Education remains open (including private education and training providers offering nationally regulated qualifications, exams and assessments) throughout the national lockdown period. This means that summative practical assessments and external theory examinations for all VTCT & ITEC VRQ, NVQ and PTQ qualifications will go ahead as planned if scheduled for November or December. Learners are still able to go ahead and undertake planned summative assessments in this period using clients from within their support bubbles.

Workplace assessments cannot go ahead until December 2020, the reason for this, is these business types are closed.  Educational settings remain open, whereby learners have access to essential tools, and equipment and where assessments can take place in controlled and simulated environments, including the possibility of working on clients from; linked households’ or even synthetic blocks for some qualification types. There are a variety of contexts of delivery and assessment across a range of VTCT qualification types, however. Centre management are responsible for any decision to proceed with internal assessments. Where centre management deem it appropriate to proceed with practical activities, it is the centre’s responsibility to ensure that all adequate safety measures are in place to minimise the spread of the virus, including limiting access to the centre for members of the public and ensuring that all learners complete the relevant VTCT COVID-19 Infection Prevention qualification prior to undertaking any practical activities.

If centres decide that they wish to proceed with assessments in educational settings for learners on a VTCT or ITEC Vocationally Related Qualification (VRQ) and the learner is able to use a client model from within a ‘linked household’, then simulation should be considered by the centre assessor. Examples of simulation include using block heads where appropriate. If the learners are completing NVQs, no simulation is allowed.

Assessments in workplace settings should not go ahead at this time. The decision to proceed with formative or summative assessments in educational settings is the responsibility of centre staff and centre management. Where centre management has decided to proceed with practical assessments, the centre should ensure that all learners have completed the relevant VTCT COVID-19 Infection Prevention pre-requisite qualification in advance of undertaking any practical observations. The centre should also ensure that adequate safety measures have been put in place in the educational setting to reduce the risk of virus transmission. If learners are clinically vulnerable and shielding due to the pandemic, centres can apply for special considerations for those learners whereby additional flexibilities, such as home-based options may apply. For further information please contact the VTCT External Quality Assurance Team

VTCT have a range of teaching resources available, including PowerPoints and a learner workbook for the VTCT COVID-19 Infection Prevention qualifications. These are located here.

VTCT also has a range of free online teaching and learning resources hosted by the Pivot Point LAB platform 

In addition, to support delivery planning during the pandemic, VTCT has appointed a team of expert Partnership Planning Managers to support centre staff in adjusting their course delivery and teaching plans during the pandemic.

Under the legislation published by government on the 3^rd November for England, assessments in workplace settings should not go ahead at this time. However, with regard to educational settings, as long as centre management have conducted a risk assessment and put in place adequate safety measures to reduce virus transmission in the learning environment (including the completion of the relevant VTCT COVID-19 Infection Prevention qualification), then VTCT does not expect any direct impact on insurance policies arising from a centre’s decision to continue with teaching, learning and assessment activities. However, VTCT cannot provide individual insurance advice, so please contact your insurance provider directly, should you have concerns about your insurance policy during the pandemic.

VTCT has published a range of teaching and learning resources to support the VTCT COVID-19 Infection Prevention qualification for Sports Massage.

In addition, VTCT will very shortly be making a range of teaching and learning video resources available to centres, to support online and blended delivery of sports massage courses. Also, we will shortly publish adaption guidance for Sports Massage, which largely mirrors the approach taken for VRQs in other discipline areas.

The government’s approach to pandemic mitigation for vocational qualifications has changed since Summer 2020. Calculated or estimated grades is not a mitigation option that will be employed again. For the vast majority of vocational qualifications, a range of flexibilities and adaptions will be used to mitigate against the impact of the pandemic on learners. Adaptation guides for VTCT qualifications are located here.

In addition, every Wednesday VTCT holds a weekly webinar for centres, whereby all the latest updates on adaptions are communicated and discussed. Information on the Weekly Webinar schedule can be found here.

Advice and guidance on specific adaptions within the context of your learners and your centres is also available by scheduling a one to one remote video call with someone from the VTCT EQA team or by contacting one of our Partnership Planning Managers or by contacting our Customer Support team.