Not really an exhibitor as such any more, as the market for Guroo is now FE and Training Providers supporting Apprentices, Functional Skills remains stubbornly under-represented in schools (at least for now). But I am here on the C484 AKHTER stand adding value as part of their overall solution for secondaries and academies.
But I did manage to walk the show, it's oh so very big. Themes? Multitouch large screens and lots of them, mainly from Chinese manufacturers, I must admit, I don't entirely see the point but they must be getting orders or they wouldn't be here. Lots of mobile devices - Samsung were busy with BYOD and they were managing the systems as you arrived with your tablet/mobile. Quite a few assessment software companies too - maybe this is part of the move towards assessment and progress at all levels rather than just the focus on C/D borderline? And lots of curriculum software too - as you'd expect.
What has gone - 3D has gone - that was big two years ago, it isn't noticeable now.
The biggest theme is international, this is no longer a UK schools show, it's totally international.
So no one stand out theme as far as I could tell, but the market must be healthy to support the money being spent here. At an all up cost of pushing £1000 per sq m of stand sapce (this counts in stand build, people costs, stand space and so on), even a smaller 6 x 4 stand costs the company £25K for the week and the bigger stands - well, I can't see how they can ever return the money spent, but then again, one order for Dubai and that makes the difference I guess.
Jonathan
Thursday 23 January 2014
Monday 20 January 2014
Simpler pricing from Guroo and GCSE support too!
Simpler pricing from Guroo, plus GCSE
support now
The UK's best provider of solutions for
Functional Skills has revised pricing and completely dropped the establishment fee
for new customers which benefits everyone, but proportionally, it helps smaller
providers most.
Under the new scheme, customers simply
purchase the number of licences they need - whether that's 1 or 1000 - and
because user licences typically last as long for as the learner is studying,
there's no waste and no requirement to re-buy when a subscription period ends
plus there are deals to be had for orders placed before Valentine’s Day - up to
15% off.
And in a further step to ensure great
value, Guroo will be launching support for GCSE, with the first product, GCSE
Assess already in trials.
Want to know more - simply get in touch on 0191 3055045 or email info@guroo.co.uk
Guroo is the UK's best provider of Functional Skills solutions - official!
Strip benefits from claimants lacking skills?
Strip benefits from claimants lacking
skills ....?
Interesting piece from the BBC this one and it shows that
discussion around the focus on improving adult skills continues unabated.
Further, this is not a Conservative policy, it's actually from Labour
who would like all claimants to take a basic skills test 6 weeks after they
claim JSA.
But with a slight twist in the tail,
the Conservatives also said;
"Labour
are copying a Conservative policy that already exists and that is superior to
the one they are proposing. After 13 years of Labour running our
education system, many young people looking for work do not have the English
and Maths skills they need to get a job. That's why, starting in some
areas at first, anyone aged 18 to 21 signing on without these basic skills will
be required to undertake training from day one or lose their benefits."
Sunday 12 January 2014
Exhibitions, conferences, events in January 2014
Lots and lots happening in Functional Skills in January - see below.
Guroo will also be taking an active part at the Skills Summit in Central London on Tuesday 28th January.
This is a high level conference, speakers include the Minister for
Skills, Matthew Hancock.
AELP webinars
AELP have organised a series of
webinars aimed at front-line staff who assist learners to improve their
English and Maths skills, on a day-to-day basis within non-specialist provision
– they are especially useful where those staff have limits to their own skills
in these areas.
Developing your delivery of English and maths skills takes
place on Tuesday January 21st at 2pm and can be booked on-line.
Developing your delivery of ICT functional skills takes place
on Thursday 30th January at 2pm.
AELP members pay £69 for each webinar
which also includes access to the recording and presentation slides.
Major
exhibitions - Learning Technologies, Skills Summit and BETT
It's that time of the year again, the exhibition
season starts with BETT running from January 22-26 at the Excel Centre in London.
Jonathan Wells of Guroo will be there on stand C484 with partners Akhter
Computers. Guroo will be launching their latest product powered by Guroo
- GCSE Assess, featuring full GCSE diagnostics and direct links
to tutorial videos. If you’d like to know more about what Guroo is doing
for GCSE, simply email us and we'll keep you up to date!
The week after, Guroo are off to
Olympia on stand 329 for the joint Learning and Skills / Learning Technologies exhibition. It takes place on
Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th.
Maths and English Skills Conference
Of direct interest to those involved in
Functional Skills will be this EMSkills
organised conference in Birmingham on Friday 30th January.
The previous events have been very well
attended, speakers this month include Stewart Segal of AELP, Barry Brooks and
Maureen Emmett. The theme of this conference is policy and practice.
Guroo (the UK's best provider of Functional Skills
solutions) will be there as usual, as will (we believe) all the other providers
of Functional Skills resources. This conference in the past has been a
great opportunity to compare offers from all providers, take this chance to
find out why Guroo is the best!
Guroo Webinar Recordings
Guroo webinar recordings
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.
Monday 6 January 2014
The sectors best providers ....
the 2013 Annual Functional Skills survey attracted more than 400 respondents. A key area of questions in the survey was about providers:
The survey asked respondents to
nominate the best provider across seven key areas of provision, choosing from
BKSB, ForSkills, Guroo and Tribal. The results of the survey from all
seven categories are:
- Best for ease of
use - 1st BKSB, 2nd Guroo
- Best for engaging
learners - 1st Guroo, 2nd ForSkills
- Best for initial
assessment - 1st BKSB, 2nd Guroo
- Best for support -
1st Guroo, 2nd Tribal
- Best for teaching
and learning resources - 1st Guroo, 2nd Tribal
- Best for experience
- 1st BKSB, 2nd Guroo
- Best for pricing -
1st Guroo, 2nd BKSB
So with four "firsts" and
three "seconds", Guroo came out on top by a considerable margin, and
amongst work based training providers, the results were stronger with five
"firsts" and two "seconds".
Independent evidence and proof, if you needed it, that Guroo really are the best!
Awarding Organisations and Functional Skills
Based on 377 completed responses to the Functional Skills survey and note that some institutions will use more than one AO so the results
will not add up to 100%, the results are:
City and Guilds are the most popular choice
with a market share of 49%, followed by Pearson (Edexcel) with 36%, OCR on 17%
and Pearson (EDI) 14%. "Others" accounted for 26% market share but no
company exceeded 5% market share on an individual basis.
Looking just at the FE sector, EDI are
much less prevalent whilst OCR and Edexcel get higher market shares, it's the
other way round in work based learning where EDI and City & Guilds both
increase their market shares.
Overall, the Awarding Organisations
should be pleased with the customer satisfaction ratings from the respondents
with more than 80% describing themselves as very or quite happy. Of particular
note are EDI and OCR who both nudged 90% satisfaction by this measure.
Confidence in Functional Skills
In the 2013 Functional Survey, with more than 400 respondents, part of the survey was about confidence.
Overall, 89% of all respondents are confident
that they are fully training and prepared to deliver Functional Skills, a
number that has been climbing steadily over the last three years. Of
perhaps more importance is in other areas of confidence in the qualification.
Confidence amongst respondents that
Functional Skills is a rigorous (90%) and valuable (88%) qualification is
extremely high. What is possibly surprising is that the same group also
reported that 66% of learners actually enjoy doing functional skills and 70% of
tutors enjoy teaching it!
So there we have it, a rigorous,
valuable qualification that both learners and tutors enjoy doing - all in all,
a very resounding vote of confidence from the sectors!
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