Certification: BTEC/NVQ Claims

Once a candidate has completed all units, you can report the learner's achievement and make the overall award claim to receive the relevant certification document.

You need to report the following unit grades for each of your learners:

P – Pass (completed/achieved, where units are not graded)
M – Merit
D – Distinction
U – Unclassified (completed but not achieved – First and National qualifications only)
T – Transferred credit

There’s no need to report failed or referred grades. There are 3 types of claims you can make: full award, interim and fallback. 

You should only claim a full award where a learner has completed all the required units and is eligible for the full qualification. Where a learner has not met the eligibility requirements for a full award claim, we'll notify you by sending you a 'form query'. If you have a significant number of learners, you can claim their results in bulk on Edexcel Online by using the 'Bulk Grade Reporting Tool' on Edexcel Online.

Please note: when you make a full award claim, the certification status will show as 'Pending'. Certificates get printed at the weekend, and providing the candidate is eligible and the SV report is up to date, then an overall result will be available. The certificate will be dispatched within 14 days.

To see how to make a full award claims on Edexcel Online, please see the following articles:

• Certification: Edexcel Online BTEC/NVQ Full Claim Process - individual leaners
• Certification: Edexcel Online BTEC/NVQ Bulk Claim Process - multiple learners

Where a learner has not completed all of the qualification requirements, you can claim an ‘Interim’ certificate. When you make an interim claim, a Notification of Performance/Certificate of Unit Credit can be issued for learners on full programmes, and the registration will remain open.

To see how to make an interim award claim on Edexcel Online for an individual learner, please see the following article: Certification: Edexcel Online BTEC/NVQ Interim Claim Process

Fallback claims are for learners who don’t intend to complete the programme. When you make a fallback claim, we’ll issue a Certificate of Achievement or fallback Certificate of Unit Credit and close the learner’s registration.

Please note: you should only make this claim where you’re sure that the learner won’t be returning to continue the qualification at a later date.

To see how to make a fallback award claim on Edexcel Online for an individual learner, please see the following article: Certification: Edexcel Online BTEC/NVQ Fallback Claim Process

In line with Ofqual regulations, the 10-week rule continues to be applicable to all NVQs accredited on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

However, the 10-week rule has been removed for NVQ and NVQ Successor Qualifications accredited under the Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF). This means that there does not have to be a 10-week period between registration and applying for certification.

The 10-week rule does apply to all Scottish Vocational Qualifications accredited by SQA Accreditation.

All claims should be validated by an occupationally competent and qualified internal verifier. Centres must ensure that all claims for certification are authentic and valid and can be supported by auditable records.   

Subject teachers need to have the option 'BTEC/NVQ Achievement Reporting' added to their Edexcel Online user access profile to allow them to report unit achievements and certificate claims.

For detailed information on deadlines please see the following article: Reporting Vocational Achievement / BTEC Award Claims Deadline (UK centres only)

For information on how to check your claim status, please see he following article: Edexcel Online: Check Claim Status.

If you have made a mistake when making a claim and need a unit removing or amending, please see the following article: Edexcel Online: Removing/Amending Submitted Claims And Grades (BTEC/NVQ Grades).