Functional Skills Newsletter Oct 2nd

October 2nd - the Functional Skills newsletter

This week we have news on Functional Skills within the Revised CIF and we think this is  important that we've also developed this week's Wednesday Webinar around the subject - tomorrow's is entitled "Functional Skills in the Revised Common Inspection Framework ".  We acknowledge David Sykes of the The Skills Network who wrote the original presentation and gave us permission to adapt it to a 20 minute webinar format.

We have a link to a good blog from Roger Francis who argues the case strongly for Functional Skills and now that Key Skills and SfL are definitely RIP, a summary of the Guroo offer for Functional Skills including details of how to access the free trial.

As always, your comments and thoughts are appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk

Revised Common Inspection Framework

With thanks to David Sykes of The Skills Network

English and maths and therefore Functional Skills feature heavily in the Revised CIF.  Key differences include:

• Greater emphasis on teaching, learning and assessment
• Development of English/maths and employability skills
• Increased observation of teaching, learning, skills development and assessment
• A bigger focus on learner progress relative to start point and goals including rates of progress and the progression of different groups of learners, less focus on outcomes
• Progression to destinations including higher levels of study and employment
• More use of tracking the learner journey, evaluating learning materials and technology and what learners can do
  
  

Tomorrow's Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm will focus on the Revised CIF with more detail around the above points.  email info@guroo.co.uk to get joining details.

So why do Functional Skills, anyway?

A really interesting blog post by Roger Francis who poses the above question and then does a very good job in answering it!

Click here to read the article.

RIP Key Skills and SfL.

You can no longer register learners for Key Skills and SfL in any funded programme.  The only funded qualifications for English and maths are now Functional Skills and GCSE.

Just a quick reminder of the services that Guroo does provide for Functional Skills.

Guroo is a company that is dedicated solely to Functional Skills.  It is very easy to become a customer and get your SITE CODE and this costs as little as £325.  Once you are a customer, you get access to the pdf version of the Functional Skills Level Checker and then you can add any number of user licences to use the on-line initial assessment, diagnostic and teaching & learning resources.  We have on-line and paper based products covering the full learner journey. 

A Paper Based Functional Skills Level Checker for Maths and English developed by Guroo and ideal for use as part of a pre-course assessment or interview process – takes about 10 minutes to do, and produces a good guide to the level that the learner is currently operating at.

An on-line Initial Assessment producing a detailed Functional Skills Diagnostic.  Takes around 50 minutes per subject (we do all three subjects) and is completed on-line and automatically marked.  The diagnostic details performance against the Functional Skills criteria in all subjects.  The test is adaptive with learners starting at E3 then adapting according to performance and has randomisation and variability built in so the assessment can be done several times without learners becoming good at the test rather than the skills.

Try if for FREE here.

A massive bank of teaching and learning resources.  Mainly on-line interactive and based around 130 “challenges” each with several learning tasks.  The tasks can also be downloaded as pdf’s for printing and use off line and again cover all levels and all three subjects.

Customers pay an establishment fee which is a on-off fee.  You then buy licences based on number of users or tests according to what you need.  It is not an annual subscription, use stays as long as your learner or tutor is with you. Establishment fees start as low as £325 and indeed, customers who only wish to use the Paper Based Functional Skills Level Checker pay just £325 for the licence providing they choose to print the test papers out themselves.

Guroo customers get access to the Level Checker free of charge if they wish to print out the tests themselves or can buy sets of tests in bulk for ease of use and indeed to save money, as our sets often cost less than printing yourself!  We’re also producing an automatically marked on-line version too, again access is limited to licenced customers.  Prices for the on-line test are 50p per set (Maths and English), the paper based version can be supplied in a 100 pack for £75 which contains 100 x English, 100 x Maths and marking/guidance notes for each subject.  A 250 pack is just £150, almost certainly than printing in house.

Contact info@guroo.co.uk for anything to do with Functional Skills.

Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm

Access last fortnight's recording on "Key Differences between Functional Skills and Key Skills" here. 

This weeks webinar is entitled "Functional Skills in the Revised CIF" and is a more detailed look at the changes to CIF than the main points above and how they affect English and maths Functional Skills. 

Please email info@guroo.co.uk for joining instructions.