Functional Skills

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Jan 24th 2012

2012-01-23T08:18:00.000-08:00

January 24th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this week's issue we report on some really shocking numbers concerning maths in the skills for life sector, Guroo have some fantastic January offers to celebrate the start of 2012(launched at BETT but available for everyone), we have summarised details of four key events coming up in the next few weeks and of course details about the ever-popular Wednesday Webinar series.

The numbers continue to climb.

The recently published Skills for Life Survey has some truly terrifying numbers in it.

5.1 million adults of working age (15% of the population) lack functional literacy skills which is pretty bad, but the same survey highlights that an astonishing 16.8 million aduts (that's 49%) are functionally innumerate, operating at E3 or below. Not only is this number very large; it's getting worse, as it's increased from 14.9 million in the last 8 years.

But perhaps the biggest shock is that just 21.8% of the adult working population are at level 2+ in numeracy; only 1 in 5 are considered to have met the current minimum standard.

So these figures perhaps give us a big clue as to why there is such a lot of focus on Functional Skills across all age groups as English and maths become part of the core entitlement, and the reason why new performance tables in sectors including FE and WBL will show how providers are performing at level 2 English and Maths.

Great deals on Functional Skills resources available now!

Guroo has changed the way in which it sells its Functional Skills Solutions. Now, you buy learner licences that stay with the learner for as long as they are with you.

Plus all previous and existing customers are already fully registered so there is no set-up fee and no minimum subscription period - all you do is buy the appropriate number of student and tutor licences and that's it - full access to a massive range of teaching and learning resources plus the only Initial Assessment and Diagnostic system developed and written specifically for Functional Skills.

New customers can take advantage of a half price January establishment fee so get your skates on and act quickly. As an example,

A typical secondary school who has been a previous subscriber supporting their bottom two sets can pay as little as £450
A training provider with 150 apprentices and a few tutors would pay just £4.95 per person for full access to everything in Guroo
A large college using the 5 minute levelling tool plus on-line diagnostic tests in all three subjects can do so for less than £1 a student

Call or email us now on 0191 305 5045 to place your order, have a chat about what you need or to book a free on-line demo with our friendly and expert support team.

Functional Skills related events coming up in the next few weeks

The Learning Technologies and Learning Skills conference and exhibition is on at Olympia, London this week - Wednesday and Thursday. Expect a big focus on SfL related developments and funding across all age ranges.

Sector Training are running Managing Functional Skills a residential conference on 5/6 March in Stratford Upon Avon. A varied agenda that includes the practical aspects of delivery and some great speakers from EDI, Guroo, Virgin, Ofsted and leading FE colleges.

Making Apprenticeships Work is scheduled for Wednesday 7th March in London. Three key themes are:

IAG and post 16 options
Employer engagement
Standards, structure and quality

Initial and Diagnostic Tools for Functional Skills is the name of an open event at Staffs Univiersity on Monday 27th February. Contact Tina Richardson for more details about this event which will feature all the main suppliers including Guroo, BKSB and Forskills.

Do you have an event that includes Functional Skills? Let us know and we'll include your details here.

The Functional Skills Wednesday Webinar

We can't do a live one this week I'm afraid. And judging by the amazing response of previous weeks that will be a disappointment for many. Jonathan and Stewart are in London presenting at the Learning and Skills show, so this week it's impossible to run the webinar.

But don't despair we'll be back on Wednesday 1st February at 4.05 when Jonathan will be presenting a "Functional Skills Policy and Market Perspective" his personal view of the current state of the nation as related to Functional Skills.

Replay last week's webinar at the link below. Simply enter your name and use guroo as the password.

Introduction to Guroo 2.1

What's new at BETT

2012-01-14T01:07:00.000-08:00

Awarding organisations:

There is a distinct lack of Edexcel branding - it's all Pearson. Maybe after all the problems, the Edexcel brand is being hidden a little for a while?

OCR are pushing their Cambridge Nationals brand a lot - maybe this is a sign that the opposite is happening, OCR see the issues as a real opportunity.

Maths products are big. There are many stands - the original Mathletics and Maths Whizz are being joined by around a dozen more. It shows how important the market sees Maths in the next couple of years.

3D remains big, not just from the big screen point of view, but now little elegant solutions coming out such as units that sit on front of projectors and polarise the picture allowing easy conversion. But like so many things before hand is 3D just a solution looking for a problem in education?

Games, not so big I think. Unlike Mr Gove's wish that computer games teach historical facts, I don't think this is going to happen, games are games and it's unlikely that a massive game based on history will supplant Dogs of War (or whatever it's called) as the number one seller.

