On 27 April 2012, Ofqual announced new rules for the teacher seminars provided by all the exam boards. In particular:
- Face-to-face seminars that relate directly to specific, named qualifications will stop after August 2013. The exceptions are:
- events that introduce brand new specifications to teachers, such as our 'Getting Ready to Teach' events. These will be allowed.
- face-to-face training for teachers who mark controlled assessments. These will be allowed to ensure that marking is of a consistently high quality.
- Exam boards should make any information necessary for the proper administration of qualifications accessible to all schools. This may include live online events or ‘webinars’ as well as allowing teachers to interact with experts from exam boards.
During this transitional period and for all future training and support activity, exam boards must make sure that they have safeguards in place to minimise the risk that any information provided may be inappropriate.
You can read more about these changes from Ofqual here.
What does this mean for Training from Edexcel?
We recognise how essential it is for us to provide information and support to teachers who deliver our qualifications, and we're committed to continuing to do so. We will work closely with Ofqual to ensure that we provide high quality information and support to teachers.
The past six months have also demonstrated the risks associated with face-to-face teacher seminars. We've already taken strong action to ensure that our approach upholds the integrity of our qualifications, and these new measures are also reflected in this Ofqual announcement. We will continue to monitor and review these safeguards.
I'm booked on a training event from Edexcel over the next few weeks. What does this announcement mean for me?
Our programme of Training from Edexcel events already announced for this summer term will continue as planned. This includes our programme of events to support our new qualifications - in particular, our Next Generation BTEC qualifications and the introduction of linear GCSEs for first teaching in September 2012.
You can find out more about our training events in our training pages. If you have any questions about our training events, please contact us.