VTCT (ITEC) continues to monitor the impact Covid-19 is having on the education and service industry landscape, following the Government’s announcement on 31st October that a four-week lockdown will commence in England starting on 5th November 2020. The Government will continue to prioritise the wellbeing and long-term futures of students and will not be closing further education colleges or universities during national or local lockdown/restrictions. The Prime Minister and Education Secretary have been very clear that exams and assessments will go ahead, as they are the fairest and most accurate way to measure a student’s attainment.
Education will therefore remain 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 and 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.
VTCT has put in place pre-requisite COVID-19 Infection Prevention qualification requirements to ensure that all learners are sufficiently prepared to manage treatment and service-specific risks relating to practical assessments, during lockdown circumstances.
VTCT (ITEC) has published specific guidance on adaptions for the different qualification types and centres have a responsibility to have safety measures in place to minimise the spread of the virus. VTCT and ITEC centres in England should stay open and ensure that they have appropriate measures in place so that they can implement these published adaptations to qualification assessments.