In response to the challenges faced by centres during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, Gateway Qualifications is now permitting learners to sit the EDSQ mock assessments remotely during the current national lockdown.

Centres registered to deliver Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQ) with Gateway Qualifications will know that learners are encouraged to sit a mock assessment in advance of sitting the live assessment, this is to ensure that learners can familiarise themselves with the assessment platform as well as the types of tasks and questions that they will receive within the live assessment.

Centres should continue to register learners in Quartzweb as usual but must ensure that when booking on Surpass the learners are scheduled for a mock test and not a live test. You can find guidance on booking assessments in the EDSQ Surpass Guidance for Centres available to download in Prism.

Centres should also consider supervision arrangements including whether they will be requiring learners to complete the assessment in the specified time and how they can authenticate learner work. We would advise centres to keep a record of the assessment taking conditions including the time taken on the test and the level of supervision provided. For example, centres could undertake supervision via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

If you are planning to allow your learners to sit the mock assessment remotely, you may find it helpful to consider the following:

  • the learner’s hardware and software meets the system requirements for Surpass, available on our website
  • the learner has sufficient access to devices to complete the assessment, especially if they are sharing devices with other members of the household
  • the learner has access to a reliable internet connection
  • you have a secure and reliable means to distribute keycodes and PINs to learners

You should also share the EDSQ Surpass Candidate Guide with your learners, which is available to download from Prism. This contains useful tips on how to access the assessment.

Additional mock assessments will be made available in the system later this month.