Hello, this is a short introduction
to the redeveloped Tech award
in Art and Design Practice.
My name is Bev Witham and I'm the
Principle Standards Manager for
BTEC Art and Design qualifications.
I just like to briefly hand over to my
colleague Jill to introduce herself.
Jill will be presenting
alongside myself today.
Hello, my name is Jill Marshall Simms
and I'm the Senior Standards Verifier
for BTEC Art and Design at Pearson.
Thank you Jill. So we will update you
briefly on each component that makes up
the qualification and what changes have
taken place to content and assessment
based on the existing tech award.
The redeveloped Tech award in Art
and Design Practice has moved to a
more holistic two component structure
which reflects the way many centres,
combined delivery and assessment
of the internal components
of the current tech award.
Component one is 72 guided learning hours
and worth 60% of the qualification grade.
It is assessed using the new Pearson Set
Assignment or PSA marked internally by you,
the teacher or assessor out
of a total of 84 marks.
And then, that Pearson Set Assignment
is moderated by Pearson.
The PSA is released in November of
each year and assessed in May or June,
and that will start from 2023,
so you have plenty of flexibility
within your programme to prepare for,
administer and mark the assessments.
Component two is 48 guided learning
hours and worth 40% of the qualification
grade and is externally assessed by
Pearson it is marked out of a total of
60 marks available and the assessment
brief is released in January each year.
The assessment takes place in
May June from 2024.
It is a task based assessment much
like the internally assessed component,
making the entire qualification practical,
applied and engaging for learners.
Based on your feedback about how
you currently combine assessments
for components one and two,
we have now merged them into one,
further simplifying the delivery
assessment and admin of the qualification.
This provides a more natural and
holistic approach to integrating the
skills of research and experimentation,
ideas generation, development,
production and communication of outcomes.
The merging of the two current
components has resulted in a new title
for component one which includes the
content from both previous components,
called Creative Practice in Art and Design.
This means the qualification has been
reduced from three components to two.
The only tech award of its kind.
Art is always different and
tech awards are no exception.
In this component,
learners will investigate art
and design practice to inform the
generation and communication of ideas,
and will develop practical skills through
exploration of specialist materials,
techniques and processes.
Through the redevelopment
of the current Tech award,
we've taken the opportunity to make minor
adjustments to the content to clarify
and enhance the delivery of various topics.
Some content has been slightly rephrased
or moved into a different section to
better clarify its context and purpose.
For example,
in content Section A1,
Investigating Art and Design Practice
we've included specific reference to the
research of historic and contemporary
practitioners and work to develop
understanding of art and design practice.
We also moved some of the existing
content to better support the alignment
between teaching and assessment.
But this is all existing content and will
be familiar to you if you're teaching
the current tech awards or any art
and design qualification at this level.
The specification continues to
offer optional indicative content
relating to specialist areas of art
and design which can be integrated
into your programme flexibly.
You can transition from your current
delivery of tech award teaching and
learning content with confidence.
And if you are delivering tech
awards for the first time,
you'll find the content easy to interpret,
clear and applicable.
Whether you deliver a particular specialism
or a broad art and design programme.
Like the new content, which combines
the current components one and two,
the new Pearson set assignment.
Also combines the assessment
for current component one and
two into a single assessment.
Overall, the purpose and focus of the
assessment across the current components
one and two has not changed and is very
similar to the combined component
One and two authorised assignment briefs
that we offer for the current tech awards
that many of you told us you like to use.
Likewise, the focus of assessment from
the current learning aims have been
embedded into the new mark schemes.
The Pearson set assignment will be
released each year with a theme
and a vocational context.
The context can be adapted by you to make
it relevant to your learners and programme,
for example by making it more relevant
to your local area or specialist
area of art and design.
The assignment is broken into four tasks
which will help your learners produce
relevant evidence for assessment.
The tasks and related mark schemes
remain the same each year.
And only the theme and vocational
context changes.
In addition,
based on your feedback and to make
the assessment more straight forward
for learners,
the current task two which includes
Part A and Part B,
has been split into two separate tasks,
task two and three.
This will help them to better
evidence work in relation to each
part of the assessment and make
each part easier for you to mark.
Guidance within the task has also
become less prescriptive to allow
for more individual ways of working.
The Pearson Set Assignment is released
in November each year.
The assessment is processed
approximately 20 hours and can be
given to learners anytime after its release,
providing plenty of flexibility alongside
the assessment for other qualifications.
If you deliver the current tech
award in art and design practice,
you can transition with confidence.
And if you deliver a First Award or any
other art and design qualification at this level,
you will find the Pearson set assignment
straight forward to administer and assess.
The
externally assessed component two
is called Responding to a brief.
In this component learners will gain
valuable experience in interpreting,
planning work and producing outcomes
to meet the requirements of a brief.
They will synoptically draw from
the skills they have learnt in
component one and this component.
In order to to produce art and
design work in response to a brief.
The content has not changed
from the current tech award,
with the exception of the
removal of the term client brief.
This was done to allow teaching
and assessment to apply more
broadly to any kind of brief,
such as a competition.
Not only briefs generated
by a commercial client.
If you currently teach the tech
award in art and design practice
or any other vocational art and
design qualification at this level,
you'll find the content familiar
and can transition with confidence.
Like the content for this component,
the assessment has remained the
same as the current tech award.
The set task is a practical project
brief where learners will research,
develop and produce art and design work in
response to a theme and vocational context.
The assessment is made up of four activities
which are carried out over 20 hours.
We have only made one minor change
to the assessment of activity four.
In the current assessment,
there is a suggested word count
for annotation in the portfolio,
which we've now removed to allow learners
to respond in the way they feel best
reflects their creative intentions.
We have retained the page range of 6
to 8 pages for the portfolio to give
learners some direction as to how
much work to include and to reflect
a more realistic vocational scenario.
If you deliver the current tech
award in art and design practice,
you can transition with confidence and
if you deliver a first award or any
other art design qualification at this level,
you'll find externally assessed,
brief,
straight forward to prepare for
and administer.
We encourage you to look through
the draft specification,
Pearson Set Assignments and SAMs
sample assessment materials,
which are available on the Pearson website.
And if you have further questions
or are preparing to deliver and
need further support, please don't
hesitate to get in touch with us.
You could contact the
Subject Advisor Susan Young,
by emailing teaching art
and design at pearson.com.
You can also attend one of our upcoming
Getting Started events early next year,
where we'll be covering the
qualification and assessments in more
depth and answering further questions.
You can book by visiting the Training
from Pearson page on the Pearson website.
Thank you very much and we hope to see
you in one of our upcoming live events.