Key information from Training Qualifications UK for the Festive period

Season’s greetings from Training Qualifications UK. We hope that you are all in the Christmas spirit and preparing for a well-earned break with family and friends. Before we all crack open the mulled wine and break out into sudden and uninterruptible carolling we have a few key announcements in the lead up to the office closing for Christmas.

Training Qualifications UK will be closing for the festive break on Christmas Eve and will reopen on 2^nd January 2020 at the usual time of 8.30am.

Certificates

Have you promised your learners a certificate this Christmas?

If you would like your learners to receive their certificates before the holidays, make sure they’re registered and claimed by close of play Thursday 19^th December as our final printing day will be Friday 20^th December 2019.

Certificates claimed after the 19^th December will be printed when we return to the office on Thursday January 2^nd 2020.

The last day for Endorsed Course certificate printing will also be Thursday 19^th December.

Manuals and Assessment Records

If you are planning to purchase any TQUK manuals or assessment records in preparation for the New Year, please note that the final day for orders to ensure delivery before the holidays is Friday 20^th December (order before 12noon).

Any orders placed after this time will be fulfilled when the office reopens on Thursday 2^nd January 2020.

If you have any questions in regards to any of the above dates and times please get in touch with the Operations team by emailing account.managers@tquk.org or calling the team on 03333 583 344.

Exams

Here are a few key dates from our Exams team in the run-up to Christmas.

• The last date to book an exam is Friday 13th December before 5pm whilst the last date that an exam can be sat is Tuesday 17^th December
• The last date we will be able to receive Invigilation reports and exams if they are to be marked before Christmas is Wednesday 18th December before 5pm
• There will be no exams sat between Wednesday 18th December and Thursday 2nd January, and for those sitting exams on Friday 3rd January, we will send the link on Thursday 2nd January in preparation.

If you have any questions in regards to any of the above dates and times please get in touch with the Assessment team by emailing qualifications@tquk.org or calling the team on 03333 583 344.

Quality

Sampling

Our Quality Team will be requesting sampling up until to Friday 20th December. Final sampling for allocation before our festive shutdown must be received by Monday 23rd December.

The days between Tuesday 24th December and Thursday 2nd January will not be included in timescales for completing the following:

• Sampling
• Complaints
• Centre recognition
• Qualification approval
• Direct Claims Status transfers
• Reasonable Adjustments / Special Considerations requests,
• Centre Devised Assessment quality checks
• Recognised Prior Learning requests

If you have any questions in regards to any of the above dates and times please get in touch with the Quality team by emailing quality@tquk.org or calling the team on 03333 583 344.

Appeals

For the purposes of calculating the completion time for an appeal, the following days will not count as working days:

• 25th, 26th, 27th of December
• 30th, 31st of December
• 1st of January

If you have any questions in regards to any of the above dates please get in touch with the Quality team by emailing quality@tquk.org or calling the team on 03333 583 344.

End-Point Assessment

The EPA team will have an out of hours mobile phone on hand to call the day before and the day of any assessments that are taking place during the Festive period between the hours of 10am and 4pm. This number is for emergencies only.

From Tuesday 24th December until Thursday 2nd January:

• There will be no access to emails for Training Qualifications UK staff
• No Multiple Choice Question (MCQs) Exams will be permitted to take place

All SLAs referring to ‘working days’ will, therefore, pause on Tuesday 24th December and resume on Thursday 2nd January. This will affect the following SLAs:

• Assessor Allocations – all Apprentices that wish to be allocated an Assessor before the Christmas break must be submitted through Gateway by no later than Friday 20th December.
• Assessment Results – any assessments completed after Tuesday 10th December may not receive results until January. For example, an assessment completed on Wednesday 11th December may not receive their results until the 10th working day which would be Thursday 2nd January.
• Certificate Claims – all Apprentices wishing to claim their certificates before Christmas must have submitted this to epa@tquk.org by no later than Friday 13th December. Please note, this is for claiming only and the certificates will not be received until January.

If you have any questions in regards to any of the above dates and times please get in touch with the End-Point Assessment team by emailing epa@tquk.org or calling the team on 03333 583 344.

We hope you all have a fantastic festive period and wish you all a very Merry Christmas!