Whiteboards, PC's I think very much of a muchness. Yes they are nice and big and clever with short throw projectors but so what. They are just tools after all. As are the expensive and digital signage systems based on big screens.

Content looks quite good though. Twig won the secondary award for content based around Sciece, Espresso continue to innovate in primary and of course companies like Guroo innovate in specific areas such as Functional SKills.

Also I noticed lots of China/Korea companies, often with screen based technologies. And I do mean a lot of them.

So that's the last year at Olympia - will docklands be better or worse - who knows?

Jonathan

BETT during build up

2012-01-12T09:23:00.001-08:00

Ever wondered what it's like before a major exhibition?

This was about 2pm on Tuesday, compare it with 10am Wednesday and what a transformation!

BETT 2012 Guroo Stands S67 and V28

BETT 2012

2012-01-12T01:14:00.000-08:00

Just a quick blog update for readers to let you know about Functional Skills at BETT 2012.

So the biggest companies operating at BETT are Guroo on stands S67 and V28 - Guroo offer a complete Functional Skills solution, written especially for Functional Skills (no Key Skills adapted work here). Two very nice 3sq m stands in seperate halls staffed by people who really do know their Functional Skills inside out! Initial Assessment and Diagnostic, reports, teaching and learning resources, and learner led pricing models are all part of the market leading package for Functional Skills from Guroo.

BKSB ignored me as usual and wouldn't come over to speak about Functional Skills. Their stand is a big 36 sqm affair populated with lots of comfy chairs but the BKSB live product that has been promised for the last year doesn't seem to be there according to visitors who came to see both Guroo and them. And with a fully built up stand at BETT costing something towards £1000 per sq m, that seems like an awful lot of cost to recover from sales.

Other companies, well Nelson Thornes have a poster, Edexcel have some stuff, the lovely people from CIA Training are here with ICT solutions, Promethean have Functional Skills solutions on their Planet content system,and the AOs all have lots of teaching resources for their particular brand of assessment. So more than last year, but the market leaders are well established now.

Visitor numbers - better than we expected but with the market still quite quiet, we weren't expecting a great day. A satisfactory day is probably the best way to describe it all.

All the best - Jonathan

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Jan 10th

2012-01-09T00:41:00.000-08:00

January 10th - the Functional Skills newsletter

Welcome to the first Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter of 2012. We plan to publish every two weeks during term time on a Tuesday morning.

In this issue we have news of policy announcements concerning participation in Education for 16-24 year olds, comments on 16-19 of funding, what's happening at BETT 2012 this week, plus more about the increasingly popular Wednesday Webinar which this week will be broadcast live from BETT.

Please Plus One us on Google follow us on Twitter @guroofs and like us on Facebook at guroo.functionalskills. The next newsletter is likely to be Tuesday January 24th - if you have anything you'd like us to know about, just get in touch jwells@guroo.co.uk

English and maths take a very high priority in "Building Engagement, Building Futures"

This document was published very recently and sets out Government plans on reducing NEETs. The document essentially collects together all the policy announcements about Raising Participation Age, Apprenticeships, the continuing review of vocational education started by Professor Wolf, and associated funding mechanisms to support these plans. So nothing particularly new; but hidden away in paragraph 3.12 we noticed this comment:

"We will make it a condition of funding that training providers should seek to support all learners who have not achieved Level 2 in English and maths to reach that standard, with performance data on results being published."

That's the first time we've seen the mention of performance tables with private training providers and it re-enforces the view that all 16-19 (and possibly 19-24 year olds) will be expected to continue learning English and maths until they have achieved at least Level 2.

The full document is here.

Comments in 16-19 Funding Proposals

Courtesy of fenews.co.uk we noticed this piece by Jan Hodges, the chief executive of Edge which promotes vocational education.

It's a short, concise view of changes in the 16-19 funding picture and we particualrly like Jan's support for Functional Skills.

"However, is it right to put so much emphasis on GCSEs? On the one hand, employers are looking for good communication and number skills, not necessarily a grade C GCSE. And on the other, results often go down if young people are forced to keep re-sitting the same old GCSEs, term after term. I would feel much happier if needs could be met by embedding maths and English into other subjects, and by building on existing Functional Skills qualifications."

The YPLA funding statement is here.

Jan's article is here in full.

Join us at BETT 2012

BETT 2012 is at Olympia this week (11-14 January) with some 600 exhibitors and 30,000 visitors expected. The focus is on using technology to empower education, but you don't need to be an ICT specialist to get something from a visit to BETT.

