BTEC Edexcel

Edexcel is the largest awarding body, offering academic and vocational qualifications in the world.

Edexcel is a leading global education services provider, partnering with our customers - schools, colleges, training providers and employers - to provide innovative and engaging solutions that measure up to the modern education, training and development demands of learners, educators, businesses and industries worldwide with more than 2 million students in more than 112 countries.

KEY points

Objectives

An innovator and thought leader in effective education for employment, Edexcel provides inspiring education solutions that meet the training and workforce development needs of 21st-century business.

As the UK’s largest awarding body and a part of Pearson plc, the world’s largest education services company, Edexcel can offer employability-enhancing qualifications that ensure workforces have the skills, knowledge and behaviours to perform to their highest ability and remain competitive in today’s global environment.

Edexcel delivers opportunities to help people achieve their potential. Their mission is to advance learning and change lives. Services include:

Curriculum and qualification development
Training and support for tutors and examiners
Development of teaching resources
Exam setting, testing, marking and assessment
International certification
Consultancy

Click here to learn more about research into Effective Education for Employment – A global perspective

We guarantee quality

At Edexcel, we maintain rigorous internal and external quality assurance processes in order to underpin the integrity and credibility of our qualifications. Our training partners – schools, colleges, training providers, employers and other places of learning - need to satisfy strict quality measures before we approve them to deliver our qualifications. These quality measures encompass an institution’s systems and processes; the credentials of teaching staff; facilities and premises; and the level and quality of support they provide to their students.

How do we ensure ongoing quality?

As part of their application to become an Edexcel centre, our training delivery partners have agreed to participate in and conform to our quality assurance processes

Edexcel’s academic qualifications are either 100% externally assessed via examination, or are assessed via a combination of moderated coursework and examination.

All Edexcel centres, regardless of their classification, abide by the ‘Instructions for Conducting Examinations’ as determined by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ).

During examination periods, we undertake unscheduled, unannounced visits to our academic centres to ensure that the JCQ instructions are being carried out. Edexcel also has a Compliance division that investigates all reports of breaches to these instructions and, where necessary, works with centres to resolve any issues.

Qualifications

For over 25 years, we’ve championed work-related learning and have developed a comprehensive range of vocational and professional qualifications which we call BTECs. BTECs are innovative and inspiring education solutions that meet training and workforce requirements whilst still offering full academic progression opportunities to students.

BTECs are suitable for a wide range of learners and are delivered worldwide by governments, professional bodies, companies, training providers, colleges, and schools. In 2010, over 2 million learners from all over the world registered to study a BTEC qualification.

BTEC Specialist and short courses are available at all levels from 1 to 7 and are available in three sizes: Award, Certificate and Diploma.

These courses cover a variety of sectors and are designed to develop skills, knowledge and understanding within a particular vocational discipline. The duration and the guided learning hours of specialist and short courses is dependent upon the level and size of the course.

Learn more about BTEC Specialist y Short Courses.

Developed in consultation with industry

We work with key industry stakeholders such as sector skills councils and leading employers when developing our BTEC qualifications. This ensures that our qualifications meet industry needs and provide learners with the specialised skills, knowledge and - most importantly - behaviours that they need to progress into employment or higher education.

BTECs are currently delivered in over 45 countries, and we are actively pursuing recognition for these qualifications by governments, employers, and universities to ensure students can progress into employment or further education, wherever they are. You'll find a list of universities and professional bodies that recognise BTEC's here.

Flexible and incredible choice

With BTECs, tutors are able to design tasks and assignments which assess learning outcomes in a style that suits their own institution, students and local resources. This flexible assessment methodology helps make BTEC more relevant to the learner and thus encourages better performance.

With approximately 900 standardised BTEC qualifications available, spanning over 30 sectors, we’re confident that training institutions looking to add a new qualification to their offering will be able to find what they’re looking for. However, if we don’t already have a qualification that meets your specific needs, we can work with you to develop a customised BTEC.

Customised BTECs can be made up of units from any of our standard BTEC qualifications, or we can help you to write your very own units. Learn more about Customised BTECs.

Suitable for everyone

Availability at all levels and in various sizes means that anyone interested in learning will be able to find a qualification that suits their needs, regardless of how much previous study they have completed. Find out more about the various levels of Edexcel’s qualifications.

We support our qualifications by providing teachers and students with resources such as tutor support materials, learner guides, schemes of work and question papers on our website.

In addition, our relationship with the world’s largest educational publisher, Pearson Education, gives us the opportunity to increase the number of textbooks and published resources created to support our qualifications. Learn more about teaching and learning resources for our qualifications.

Progression and recognition

We work in collaboration with sector skills councils, governments, professional bodies, universities and employers to ensure our qualifications are relevant and internationally recognised, supporting student progression either to employment or to further or higher education.

Find out which professional bodies recognise Edexcel BTEC qualifications