This Diploma qualification is recognised as equivalent to the Certificate of Education qualifications in the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ).
Learners who have achieved the Pearson BTEC Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training can progress to further studies in education, such as the Pearson DfE Level 7 Diploma in Assessment Management.
Learners who achieve the Pearson BTEC Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training and who are progressing to higher education accredited qualifications at Level 6 or above can have their Level 5 credit recognised in line with the higher education institution's arrangements for the recognition of prior learning.

The College’s policy on access to this qualification is aligned with that of Pearson, the awarding body:

•  they should be available to everyone who is capable of reaching the required standards

•  they should be free from any barriers that restrict access and progression

•  there should be equal opportunities for all those wishing to access the qualifications.

The College is committed to recruit learners to this qualification with integrity and to demonstrate good practice in the use of initial assessment and learning needs analysis.

College will review the applicant’s prior qualifications and/or experience, considering whether this profile shows that they have the potential to achieve the qualification. Applicants will be given relevant information and advice about the qualification to make sure it meets their needs.

It is recommended that all those wishing to join this qualification should undertake an initial assessment of skills in English, mathematics, ICT and an interview with the admission tutor.

Applicants development needs will be recorded and an action plan will be agreed. The aim is for learners to achieve Level 2 as a minimum.

For learners with disabilities and specific needs, this review will need to take account of the support available to the learners during teaching and assessment of

the qualification.

International qualifications at the appropriate level will also be accepted. The College will use

UK NARIC to determine the equivalence of any international qualifications.

Where applicants do not have a formal qualification to demonstrate capability in English, they will be required to undertake the College’s written English Language test before an offer of a place is made. Judgement of their capability in spoken English will be assessed by the Course Leader/Admission Tutor at the interview. Suitable alternative arrangements to written tests will be made where a student declares a disability, specific learning difficulty or long-term health condition on their application form, e.g., oral questioning, amanuensis, etc.

The Pearson BTEC Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training prepares trainee teachers and trainers to teach in a wide range of contexts. To achieve the qualification, there is a requirement for teaching practice that requires observation and assessment of performance. The qualification can meet the needs of a range of trainee teachers and trainers, including:

• individuals who are not currently teaching and training but who can meet the practice requirements, including the observed and assessed practice requirements of the qualification
• individuals who are currently teaching and training, including those who have just begun teaching and training and who can meet the practice requirements, including the observed and assessed practice requirements, of the qualification
• individuals currently working as assessors who wish to achieve a teaching qualification and who can meet the practice requirements, including the observed and assessed practice, of the qualification.

Pearson carries out quality assurance visits to verify if the College is working to national standards. Two visits per year will also be made by an allocated Pearson Standards Verifier/External Examiner (a subject-specific expert) to sample assessed learner work and provide judgements and feedback.

The Standards Verifier/External Examiner will ensure that the college has accurate assessment records and are assessing candidates appropriately, consistently and fairly. They will identify areas of good practice and for further development, and give further guidance on how the college can improve your delivery.

Students will be expected to develop the following skills during the course of study: 
Employability skills:

• Teaching and Assessment skills: delivering lecture, engaging students and solving some critical incidents in academia.
• Intra-personal skills: self-management, adaptability and resilience, selfmonitoring and self-development, self-analysis and reflection, planning and prioritising.
• Interpersonal skills: effective communication and articulation of information, working collaboratively, negotiating and influencing, self-presentation. Knowledge and academic study skills • the underlying values, theories and concepts relevant to education • the diversity of learners and the complexities of the education process • the complexity of the interaction between learning and local and global contexts, and the extent to which participants (including learners and teachers) can influence the learning process • the societal and organisational structures and purposes of educational systems, and the possible implications for learners and the learning process.

Knowledge and academic study skills

• the underlying values, theories and concepts relevant to education
• the diversity of learners and the complexities of the education process
• the complexity of the interaction between learning and local and global contexts, and the extent to which participants (including learners and teachers) can influence the learning process
• the societal and organisational structures and purposes of educational systems, and the possible implications for learners and the learning process.

The learner will need to meet the requirements outlined in the table below before Pearson can award the qualification, i.e. achieve the appropriate mandatory and optional units, as well as satisfactorily complete teaching practice.

Note: Unit 3 - Theories, Principles and Models in Education and Training, must be achieved as a pre-requisite for Unit 1: Developing Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Education and Training.

Full-time
Full-time students should complete the DET in 12 months, and part-time students should complete in two years.

The overall grade for the qualification is a ‘pass’. The learner must achieve all the required units as indicated in the specified qualification structure. To pass a unit the learner must:
• achieve all the specified learning outcomes
• satisfy all the assessment criteria by providing sufficient and valid evidence for each criterion
• show that the evidence is their own.
The table below gives a summary of the assessment methods used in the qualification.