There's plenty to keep the technologists happy, but equally, you'll find exhibitors like Guroo who are using technology as a means to an end, with the focus on solutions, delivering teaching and learning, and reducing the cost of delivery.

If you're at BETT, please drop in to our main stand (V28) where we will be showing the latest developments, including Initial Assessment and Diagnostics for ICT (English and maths are already released), new user admin and reporting options, and the latest additions to our teaching and learning resources.

If you're looking for any type of Functional Skills solution, you'll be able to compare Guroo with the rest of the market plus Guroo have some fantastic new year deals on Functional Skills solutions, and they're not just available for BETT visitors, everyone placing an order in January can expect a great deal!

The Functional Skills Wednesday Webinar

We've had an amazing response to this programme over the last few weeks of 2011, so we will make it a regular feature this year, with a live webinar running every Wednesday at 4.05, with all sessions recorded for easy access afterwards.

Have you got something to say about Functional Skills? We'd love to have you as a guest speaker - get in touch please!

Wednesday 11th January the webinar will be broadcast live from BETT featuring a review of all things Functional Skills at the show.

Join this webinar at https://onsync.digitalsamba.com/go/guroosh/lands

Password = guroo

Wednesday 18th January we'll be covering all the latest Guroo 2.1 developments.

Join this webinar at https://onsync.digitalsamba.com/go/guroosh/fsnews

Password = guroo

Wednesday 25th Janaury will feature another live broadcast from the Learning and Skills show in London.

Join this webinar at https://onsync.digitalsamba.com/go/guroosh/lands

Password = guroo

How does it work? It's easy; Follow the links above and log in with your choice of name and the supplied password. All you need is an online computer with speakers or headphones.

You can just sit back, watch and listen - or interact and ask questions via online chat.

Replay previous webinars at the links below. Simply enter your name and use guroo as the password.

Functional Skills Policy Review

Initial Assessment and Diagnostic

Functional Skills Teaching and Learning Resources

The Commercial Reality of BETT

2012-01-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

There has been some discussion on blogs and twitter recently - especially at www.susanbanister.com about BETT and the apparent conflict between educationalists and companies.

My company is a small company, nevertheless, we've invested more than half a million pounds over the last 5 years in developing on-line solutions that our customers (schools, colleges, training providers and indeed individuals).

BETT is an important event to bring together buyers and sellers, without shows like BETT, we'd spend even more money trying to reach our potential customers on a one to one basis. But BETT is also a significant cost - did you know that the charge just for internet over 4 days is just short of £1000 - yes ONE THOUSAND and unless we see enough potential customers, we won't go.

So educationalists need to keep attending BETT to make it worthwhile for companies, companies need to keep going to make it worthwhile for educationalists, we just have to be careful that organisers don't try to soak both sets of people for as much money as they can get - that's the biggest danger that I see.

Preparing for BETT

2012-01-02T05:04:00.000-08:00

Asis always the case at the beginning of January, I will be at the BETT show again this year from12-15th with the Guroo team.

On Wednesday at 4.05pm I'll be doing a live webinar from the show focussed naturally on Functional Skills and what can be seen on all the different stands.

So if you work for a company with Functional Skills resources and are at BETT, get in touch.

Teachers beat the system too!

2011-12-19T01:16:00.000-08:00

Taken from the Indy on Saturday

This isn't really news as such, more of a filler story in the time of slow news just before Christmas. Two things jump out at me:

It shows that Grade C GCSE is not proof or evidence or competence.
Teachers need a degree to get into a PGCE - how on earth did they pass a degree without basic competency in English and maths?

It also shows how teachers are being taught to the test - you don't suddenly become competent in English and maths by passing a very simple and straightforward test after 10+ failures.

The changes can't come too soon and the "teachers leader" who seems to intimate that knowing basic English and maths isn't relevant should hang their head in shame.

Oh - and lets not worry about designing tests for teachers, just use Level 2 Functional English and Functional maths as the test - easy!

Beating the exam system

2011-12-08T01:04:00.000-08:00

Functional Skills is all about knowing and applying the skills in a novel situation. I have written before and say again that I believe that the assessment system that tests Functional Skills should be changed at least once a year, completely and totally.

Functional Skills is not and shouldn't be about learning to the test, so the simple thing is to change the test so that students have absolutely no idea what and how they will be assessed. All that's important is that the skills in each subject and level are tested.

