ICT Level 3

Applications Open – 21st November 2025

Applications Close – 30th April 2026

Entry Requirements – At least 5 GCSE passes at grades 9-5 in the new qualifications (or A*- B grade in the old GCSEs) including English (either Literature or Language if both were taken) and mathematics.

Preference on Advanced Level courses will be given to those students securing at least a grade 6 (or grade B in the old GCSE assessment system) in the subject they wish to study.

How to Apply – Please apply via KentChoices

SPECIFICATION – BTEC Extended Certificate in ICT

The BTEC course in ICT is designed to give students skills that are of high value in the workplace but also provide UCAS points and are recognised by universities as an equal alternative to traditional A level courses.

The major advantage that this BTEC offers over the traditional A-Level route is that students will be given the opportunity to submit coursework, take the exam or sit the controlled assessment within two windows offered each year in January or June. This has the advantage that they do not have to wait until the very end of their two years in Sixth Form to take exams covering everything they have learnt over those two years. Indeed if a unit does not go well then they also have the chance to re-take or re-submit a unit on a second occasion.

The course itself is divided into four units

Unit 1: Information Technology systems, students are required to sit a two hour exam, which is worth 90 marks. The exam will assess students understanding of computer systems and the implications of their use in personal and professional situations. This is an externally assessed exam.

Unit 2: Creating Systems to Manage Information, looks to assess students by setting them a supervised task, where they are required to design, create, test and evaluate a relational database system. This is an externally assessed controlled assessment.

Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business. Students will explore the impact of social media on the ways in which businesses promote their products and services. They then will develop a plan to use social media in a business to meet requirements. Whilst finally they will implement the use of social media in a business. This is an internally assessed piece of coursework.

Unit 4: The final unit is another internally assessed piece of coursework and students will either be asked to build a website or create a spreadsheet model. It has not been decided at this stage which unit the students will undertake in Year 13.