Newsletter with Government statements, expos, e-learning all to do with English and maths for the post-16 sector.

Edition 203 - Friday October 23rd 2015

This week we have brought together a number of different threads involving Apprenticeships and Functional Skills.

We all know about the 3 million apprenticeship promise and the apprenticeship levy proposals, but now we're also seeing some opposition to activities and plans - we pull together those threads below.

We also have news of a new type of expo event organised by AELP - ForSkills are in the e-learning zone which is entirely appropriate as ForSkills is the ONLY company able to support claims of e-learning success with independent evidence and we have a link to a new "prezi" about that.

As always, feel free to contact Jonathan Wells, the editor of this newsletter on 0191 3055045 or jonathan@forskills.co.uk

Government support, but plenty of criticism too.

An interesting week or two that has seen plenty of Government support for Functional Skills and Apprenticeships mixed with some negativity on both quality and quantity.

Nick Boles, in commissioning the ETF reform programme, makes it totally clear that Functional Skills is here to stay (see our little sample image below) and in a separate address he also provides lots of support for promoting Apprenticeships by Apprentices.

But at the same time, Emily Thornberry of labour was expressing her concern about burger flipping Apprenticeships.

Ofsted then weighed in with their comments, albeit based on quite a small sample, which the BBC reported last week under the headline "devaluing brand".

AELP robustly defended Apprenticeships and issued a statement following their Autumn conference to that effect.

E-learning works

A short on-line "prezi" of the University of Sunderland research on e-learning

Are you prepared for the digital future?

Keeping up to date with the developments in ICT that support digital technology including e-learning and e-assessment is vital to the success of the sector.

On November 5th at the ILEC Conference Centre, London, AELP will hold a new type of event - the #aelptechexpo

Featuring five dedicated zones, a dozen workshops, great speakers and exhibitor briefings, this is an event for your diary.

ETF to manage reform programme for Functional Skills

Functional Skills reform off and running

The Education and Training Foundation have been commissioned by the Government to produce a programme to reform Functional Skills.

The initial report will be delivered to Ministers in August 2016 with the intention of having the new qualifications available for 2018.

Our view is that this is genuinely good news that shows Functional Skills have significant support from the Government. Indeed Nick Boles (BIS Minister) said that "Functional Skills are delivering an employer-recognised level of English and maths skills that help learners into lasting work".

Full details of the announcement.

Changes to Assessments

Functional Skills Changes

English Reading

Source materials will have more resemblance to what candidates see in their daily activities. At level 2 there will be at least three texts to read.

Answers will require more explanations rather than ‘lists’. There will be a greater variety in terms of coverage so that it will be more important to teach skills rather than ‘teach to the test’.

English Writing

There will be less guidance and structure, requiring candidates to provide more extended responses. There will be an emphasis on candidates working in normal ways, so a clarification that grammar and spellcheckers are allowed.

At level 2, candidates with weak SPaG will not necessarily be able to pass purely on the content marks.

Maths

The format of assessments will remain unchanged with three assessments covering number; measures, shape and space; and handling data. There will be reduced guidance within tasks, less scaffolding of questions. There will also be an addition of specific planning and reviewing steps for cdates to demonstrate the effectiveness of their working.

Task 1 (number) will have the most significant changes with a planning step at the start, reduction in guidance throughout and a review at the end of the task. Tasks 2 and 3 will have a similar structure to existing assessments but with reduced guidance.