So I'm now waiting for someone to tell me why this is bad idea!

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Dec 6th

2011-12-06T00:08:00.000-08:00

December 6th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we focus on analysing a number of Government policy announcements and consultation papers in the last couple of weeks, plus links to speeches from John Hayes and Vince Cable, relevant press news, and this week's Wednesday Webinar which looks at Functional Skills Policy; very relevant after all the recent announcements.

The Government publish FE and Skills reform plan.

A readable and relatively compact document that is subtitled "Building a World Class Skills System". It looks at 10 areas of reform:

Students at the heart of the system
A national careers service from April 2012
A ladder of opportunity with clear progression
Excellence in teaching and learning
A review of learning programmes and qualifications
Opening up post 14 learners to the FE sector
Freedom from central control and bureaucratic burdens
Simplified funding system focused on high quality provision
Moving empowerment for quality assurance away from Government to the student
Addressing the global FE market

In relation to Functional Skills, the report is unabiguously clear, with a key action to: "Confirm that, from the 2012/13 academic year, all Apprenticeship providers will be required to support Apprentices in progressing towards the achievement of Level 2 English and Maths. From October 2012 all Apprentices starting English and Maths courses will be taking Functional Skills or GCSE qualifications."
Another thing that comes through powerfully is the Government's use of the words 'English' and 'Maths'. Indeed the first key action on the list is to re-establish those terms!

Review of research and evaluation on improving adult literacy and numeracy skills - BIS

This document was published by BIS on 1st December and runs to more than 200 pages.

Findings about ALN were mixed with the evidence indicating:

good evidence was found on adult basic skills levels, teaching and learning, and personal, social and economic returns
limited evidence was found on skills acquisition, retention and loss, and on adults’ everyday practices in literacy and numeracy, including patterns of self-study
little evidence was found on the cost-effectiveness of ALN programmes, either as a whole or of specific delivery models and methods
the evidence of the impact of ALN on productivity was found to be very weak; it is stronger but far from robust on further learning, and on employment and wages
there is a lack of good evidence on information and communications technology (ICT), and on the role and impact of ICT in blended learning provision.

Looking forward to the literacy and numeracy skills that are needed shows how changes to SfL are likely to happen:

There is growing evidence of the need amongst employees for a more complex combination of skills than in the past, including a combination of ICT and mathematical literacies. Individuals in employment who struggle with skills in ICT or literacy or numeracy are likely to suffer losses in the other two areas. The growing range of demands and contexts for reading and writing, and for using and manipulating numeric data, is further evidence in favour of a focus on functional skills.
Employers frequently cite the need for (improved) reading, writing and maths skills in the workplace, and report a significant gap between the skills levels of employees and skills needs in the workplace. However, there is much less evidence on employees’ perceptions, and there is scope for the use of more refined assessment instruments to determine the skills that employers need.

So major support for Functional Skills in the adult sector too, adding to the clear support for Apprenticeships.

More ministerial speeches

At the AoC conference a couple of weeks ago, John Hayes and Vince Cable both made speeches that pre-announced some of the headlines in the policy documents above.

For the record, here are the links:

Vince Cable

John Hayes

Press Reports

Press reports continue to carry unfavourable reports about the levels of Literacy and Numeracy amongst young people. In the latest one from The Telepgraph, the focus is on Morrisions supermarket who also hit the news a few weeks ago with 12 week apprrenticeship programmes. Click here for the full story.

Youth Contract

On the positive side of press coverage, much has been written about the £1bn youth contract to provide work placements, apprenticeships, IAG and support for 16-17 year old NEETs.

Wednesday Webinar from Guroo

Our programme of twenty-minute Wednesday Webinar events is going down really well - and it continues tomorrow with a different presenter.

Previous events have covered:

Initial Assesment and Diagnostic
Cross Curriculum resources
Teaching and Learning resources
Guroo 2.1 admin and reporting

We have recorded video versions of most of them - email us if you'd like the link to replay the webinars.

The schedule moving forward is:

Wednesday 7th at 4.05pm - Functional Skills Policy Review with Jonathan Wells of Guroo

Wednesday 14th at 4.05 - Functional Skills Initial Assessment and Diagnostic with Stewart Hutton

How does it work? It's easy; email us at info@guroo.co.uk (from your work email address please) and we'll send you full joining instructions. All you need is an online computer with speakers or headphones.

You can just sit back, watch and listen - or interact and ask questions via online chat.

Is Wednesday a bad day for you? Then email us and we'll sort something out just for you!