For the Learning and Development optional units, further guidance on assessment is given in the qualification specifications for the units, see Pearson Level 3 and 4 Award/Certificate/Diploma in Learning and Development, on Pearson website: qualifications.pearson.com

•  Simulations are not acceptable for teaching practice assessments.

•  Learners undertaking the Learning and Development optional units will be required to provide evidence from their own work-based practice in order to meet the criteria. Types of evidence could be: direct observation by assessor; personal statements and/or reflective accounts; professional discussion; assignments; expert witness testimony.

Centre-devised assessment (internal assessment)

  The College adheres to the adopted assessment policies and procedures that are published in the Quality and Enhancement Manual (QAEM) which is in line with the UK Quality Code. Effective assessment rests with the purpose for which the assessment is carried out as well as  the nature and type of appropriate assessment tools used. In essence the assessment

materials and tools should be fit-for-purpose. The College assessor and internal verifier ensure that the assignments and other course works, based on the Assignment briefs and assessment

guidelines, are fair and accurate as much as possible.

Each unit has specified learning outcomes and assessment criteria. To pass an internally assessed unit, learners must provide adequate evidence to meet all the learning outcomes and assessment criteria. College will write assignment briefs for learners to show what evidence is required. Assignment briefs and evidence produced by learners must also meet any additional requirements given in the Information.

As required by Pearson, according to the Course specifications, the key assessment objectives and strategies are aimed at assessing the achievement of a number of specific learning outcomes in every unit against specific assessment criteria.

The College uses both formal and informal assessment strategies. The College uses a variety of assessment methods to enhance learning and improve the validity of assessment. The assessment methods improve the knowledge of the assessment criteria and what is required to achieve pass grade. As an informal assessment strategy, the College implements a formative feedback which requires students to submit ‘Learning Outcome by Learning Outcome” into the Formative Feedback folder during the semester.

To meet the entry criteria for admission to level 5 DET Courses,

A candidate must have either:

HND in relevant subject

and,

Where applicants do not have a formal qualification to demonstrate capability in English to CEFR level B2 or equivalent, they need to provide evidence that their command of English is equivalent to IELTS (International English Language Testing System) 5.5 (including 5.5 for reading and writing). The expectation can also be met using other English language tests such as Pearson PTE, City & Guilds, Cambridge and ESOL etc.

and,

Demonstrate a Commitment to Study and a reasonable expectation of success on the Course

and

Other information

DBS Check - Students are required to undertake a DBS check before the work placement

All candidates, whether pre-service or in-service must have access to 100 hours of teaching (volunteer teaching, paid / unpaid teaching, part time / full time teaching).

Unless otherwise indicated, the college can decide the form of assessment evidence (for example performance observation, individual or group presentations, projects, tests, extended writing, professional discussion) as long as the methods chosen allow learners to produce valid, sufficient and reliable evidence of meeting the assessment criteria. If group presentations are included it is advisable to observe and record individual contributions to the activity so that specific evidence can be included as a part of each learner’s portfolio. College may find it helpful if learners index and reference their evidence to the relevant learning outcomes and assessment criteria.

The examples given in the units as assessment activities cover the criteria in the learning outcomes, assessment criteria, unit content and delivery guidance tables. All assignments will be

internally reviewed and moderated, before being issued to the learners. It is important to

recognise that the guidance provided is in a simple form and that, in addition to the logging and feedback record relating to the assessment criteria, each assignment brief includes:

•  date of issue and date for submission

•  guidelines for word count (where appropriate for depth or range required) sources/types of appropriate evidence any specific guidance to support learners in generating appropriate evidence–including cross referencing where a single piece of evidence relates to more than one unit, for example scheme of work/session plans/observation reports.

College will give learners realistic scenarios and maximise the use of practical activities in delivery and assessment. To achieve the Diploma, there is also a requirement for 100 hours of practice teaching. A clear outline on the practice requirement will be given in assignment briefs. There is widespread use of video evidence in portfolio-based qualifications. The rules for this are that the original video must be available for verification, the recording should be indexed and the participants in the video should give their permission for the recording.  

Where video is used for direct observation by a remote assessor, the following guidelines must be observed:

•  the assessor must be able to communicate with the learner in real time to ensure effective discussion, questioning and feedback

•  there must be independent verification from the learner’s location that the evidence is authentic, that there are no unseen influences and that it is the identified learner is providing the evidence and that it is not influenced by others at the learner’s location.

•  the video must be of sufficient quality to enable the assessor or verifier to make a valid judgement. The level of detail required by the qualification must be evident. Where the learner is working with a class, the remote assessor needs to see clear evidence of the required interactions taking place.

