Confirmation of FSSP closure

A statement on the skillsforlifenetwork confirms that FSSP will close on August 31st for post 16 support. Schools and LAs will continue to get support from National Strategies until March 2011.

Guroo are working on a programme which we plan to launch later in the Autumn term offering Functional Skills support to all.

We are actively seeking Associates with good experience of Functional Skills to support this. Please register your interest on www.guroo.info or email jwells@guroo.co.uk

Gearing up for the run in to the start of term

Last week the calls started to get more and more with each passing day in the office. They peaked on Thursday (maybe A level results meant many teachers were back at school).

This is always an exciting time for me, never quite know how things are going to start iin the new year and surprises are always in store.

Key questions for me to think about are:

Will Diplomas survive?

Will Foundation Learning become the biggest driver for Functional Skills?

Or will it be employability skills - something desperately needed in these uncertain times!

What about the new GCSE curriculum, how will they be judged?

And what about functional skills, will they truly become the qualification of choice or will they be seen as simply too hard and too rigorous by schools with the consequent drop in entries?

Always happy to pick up your thoughts - try putting them on the functional skills forum

Good luck

Yes, today is about the students waiting for the A levels, but spare a thought for the parents as well. We also have ambitions for the kids, so good luck Daisy!

It's oh so quiet .....

At least it was until this morning.

We've already had a number of calls from teachers wanting site codes, including several who "have just taken over Functional Skills" for the school or college.

And by a number, I do mean we'll be approaching double figures now and it's only 11am!

Quite exciting really as it shows that with A level results this week, people are getting back and starting to get set for the big education switch on in 2/3 weeks depending on which part of the country you live in.

Jonathan Wells of Guroo Functional Skills

In defence of the diploma

After last weeks relatively negative view of the Diploma in the TES, a robust defence by Martin Rolfe in the letters section. Even the comment about Functional Skills being robust was questioned but let's be clear about this, Functional Skills is robust, hard to pass and hard to teach when compared with other vocational level 2 qualifications. And that's why functional Skills is so good!

ICT lessons boring? Couldn't agree more!

Information technology lessons in UK schools are so dull they are putting pupils off the subject and careers in computing, the Royal Society warns. The organisation said the situation would lead to an unskilled workforce and threaten the UK's economy.

I couldn't agree more, no students wants to spend their life filling in multiple choice questions about what they already know. I'm certain that as we change to the real life scenarios in Functional Skills, this will change, but unitl then .........

www.guroo.info for lots more about functional skills.

Apprentice, work experience and so on

Have you seen how much focus is being placed on work experience and apprenticeships recently.

At guroo, we have taken the plunge and recruited an apprentice. We were determined to practice what we preach so we did recruit an apprentice with a Diploma in Creative and Media and of course, passes in Functional Skills. It took a while, but we did get there in the end and we're looking forward to developing a great employee over the next couple of years.