October 22nd - the Functional Skills
newsletter
In this week's Functional Skills
newsletter we cover the OECD comparison of Literacy and Numeracy standards, Guroo
(sponsors of this newsletter and my employers) would like to let you know about
a new way to get high quality but low cost face to face training with the
launch of "Guroo Open Training" and we have a full summary of several
new events and exhibitions that will be of interest to our readers.
We've fully updated the webinar
recording list and this weeks "Wednesday Webinar" will be
"getting the best from your Guroo Free Trial, delivered by daisy this
week.
As always, we aim to send this
newsletter out every two weeks, your comments and thoughts are always
appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by
emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk
England's young adults "trailing
the world" in literacy and maths
This has been the story of the last
couple of weeks. Technically, England doesn't trail the world (as the USA
is bottom) but it isn't a very good picture at all. The OECD report is here, a nice touch is that you can compare
different age groups too; England doesn't do so bad with older people!
There were lots of news reports about the focus on young people though:
The BBC led with the headline used at the beginning of this
article.
The Guardian went for "nothing short of a national
disgrace".
The Government appeared to want to blame FE Colleges; however
this seemed to be a little bit of bluster to divert attention away from
themselves and their over-reliance on grade C GCSE. FE Week reported MP's "sadness".
Whichever line you believe, there is no
doubt that the whole system needs a complete rethink, perhaps with a distinct
move away from GCSE towards getting the basics right by using Functional Skills
as the GCSE hurdle for which it was originally designed?
Guroo Open Training is a three hour training session
(including break) on how to use Guroo to support the teaching of Functional
Skills.
A new innovative method of delivering high quality but low cost
face to face training, the first session will be in Milton Keynes on 26th November. If this proves popular
and sells out, don't worry, simply let Cathy (who's organising them) know and we'll add some more
dates and locations.
The sessions will be led by Sally Bryant, an experienced
Functional Skills practitioner, author and examiner, the session will take you
through the Functional Skills Learner Journey and the tutor experience using
all aspects of the Guroo system. During the session we'll cover:
- Initial assessment and diagnostic
- Using teaching and learning resources
- Preparing for external assessments
- Group and user admin
- Reports and tracking
Open training is for anyone who uses Guroo as part of their
tutor/assessor role. The course size is typically 8 up to a maximum of 20
delegates from several establishments. You must bring your own wifi
enabled laptop to get the best from the session - wifi is provided. If
you do try to book and it's full, please let us know straight away and we'll add more events and
locations to meet demand.
Key events
coming up
The AELP conference is happening
Tuesday 22nd October in Birmingham. Guroo will be there of course showing
all of the new features and additions to Guroo 3.1 released since the summer.
JISC North West are having a "16+ suppliers day" on
November 12th at Haydock, Liverpool. Not specifically about Functional Skills,
but as Guroo has so many regional customers in the North West, it will be a
great chance to see you all.
EMSkills have announced a date for the Maths and English Skills Conference of January 31st 2014,
again at the Paragon Hotel, Birmingham. Always well attended and
informative, early bird prices are available for delegates now. As usual,
this event is being supported by Guroo and other Functional Skills providers.
The Learning and Skills show runs alongside the Learning
technologies exhibition and takes place on 29th and 30th January at Olympia in London.
All of the leading Functional Skills companies are expected to be there, Guroo will be on stand 329.
Apprenticeships
4 England are running their conference in London on March 4/5. Another very well attended
show, expected to be supported by all the major Functional Skills providers
including Guroo.
Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm
"Using the Guroo Free Trial"
is Wednesday's webinar with Daisy Wells, on Wednesday 23rd October at 4pm.
A 20 minute look at using the Free
Trial process from sign-up to creating assessments, reviewing diagnostics and
finding resources. Ideal for potential new customers and those considering Guroo.
Join us live, but we record every session as we know that many more people
enjoy coming back for the recording afterwards, so if you want to join or just
want to watch the recording, just drop an email to info@guroo.co.uk
Join us on Wednesday 23rd October at
4pm.
All previous webinars are recorded and
available anytime for playback - login as a guest and the password is password.
Simply click on the links below and don’t forget, if you’d like to have your
own 1:1 webinar looking at how Guroo can help you support Functional Skills,
just call us on 0191 305 5045 or email info@guroo.co.uk
and we’ll take it from there.
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