Edexcel - clear support for Functional Skills

What does the Wolf Report say about Functional Skills?

Functional Skills as a qualification is not mentioned in Professor Wolf’s 27 overarching recommendations, although it is referred to in Appendix VIII: Mathematics and English Post-16. Professor Wolf remains a big advocate of literacy and numeracy skills – with a huge focus on the continued need for English & Maths in 16-19 education. Drawing on evidence taken from the pilot study of Functional Skills, the Wolf Report raises some concerns about the implementation of Functional Skills. These concerns were similarly highlighted during the pilot study, and were addressed during this period. Alison Wolf comments that Functional Skills pass rates are lower than those for Key Skills. This is still true post-pilot, and on one level may be due to this being a new qualification. However, this should not take away from the fact that Functional Skills are challenging, worthwhile qualifications, denoting a marker of student excellence. Our Functional Skills results will be published online shortly to reflect this. The Wolf Report advocates Maths and English GCSEs as ‘key indicators of acceptable levels of attainment’. How do Functional Skills sit alongside this? Since the launch of Functional Skills, these qualifications have been designed to exist alongside GCSEs. They have been mapped to their corresponding GCSEs, with the functional elements now embedded into the new GCSE specifications. Functional Skills have been directly designed in response to employers’ perceptions that many young people and adults are not achieving a firm enough grounding of the basics. We couldn't agree more - Jonathan Wells of Guroo Functional Skills