Functional Skills Newsletter July 20th

Our bi-weekly look at the world of Functional Skills.

Our last newsletter of the year brings you important news of changes to Functional Skills in Apprenticeships, another link to a very useful document about accredited qualifications, money off the Diploma Conference and Guroo 2.0 offers.

Functional Skills in Apprenticeships - "Get it right rather than do it quick". John Hayes, Minister for FE and Skills, spoke at the ALP conference where he announced that the introduction of Functional Skills into Apprenticeships will be delayed 6 months until March 2011. The full text of his speech is here and there's also a link to the video of the speech here, both provided by fenews.co.uk. It is important to note this is a temporary measure and only applies to Apprenticeships and I quote from his speech

"I should stress that this is a temporary measure to allow more flexibility for providers and more time for us to work together to get the implementation right. I know that many providers will be finalising their preparations for delivery of Functional Skills from April 2011. They should still identify and access the support they need to develop their capacity to deliver Functional Skills, with which the Learning and Skills Improvement Service can help."

Link to accredited qualifications. In the last newsletter we provided a link to a document we'd put together that pulled all accredited qualifications into a single file. We were astonished by how many people clicked through. It certainly appears to be useful so here is the link again to all 87 accredited qualifications in a hyperlinked summary here.

6th National Diploma Conference. Click here to link to the Guroo site for details of this conference taking place on Monday 11th October plus a special money saving offer!

Guroo 2.0! The development to deliver Guroo 2.0 is well underway with a planned launch date of September. The Guroo guys have advised that it's still possible to buy now at the current price, take a free subscription period until September and thereby get Guroo 2.0 without paying any more. If this sounds like a deal for you, simply call Guroo on 0191 305 5045 or download the July order forms from here.

Functional Skills resources from Guroo

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6 month delay is a small price to pay for certainty.

The Government has bowed to pressure from the Association of Learning Providers and delayed the introduction of Functional Skills in Apprenticeships only till next year.

Apparently, it's because the ALP members such as FE Colleges don't want to see pass rates go down and they aren't well enough prepared for Functional Skills (even after three years of pilot running).

The good thing is that it's definitely going to happen in 6 months, it's just a shame that apprentices going through the system now will leave with qualifications that are less valued by employers than Functional Skills.

What I find frustrating is this determination that because it's harder it's a bad thing - for whom exactly is my question? It certainly isn't worse for the students because they get a much better, more rigorous qualification, so who is worried about this - and why?

Budget cuts sidestepping basic and functional skills?

The last few days has seen lots of stories about budget cuts. As you'd expect, I read every one but so far, none of the cuts have directly been focussed on literacy, numeracy, basic skills and functional skills which i think is a very good thing!
I do believe that the Coalition Government is focussing on getting the basics right, and indeed the new emphasis on phonics to teach reading and writing at primary school is evidence of that.
Clearly, budget cuts in other areas will have a trickle down effect so I'm certainly not being complacent.
Jonathan Wells - Guroo Functional Skills

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Vocational study should not be cast as academia's poor relation

Taken from Today's TES, this story about easy to pass quals contiinues to rumble onwards -Jonathan

Civitas's concern about the widespread take-up of vocational and other non-GCSE qualifications by young people in academies seems to be based on an outdated opinion about what is "right" in education. To claim that widely accepted qualifications such as NVQs, VRQs and Diplomas are "of extremely questionable value" belies a blinkered view of what is wanted by employers and universities.

While the "traditional" academic route to university, apprenticeships, colleges or work via GCSEs and A-levels may be familiar, it does not suit everyone. Alternative routes provide young people with a range of choices that may better suit their personal aspirations or learning styles. Such routes are also popular with employers.

Shackling young people to a single route to qualification or work may fit with Civitas's traditionalist world view, but it does little for learners, whose talent must be unleashed for their own prosperity and for the good of the economy.

Chris Jones, CEO and director-general, City & Guilds, London.

FS newsletter July 6th

Our bi-weekly look at the world of Functional Skills.

Funding guidance from YPLA is released, more accredited qualifications announced plus a useful hyperlinked file so you don't have to spend hours searching, the truth about recent Diploma announcements, experts in Functional Skills still required, save money at the 6th Annual Diploma Conference and Guroo 2.0.

YPLA Funding guidance produced. Paragraph 78 states "Providers are now expected to deliver these Functional Skills qualifications for young people unless there is a robust rationale for not doing so. Qualifications that demonstrate personal progress may be more appropriate for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities who are not ready to access functional skills qualifications and are working towards independent living and their achievements are at the lower end of entry level 1." The full document is here.

