The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is inviting expressions of interest from suppliers with the knowledge, expertise and experience to design and deliver computer-based testing services.
The successful supplier will work with the regulator to provide an end-to-end solution for the remote authoring, banking of questions, candidate registration, delivery, marking and moderation of the new centralised assessment in Professional Ethics which, following the introduction of new Bar Qualification Rules in 2019, will take place during the work-based learning/pupillage component of Bar training from January 2022. The contract will also include the remote authoring and banking of questions for the Civil Litigation and Criminal Litigation multiple choice centralised examinations sat by candidates during the vocational component of Bar training.
This is an open tendering process; the Invitation to Tender (ITT) is available on the BSB website. It includes details of how organisations interested in bidding should respond, and the criteria by which each tender will be evaluated. The last date when tenders will be accepted is Friday 22 January 2021. The contract(s) will be awarded in March 2021. Queries about the tendering process can be addressed to: [email protected]
The ITT document places particular importance on the need for any computer-based testing service to be able to accommodate reasonable adjustments for as many candidates as possible. It is anticipated that the majority of candidates taking the exam will be located in England and Wales, but the solution should offer the potential to take the exams internationally.
Any relevant recommendations relating to computer-based assessments from the current independent review of the BPTC exams held in August will need to be addressed in the solution offered by the preferred supplier. These recommendations will be known before contracting takes place.
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About the Bar Standards Board
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