Level 3 Extended Certificate in Information Technology

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

BTEC LEVEL 3 EXTENDED CERTIFICATE

Employers are looking for recruits who have a thorough grounding in the latest industry requirements and workready skills, for example teamwork. Learners who progress to higher education need experience of research, extended writing and meeting deadlines. BTEC qualifications provide the breadth and depth of learning to give learners this experience.

Requirements

GCSE Information Technology and/or GCSE Computer Science is not required to study this course, though an interest in digital technologies and computers is strongly recommended. To be successful on this course, students will usually: n Have a grade 4 in a range of GCSE subjects, preferably with a grade 6 in Mathematics; n Be inventive and innovative in creating and presenting work, showing good research skills; n Have a strong work ethic and good time management skills to keep on top of the regular coursework demands of the course.

Subject content

The Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate in Information Technology is intended as an Applied General qualification and is equivalent in size to one A Level. It is designed for learners who are interested in an introduction to the study of creating IT systems to manage and share information alongside other fields of study, with a view to progressing to a wide range of higher education courses, not necessarily in IT. Learners will develop a common core of IT knowledge and study areas such as the relationship between hardware and software that form an IT system, managing and processing data to support business and using IT to communicate and share information.

Assessment

A continual assessment model is used to assess BTEC courses. This means that a modular structure is assessed as the learning has taken place throughout the course. This will be done by a combination of external exams/ controlled assessment/written coursework/practical coursework.

Modules

Mandatory n Information Technology Systems; n Creating Systems to Manage Information; n Using Social Media in Business.

Optional

n Data Modelling; n Website Development.