BTL, a global edtech provider which this year celebrates its 35th anniversary, has been recognised in the United Kingdom with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The award for International Trade relates to its outstanding success in the assessment industry.
BTL’s SaaS assessment platform, Surpass, has supported international test delivery for well over a decade, and recent growth in North America has seen it expand its base of operations with a new office to support USA and Canada based clients. BTL now employs more than 150 people across both locations (UK and North America).
Surpass, the company’s premier examination technology is used for the secure creation, delivery, marking and reporting of paper and computer-based tests with more than 25 million examinations delivered to date. Surpass is used by governments, schools, colleges, universities, and high-profile professional certification bodies in fields such as healthcare and finance.
In most recent times, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Surpass has demonstrated that it is the perfect solution for supporting innovative organisations wishing to continue assessment operations during a turbulent time. Rather than suspend essential assessment activity, Surpass Community members can switch from centre-based testing to remotely invigilated models that allow the learner to be examined from home.
Read more about BTL’s success in the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Magazine >
On winning the award, Founder and Chairman Dr. Bob Gomersall reacted:
“I am delighted that BTL has won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade. We are very proud that the technology we provide is used all over the world. Our people come from a very wide background, but they all have one thing in common – a passion for what we do and doing it as well as we can. We aim to work very closely indeed with people who use our technology and have established the “Surpass Community”, named after our main product, Surpass. We have advocated and embraced remote working technology for 35 years and we are very proud that our technology has a positive role to play in the current COVID-19 pandemic.”
Sonya Whitworth, Managing Director of BTL’s UK head office added:
“I am extremely proud that BTL has been recognised with this award. We’ve built such a strong team with a range of expertise, who even in this unprecedented situation with COVID-19, continue to work at full capacity to ensure our customers can continue delivering important assessments where possible. Delivery services, such as our global Test Centre Network are something we’ve always pursued, and now, more than ever, we’re seeing the importance and value our online invigilation service can have for awarding organisations. The UK education sector is highly regarded around the world; our product has been built on the knowledge and real-world usage of our community of experts, and we’re proud to be serving such high-profile awarding bodies around the world from our UK headquarters.”
About the Queen’s Awards
Now in its 54th year, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the country, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed Queen’s Awards emblem for the next five years.
BTL Group Ltd. will celebrate its award during a royal reception for Queen’s Awards winners in the summer.
Applications for Queen’s Awards for Enterprise 2021 open on the 1st May 2020. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/queens-awards-for-enterprise.
About BTL Group Ltd.
With offices in the UK and the USA (BTL Surpass Inc.), BTL is a global provider of assessment technology and services.
Since 2007, BTL’s core focus has been the development of its award-winning assessment platform, Surpass. Surpass is considered to be one of the best solutions available and is used internationally to create, deliver and mark over 4 million computer and paper-based tests every year. BTL has established the collaborative Surpass Community to promote innovation and investment in BTL’s products and services and has representation from the most prestigious test publishers across the world.