Another 20 Functional Skills qualifications accredited. To help you get access to all 87, we've put together a hyperlinked summary here. We hope you find it useful!

Diplomas - the truth. It's amazing how certain sections of the press latch onto selected snippets of news. Diplomas are not being dropped, to put the record straight.

• All of the first 14 diplomas are alive and kicking, it's just the last 3 academic diplomas that have been abandoned.
• The extended diploma (positioned above the Advanced Diploma and worth 3.5 'A' levels) has been dropped.
• Schools and Colleges no longer have to have to offer comprehensive entitlement with access to every diploma, this change is expected to reduce administration, student travel and costs!

Are you a Functional Skills expert? Thanks for all the replies so far, it looks like we're going to build a fantastic team and it's not too late to get involved. Guroo Associates will be contracted to help Guroo subscribers with any aspect of Functional Skills as part of the Guroo Active Engagement Programme. If you're interested in what we're doing, in the first instance just drop Jonathan Wells a line at jwells@guroo.co.uk Over the summer we'll be in touch with you about our plans.

6th National Diploma Conference. Click here to link to the Guroo site for details of this conference taking place on Monday 11th October plus a special money saving offer!

Guroo 2.0! The development to deliver Guroo 2.0 is well underway with a planned launch date of September. The Guroo guys have advised that it's still possible to buy now at the current price, take a free subscription period until September and thereby get Guroo 2.0 without paying any more. If this sounds like a deal for you, simply call Guroo on 0191 305 5045 or download the July order forms from here.

Functional Skills resources from Guroo

To forward this email to a friend click here This email has been sent to you by Guroo Ltd Guroo Ltd evolve centre Rainton Bridge Business Park Cygnet Way Houghton le Spring DH4 7SL To edit your details/unsubscribe click here Sign-Up.to : Right Person. Right Place. Right Time

More stories about non academic pass rates

This time from the TES who appear to have re-told a story from a previous week.

It rumbles on .....

Posted by Jonathan Wells

They make twice as much use of vocational ‘equivalents’ as other state secondaries

Less than half of academies’ “GCSE” passes are made up of academic GCSEs, according to new government figures.

The statistics also show that the state-funded independents make twice as much use of vocational and other non-GCSE “equivalent” qualifications as other state secondaries.

The figures, published in response to parliamentary questions, challenge the idea that academies outperform conventional schools.

Critics say they are a blow to the credibility of the planned expansion of the academies programme.

Ministers have justified the policy by claiming that average academy GCSE performance is increasing at twice the rate of other secondaries.

But that figure is based on the league table measures that include “equivalent” qualifications.

The Government has revealed that only 49 per cent of academies’ GCSE or equivalent A*-C grades were made up of academic GCSEs last year, compared with 73 per cent for other state schools.

Anastasia de Waal, education director at think-tank Civitas, said: “Academies are replacing academic subjects with so-called equivalents of extremely questionable value.

“The ultimate concern is that the already deprived are being deprived of academic learning and that un-checked this is set to continue much further.”

Applied GCSEs made up 3 per cent of academies’ A*-C passes, with the other 48 per cent made of “equivalent” qualifications, including BTechs, OCR Nationals, basic, key and functional skills, NVQs and VRQs.

Mainstream state secondaries made half as much use of these alternatives - only 24 per cent of their A*-C passes.

Tristram Hunt, Labour MP and historian, said the news was particularly embarrassing for Conservative ministers because they had continually emphasised the importance of a strictly academic education in “hard” subjects.

Their own figures showed this was much less likely to be offered in many of the academies they were promoting as the flagship model of reform.

“This begins to confirm our initial fears that in many academies history, geography and other academic subjects are falling behind,” said Dr Hunt, who tabled the parliamentary questions drafted by The TES.

“It is of real concern that the Government seems about to depart on a policy without gathering the empirical evidence of what is going on in schools.”

The latest government figures follow another set published by The TES last week which showed that individual academies were, proportionately, much more likely to appear among the schools making heavy use of non-GCSEs.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Results and inspection reports show that academies are working.

“Based on the national standard upon which all schools are measured, academies’ GCSE results are increasing twice as fast as the national average.

“It is very important that young people are entered for the qualifications that are in their best interests rather than being entered for exams simply to boost the league table position of the school.”