St John Plessington Catholic College

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BTEC - Level 3

This Subject is equivalent to one A Level.

The new BTEC Nationals 2016 course has been developed in collaboration with employers and representatives from higher education and relevant professional bodies. It ensures that the content is up to date and includes the knowledge, understanding, skills and attributes required in the IT sector.

How will my work be assessed?

There are a total of four units (three mandatory and one optional). Two of the units are internally assessed and worth 42% of the overall grade. Two units are externally assessed and worth 58% of the overall grade.
Candidates must achieve four units over two years in order to gain the full award; equivalent to one A Level.

The course also provides the flexibility of completing two of the core units in one year equivalent to 0.5 A Levels. The units from this qualification are graded as Pass, Merit or Distinction. The total of each unit will determine the overall grade for the course.

The overall grade equivalents are detailed below:

PASS - Equivalent to E grade.
MERIT - Equivalent to C grade. DISTINCTION - Equivalent to A grade. DISTINCTION * - Equivalent to A* grade.

Unit 1: Information Technology Systems (33%)

This is a mandatory unit that is externally assessed by an unseen paper-based examination. You will explore the relationships between the hardware and software that form an IT system, and the way that systems work individually and together, as well as the relationship between the user and the system. You will examine issues related to the use of IT systems and the impact that they have on organisations and individuals. In this unit

you will draw on your learning from across your programme to complete assessment tasks. This unit will give you a fundamental and synoptic understanding of all areas of IT, supporting your progression to an IT-related higher education course.

Unit 2: Creating Systems to Manage Information (25%)

This is a mandatory unit that is externally assessed under supervised conditions. You will study the design, creation, testing and evaluation of a relational database system to manage information. You will examine the structure of data and its origins, and how an efficient data design follows through to an effective and useful database. You will examine a given scenario and develop an effective design solution to produce a database system. You will then test your solution to ensure that it works correctly. Finally, you will evaluate each stage of the development process and the effectiveness of your database solution.

Unit 3: Social Media in Business (25%)

This is a mandatory unit that is internally assessed. You will explore different social media websites, the ways in which they can be used and the potential pitfalls when using them for business purposes. You will develop a plan to use social media strategies for business purposes to achieve specific aims and objectives. You will then implement the plan, developing and posting content and interacting with others. Finally, you will collect data on the businesses use of social media and review the effectiveness of your efforts.

Unit 6: Website Development (17%)

This is an optional unit that is internally assessed. In this unit, you will review existing websites – commenting on their overall design and effectiveness. You will use scripting languages such as Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript® and a simple text editor, or rapid application development tools. Finally, you will reflect on the website design and functionality using a testing and review process.

Is there anything else I should know?

The new BTEC Level 3 Nationals in ICT have been designed to accredit candidates’ achievement in a modern and practical way that is relevant to the workplace. There is no requirement for candidates to have achieved a Level 2 ICT qualification before progressing to this award.

Progression Routes

Employment in an ICT related role - for example Supervisory or Management Trainee; entry to college or university for further study; work towards work-related and vocational qualifications.