UK Vocational Qualifications

Edexcel Specialist Vocational Qualifications

BTEC First Diploma (FD):
These are initial vocational qualifications for school leavers, providing work-related education to those who have already chosen the broad area in which they want they want to work. They can be taken in subjects such as agriculture, animal care, information technology applications, motor vehicle studies, performing arts and public services.

The First Diploma is a full-time course studied over a year. The courses encourage the development of personal and work-related skills, and provide a foundation either for work or progression on to further study. Students must complete 6 units for the award.

Previously, the First Diploma required successful completion of 8 units for its award. The BTEC First Certificate used to be awarded until 2000/1. This covered 5 units was a 1-year part-time course.

BTEC National Award / Certificate / Diploma (NA / NC / ND):
BTEC National programmes are related to broad occupational areas such as engineering, fashion, music, photography, sports science and public services. They are designed to train specialists or technician-level workers.

The BTEC National Award is a relatively new addition to the specialist vocational qualification suite. Each qualification is equivalent in terms of standard, but differ in terms of the number of units required for successful completion. This is demonstrated in the table below.

Number of completed units required for the award:

In the older system, where the duration of study assumed more importance, the Diploma course was usually a 2 year full-time course, whereas the Certificate was a 2-year part-time course.

New BTEC Nationals:
Teaching of the new BTEC qualifications began in September 2002. These new qualifications have been reorganised so that the BTEC National Award is comparable in standard and breadth to 1 GCE A level; the BTEC National Certificate to 2 GCE A levels and the BTEC National Diploma to 3 GCE A levels (previously the National Diploma had been considered comparable to 2 GCE A levels).

The grading system used for all BTEC awards is Pass, Merit and Distinction. Consequently, the overall mark for the BTEC National Diploma is triple-graded (e.g. Pass, Merit, Merit) and that for the National Certificate double-graded.

It should however be noted, that the number of units that require passing for successful completion of a new BTEC National are 6, 10, 16 for the Award, Certificate and Diploma respectively (before, successful completion of all units was necessary).

The other key differences are that BTEC Nationals are now externally assessed and have now been integrated into the UCAS Tariff as well as the National Qualifications Framework.

BTEC Higher National Certificate / Diploma (HNC / HND):
More advanced BTEC specialist awards are also available to train higher technicians and para-professionals. The qualifications consist of core units (which are compulsory) and specialist units (which are optional and designed to provide flexibility with the exact focus of the qualification). Each unit has a notional learning time of 60 hours.

The range of institutions offering BTEC Higher National awards includes universities and higher education institutions, which may provide up to two years advanced standing for HND graduates onto similar Bachelor degree programmes.

These awards have now been formally accredited at level 4 of the National Qualifications Framework. The "new", revised qualifications will be introduced in either September 2003 or September 2004. However, the number of units required for successful completion of the new awards will remain the same as previously: 10 for the HNC and 16 for the HND.