening to ensure vocational students are getting fair grades?

What are BTec Nationals?

Studied over one or two years, BTec Nationals are vocational qualifications which provide work-based skills across areas including business, health care and engineering.

They are assessed over the course of the qualification through exams, practical coursework and often placements.

They can be used to attend university (similar to A-levels), although many people take them so they have the skills for a specific occupation.

How are BTecs being marked this year?

Colleges and schools have been closed almost entirely since the end of March, meaning much of the coursework and exam-based assessments that make up BTecs will not have happened.

In April, the qualifications regulator Ofqual said that the numerous bodies who set technical or vocational qualifications - such as BTec Nationals - would be responsible for deciding how to grade this.

For many students, this will be based on completed assessments and predicted results for those assessments that didn't happen. These will then be adapted based on whether the predicted grades are higher than usual for a particular college.

Ofqual has said that, where vocational qualifications are being used to progress to university, they should try and use this method.

Some courses which rely on require practical assessments, such as lab work or childcare, have had been adapted. For example, by using video calls to allow assessments to be done while still complying with social distancing rules.

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Can I challenge my results?

If your BTec National marks were calculated based on completed assessments and predicted grades, you can appeal to your education provider.

They can then take your case to Pearson, the body that runs BTecs.

It might also be possible to complete your assessments in the autumn, although you should check based on the type of course you're on.

Who takes BTecs and why?

It was estimated just under 250,000 students completed BTec Nationals in 2019, compared with about 300,000 who sat A-levels in 2018.

BTec Nationals can be sat by any age group - in fact, most are taken by those over the age of 22, as they develop practical skills for their careers.

The most popular subjects in 2019 were business, sport and health and social care.

About 20% of university students in England are accepted after studying only BTec Nationals. Another 10% are accepted into higher education with a combination of A-levels and BTecs.

BTec Nationals are particularly popular among white working-class students, according to research by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) think tank.

In 2016, 31% of this group who were accepted into higher education had studied just BTec Nationals.

Students from ethnic-minority backgrounds are also more likely to have these qualifications, including 37% of black students.

What BTec subjects are there?

There are more than 2,000 different courses. These provide practical experience of everything from aeronautical engineering to hairdressing and forensic investigation.

BTecs are awarded by a private organisation, the education and training company Pearson. While England, Wales and Northern Ireland have BTecs, Scotland has its own Scottish Vocational Qualifications.

How do BTecs compare with other qualifications?

BTec Nationals are broadly comparable with A-levels.

However, other BTecs include those equivalent to a GCSE (BTec Firsts) and the first year of university (BTec Higher Nationals).

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What about other vocational qualifications?

According to Ofqual, there are currently more than 12,000 vocational qualifications at all levels, offered by more than 150 awarding organisations.

Beyond BTec, other organisations, such as City and Guilds and the OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations), also offer vocational qualifications.

And students can have a wide range of courses in a single subject from which to choose. There are currently 34 qualifications alone for those aiming for a career in plumbing.

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However, in July 2016 then Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to slash the number of courses available.

It said this would help avoid confusion for students and employers and to redress what it considered to be an imbalance between post-16 technical and academic qualifications.

So, the autumn of 2020 is still expected to see the introduction of a new qualification, the Technical or T-level.

These new two-year courses will follow on from GCSEs and be equivalent to three A-levels.