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Thousands of students and pupils across Northern Ireland have finally received their BTec results.

Many were supposed to receive them alongside GCSEs on Thursday 20 August but they were not released by the exams board Pearson.

That followed earlier delays in some Level 3 BTEC results.

BTecs are vocational and technical qualifications equivalent to GCSEs and A-levels and are taken by many students in schools and colleges.

Among those getting her grades on Friday was 16-year-old Katrina Morris from Mercy College in north Belfast.

She did not receive results in BTecs in Business Studies and Travel and Tourism she was expecting to get on 20 August.

"Whenever you open the envelope and they're not there you think 'Did I not get them? What's going on?" she said.

"The school reassured us that we would get them eventually but it was a bit unsettling".

"You like to have that one day where you get it all over and done with and you get all your results".

Katrina got good news on Friday, with top grades in her two outstanding BTec qualifications to go along with A*, A and B grades in her GCSEs.

But while Mercy College's principal Martin Moreland was happy that all of his pupils finally received their results on Friday, he was still upset they had to wait eight days.

"We work tirelessly in building up their confidence and self-esteem," he said.

"To them the first question in many of their minds was, after speaking to them, that they had done something wrong, that they had failed and I think that's unforgiveable".

"This went across all schools, and on a national level had a huge impact on children".

Mercy College is a non-selective school where pupils study for BTecs, GCSEs and A-levels and many were waiting for their grades to confirm places on courses in Further Education Colleges or Universities.

Pearson said that late changes to GCSE and A-level results meant they had to re-grade some BTecs and could not release results on 20 August as expected.

But Mr Moreland said that, while he appreciated Pearson were placed in a difficult position, they should not have left it until the eve of results day to inform schools they could not give pupils their grades.

"For Pearson to leave it to the eleventh hour, the day before these children were to get their results, you would have thought that an earlier stage they would have got together to try to figure it out," he said.

"It's unacceptable as some of our students were getting their full results and were excited and then they had friends alongside them who did not know - there was so much uncertainty".