•  All video evidence should be recorded and it is the responsibility of the standard verifier to review it and confirm that the guidelines have been observed. Assessment activities should encourage learners to become more reflective and to evaluate their learning at every opportunity. This reflection can be used as evidence when building portfolios for assessment.

When selecting the competence Learning and Development units their specific assessment requirements should be met. College will refer to the assessment strategy for competence- based units and the assessment requirements section within each individual unit. 

Access to qualifications for learners with disabilities or specific needs

Equality and fairness are central to our work. College’s Equality Policy requires all learners to have equal opportunity to access our qualifications and assessments and that our qualifications are awarded in a way that is fair to every learner. The College is committed to making sure that:

•  learners with a protected characteristic (as defined by the Equality Act 2010) are not, when they are undertaking one of our qualifications, disadvantaged in comparison to learners who do not share that characteristic

•  all learners achieve the recognition they deserve from undertaking a qualification and that this achievement can be compared fairly to the achievement of their peers.

For learners with disabilities and specific needs, the assessment of their potential to achieve the qualification must identify, where appropriate, the support that will be made available to them during delivery and assessment of the qualification.

In order to support students learning college will provide the following support services:

General support services

  •  College will provide appropriate physical resources (for example equipment, IT, learning materials, teaching rooms) to support the delivery and assessment of the qualification.

•  Staff involved in the delivery and assessment process have relevant expertise and occupational experience.

•  There are policies in place to make sure that there is continuing professional development (CPD) for staff delivering the qualification.

•  There is provision for the mentoring of individuals undertaking initial teacher training.

•  College has appropriate health and safety policies in place relating to the use of equipment by learners.

•  The delivery of qualifications will be in accordance with current equality legislation.

•  College has a sufficiently rigorous internal quality assurance system in place.

Specific support services

College will provide 40% of learners’ practice teaching at the College campus and for remaining 60% college has agreement with some local educational institutes where learners can complete their teaching practice with support from the mentors. The institutes are in appropriate location for practice that will allow a trainee teacher to meet the required standards is permitted. The learners will be given an opportunity to experience varied aspects of training. The College advises learners of this and the range of appropriate settings and contexts, such as: teaching across more than one level; teaching a variety of learners; teaching individuals and groups; experience of non- teaching roles; gaining subject specialist knowledge through workplace mentoring.

The College will assign a 'mentor' to each learner as they progress through their programme. A mentor can provide on-going support by, for example, providing developmental feedback to learners following teaching practice observations, monitoring the quality of their planning and preparation, carrying out regular one-to-one tutorials and helping them develop good practice in their teaching and learning.

The Assessment Board evaluates the External Examiner’s reports every year and ensures that the action plans produced from their reports are well managed and the progress is reported to the Academic Board. The College also provides formative feedback to assignments (Learning Outcome by Learning Outcome) in the VLE. This system has been commended by Pearson Standard Verifiers as supportive and effective.

Internal verification ensures that before any assignment brief is released to students, clear assessment criteria, and correct administrative information on assignment are included. Internal verifier teams identify what changes, if any, in the Assignment brief are required and what corrective action should be taken by assessor and should ensure that it is fit for purpose. Internal verifiers check a range of assessment decisions for all assessors and units by sampling some of the assignments. In case of unexpected assessment decisions, (e.g., everybody achieving Distinction in the assignment), additional sampling will be conducted on individual units/assessors.

There must be a minimum of eight observations totalling a minimum of eight hours. Any single observation must be a minimum of half an hour. Observations will be appropriately spaced throughout the whole programme and consider a trainee teacher’s progress.

Two of the mandatory units require evidence of being observed in a teaching and learning environment. The eight observations must be linked to these units, which are:

  •  Unit 1: Developing Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Education and Training (Level 5)

•  Unit 2: Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Education and Training (Level 4).  

To achieve credit for either of these two units, trainees must be able to provide evidence of a minimum of two assessed observations of practice that meet the required standard. To achieve the qualification, a trainee must be able to provide evidence of a minimum of eight observations that meet the required standard of practice, across the two units.

The teaching philosophy at ICON College requires students to be exposed to a range of learning methods and materials.

All tutors now support their classes by using the “ICON VLE”, a suite of electronic web-based materials that permits students to use the ICON intranet to access materials such as syllabi, Course plan, reading lists, reading assignments, and PowerPoint presentations for each of their courses.

A Personal Tutorial System is an essential part of the College’s Teaching and Learning and Assessment Strategy. It is also aimed at contributing to enhancement of the teaching and learning experience of the students. The College assigns every student a designated Personal Tutor who is available by appointment throughout the academic year as needed. The relationship between the student and the personal tutor is built on trust and confidentiality. Whether the problem is related to a financial hardship, accommodation matters, or learning disabilities and academic difficulties, the Personal Tutor is the first contact point at the College who would act as a mentor, and guide the student to the right person for further action.