Business and Technology Education Council

The Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) is a provider (existing as part of Pearson Education Ltd) of secondary school leaving qualifications and Further education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Whilst the T in BTEC it has been mistakenly understood to stand for Technician, according to the DFE (2016) it actually stands for Technology.

BTEC qualifications, especially Level 3, are accepted by many universities (excluding Cambridge and Oxford unless combined with more qualifications) when assessing the suitability of applicants for admission, and many such universities base their conditional admissions offers on a student's predicted BTEC grades.

BTEC qualifications are in theory equivalent to other qualifications, such as the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) (levels 1 to 2), A Level (level 3) and university degrees (levels 6 to 7). BTECs are undertaken in vocational subjects ranging from business studies to engineering. Examples of qualifications include:

The BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) was formed by the merger of the Business Education Council (BEC) and the Technician Education Council (TEC). The University of London Examinations & Assessment Council (abbr. ULEAC) and BTEC merged to form Edexcel.

The following Level 3 courses, known as BTEC Nationals, are intended for those with five or more GCSE grades A*-C including English, mathematics and science. The qualification names for Level 3 courses changed dependent on whether they were awarded though the forthcoming National Qualification Framework (NQF) or the predecessor Qualification Credit Framework (QCF):

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