Consultation outcome

Ofqual’s regulatory approach

Updated 10 September 2026

Accreditation (question 1)

What Ofqual proposed

We proposed that each V Level, Foundation Certificate and Occupational Certificate must be accredited before it can be delivered, to ensure that only qualifications of the required quality are made available to learners. As qualifications will be designed against common content, this supports the intention for there to be a high degree of consistency and comparability between qualifications delivered by different awarding organisations.

Consultation feedback

There was overall support for this proposal for V Levels, Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates. Respondents said accreditation would help to ensure qualifications are fit for purpose and valid, which in turn would help build public confidence by ensuring new qualifications meet clearly defined quality standards. They said accreditation would support comparability and consistency between qualifications and between awarding organisations, and would ensure parity with qualifications such as GCSEs and A Levels, which are also subject to Ofqual accreditation.

Respondents highlighted the need to ensure accreditation was a manageable and proportionate process, particularly given the short timescales for the first tranche of qualifications being introduced in September 2027. Some respondents requested guidance from Ofqual about what would be required at accreditation.

There were a small number of concerns that accreditation could create barriers for awarding organisations, leading to a small market and potentially restricting innovation within the qualifications.

Respondents noted that it is important accreditation does not lead to overly standardised or inflexible approaches, and that it allows for applied and practical assessments.

Respondents were concerned about a lack of flexibility for all 3 qualifications, but there was slightly more concern about level 2 Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates than for level 3 V Levels. Some respondents said that it was more important to allow flexibility in these level 2 qualifications, given the wider range of subject areas and the more varied cohort  of students taking them.

Schools and colleges felt the accreditation process could help to ensure that all qualifications offered would be both manageable and deliverable.

They also commented on the need for the process to allow sufficient lead-in time for schools and colleges to prepare to teach qualifications, once accredited.

Decision

We have decided to implement this proposal as consulted on. We will add V Levels, Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates to the list of qualifications subject to an accreditation requirement. As set out in the consultation, this will help to ensure that only high-quality qualifications capable of meeting Ofqual’s rules will be offered in schools and colleges.

We recognise the need to ensure that the accreditation process itself is proportionate and manageable, and supports awarding organisations in providing accredited qualifications from September 2027. In order to support the accreditation of qualifications in a timely way, we have begun to speak to awarding organisations about our proposed approach. We will continue to engage with awarding organisations as we develop these processes.

Assessment strategies (question 2)

What Ofqual proposed

We proposed to require awarding organisations to develop, follow, and keep under review an assessment strategy for V Levels, Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates.

Assessment strategies help Ofqual to understand awarding organisations’ qualification and assessment design decisions. These provide a basis against which to regulate qualifications in delivery, and as part of Ofqual’s accreditation process.

Consultation feedback

Most respondents supported the proposal to require assessment strategies for all 3 qualifications, although some felt these would be more important for V Levels than for level 2 Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates.

Respondents said that assessment strategies would help to ensure validity, reliability, comparability, accessibility and manageability of qualifications.

They noted that our proposal aligns these qualifications with the approach taken in GCSEs, A Levels and in Technical Qualifications within T Levels, for which assessment strategies are also required.

While supporting the approach, many respondents emphasised the need for assessment strategies to be proportionate and manageable, both for awarding organisations developing them and for centres delivering qualifications. Some respondents felt the potential burden of producing an assessment strategy was more proportionate for level 3 qualifications than it was for level 2, and that flexibility was more important at level 2, given the range of starting points and varied progression routes of learners.

Schools and colleges commented that they thought assessment strategies could help them to understand the qualifications, and called for awarding organisations to make these available. One commented that doing so could help them to ensure delivery in the classroom would be in line with the awarding organisation’s design.

A small number of respondents suggested areas they thought should be included in assessment strategies, for example information about progression routes, ensuring accessibility and ensuring authentic assessment of knowledge and skills in realistic occupational contexts.

Decision

We have decided to implement this proposal as consulted on. This means that awarding organisations will have to develop, maintain, comply with and keep under review assessment strategies for V Levels, Foundation Certificates and Occupational Certificates.

We recognise the concerns about the need for assessment strategies to be proportionate and manageable for awarding organisations, and the importance of Ofqual’s expectations being set out clearly.

We have decided to make some changes to the way our requirements are presented, to ensure that our expectations are set out clearly. For example, headings have been added and some text has been reorganised to make the requirements easier to navigate.

We have considered the role of assessment strategies in explaining qualification design decisions, and by extension, the impact this could have on the way qualifications are delivered in schools and colleges.  We have decided to explicitly require awarding organisations to explain how their assessment design promotes effective teaching and learning, for example, how it:

• supports delivery of the full curriculum
• supports effective pedagogical practice
• supports effective sequencing of teaching and learning
• supports authentic assessment of relevant skills
• mitigates against overly atomised teaching and learning
• embeds foundational knowledge and understanding that can then be built and strengthened throughout the course

We have also decided to make the following amendments:

• we have revised our requirements regarding Occupational Certificates to make it clearer how awarding organisations are expected to engage with employers
• we have enhanced our expectations relating to optionality to require awarding organisations to explain their approach to any optional content, explain differences between specifications in the same subject, and explain the impacts optionality may have on these, including on teaching and learning.