FS News - special edition 1st April

A stop press edition Functional Skills news.

STOP PRESS ..... STOP PRESS ....QDCA expected to make announcement about major changes to 14-19 today, changes to Functional Skills examination environment conditions and a final solution to manage cheating in assessments

QDCA expected to make major announcement about GCSEs today! To coincide with the official birth today of QDCA and Ofquals, we're expecting an announcement this morning about major changes to the 14-19 qualification structure to better accommodate and reflect today's lifestyle.

• The new GCSE "exam toolkit" will feature a pay as you go mobile phone loaded with 10 text messages and 5 minutes of voice calls. Students will be able to use these in all exams but the limited number will mean students will need to learn about priorities.
• A new short course "GCSE Social Networking" will be launched with support from Facebook and Twitter. As an experiment it will feature a new top grade A** for candidates who are able to attract more than 1000 followers before the final assessments which we understand will be taken on-line using mobile devices.
• A fifth suite of learning will be added to existing four funded suites (Apprenticeship, Diploma, GCSE/A Level, Foundation). Unnamed as yet, we understand it is based loosely around celebrity lifestyles, will be focused on PR and gossip and will be aimed at students who think the world owes them a living.

Changes to Functional Skills assessment conditions! To better reflect the real world nature of Functional Skills, the dates for all Functional Skills examinations will now be kept secret with students being told about them just 15 minutes before they start.

An employer's representative was quoted as saying "in business, we never know what's going to happen next but when it does, our bosses expect you to have the answer straight away so this change just reflects what happens in the world".

A final end to cheating! Functional Skills will also be used as a testing ground in a new effort to end cheating in exams. In a radical change, all rules will be scrapped to encourage peer discussion, practical use of technology and extensive use of contacts. Dubbed by the Daily Mail as "it's not what you know, it's who you know" exams, it's another change that reflects the real world nature of the qualification.

Problem solving in the real world! Continuing the theme of problem solving, we spotted this video and thought it would be a great starter to for all lessons on April 1st. Click here to view.

Enjoy! - from all the guys (and gals) at guroo - happy holidays!

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