Morrison's forced to teach school leavers the basics

2011-12-04T03:44:00.000-08:00

The standard of Maths and English amongst school leavers is so poor that a leading supermarket is having to send 75% of it's new staff on remedial courses to teach them Functional English and Maths.

More here

Skills for Life

2011-12-01T01:23:00.000-08:00

I'm expecting to see an announcement about Skills for Life changes, including how Functional Skills will be incorporated into the new adult structure today.

More later on .......

Growth of NEETS

2011-11-25T07:35:00.001-08:00

With NEETS now well past 1 million, we are now seeing a number of announcements to do with managing this pretty big number.

Here's another from DWP that will encourage employers to take on young jobless in jobs or as apprentices.

Let's hope that DWP equip them with Functional Skills before they join the programme!

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Nov 22nd

2011-11-22T00:26:00.000-08:00

November 22nd - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we have more news about the Government's commitment to Apprenticeships, details of the launch of new features in Guroo 2.1, the event season is well and truly in full swing, and more details of the Functional Skills Wednesday Webinar programme.

The Government strengthen their commitment to Functional Skills in ALL Apprenticeship programmes.

Hot on the heels of the letter from John Hayes (Minister for FE and Skills) confirming that Functional Skills will be a mandatory component of ALL Apprenticeships, comes news from the Association of Colleges conference and from the Apprenticeship Summit held on 16th November.

John Hayes speech to AoC focused on innovation and deregulation in FE, many promises of red-tape cutting and more flexibility for Colleges to develop provision, plus further support for Apprenticeship growth along with a review of the quality of Apprenticeship provision.

Vince Cable announced money for SME employers to support new Apprenticeships (taken, it appears, from existing budgets), more focus on 16-18 and 19-24 apprenticeship programmes and the requiremment for all Apprenticeship providers to offer GCSE or Functional Skills Maths and English at Level 2 to all Apprentices.

Just to remind you, the Minister in his recent letter said

“I want to re-assure you that I am committed to replacing Key Skills with Functional Skills in English and Maths (and ICT if required by the framework), as a mandatory component of all Apprenticeship frameworks, from the end of September 2012."

So there we have it in black and white; absolute confirmation that Functional Skills in Apprenticeships is the way forward, and the Minister's confirmation that he sees Functional Skills as essential.

The full text of the letter is here.

Guroo 2.1 - new additions

English Initial Assessment and Diagnostic is now available in Guroo 2.1 alongside Maths. ICT will be available early in the next term to complete the solution. Key Features of the Guroo system include:

Written specifically for Functional Skills with a wide variety of question types based around problem solving.
Each set of questions covers all the Functional Skills criteria at that level, giving tutors a detailed diagnostic report with direct links to further teaching and learning resources.
Randomised question variables and question order means you can carry out assessments with groups - and/or repeat them later - and get meaningful results each time.

New User and Group Admin features have also been released in Guroo 2.1

User Admin lets you edit details like names and passwords on-the-fly and can also help with managing short stay, roll on/roll off learner communities, using blank logins that you personalise as you need them.
Group Admin means you can now create your own groups of learners and tutors as you need to; for any purpose.

And finally ... nearly 300 new quiz questions have gone live in Level 1 cross-curriculum challenges (a similar number of Level 2 questions are expected to be released shortly) and lots of new interactive activities have been added to Entry Level resources.

14-19 events and other news

You'll find the Guroo team at "The Future of Apprenticeships" in London on November 24th. Click here for a link to the full programme. This is an event that Guroo will be attending as exhibitors.

We'll also be at LEACAN on Friday 2nd December in Leamington Spa.

The BETT show is at London Olympia from 11th January - it's a shame the organisers have dropped the FE and Skills category from the BETT Awards though.

The Learning Technologies & Learning Skills conference and exhibition is also at London Olympia from January 25th.

Apprenticeships UK are planning their conference on March 7th in London.

And Naace have their annual conference starting March 8th in Leicester.

Webinar Wednesday from Guroo

Our brand new programme of twenty-minute Wednesday Webinar events is going down really well - more than 20 people joined last week's webinar about Guroo Resources.

You can replay what we covered here.

The schedule moving forward is:

Wednesday 23rd at 4.05pm - Guroo 2.1 User and Group Admin

Wednesday 30th at 4.05pm - Cross Curriculum Resources

You can just sit back, watch and listen - or interact and ask questions via online chat.

Is Wednesday a bad day for you? Then email us and we'll sort something out just for you!

Controversial Budget thoughts

2011-11-21T13:11:00.000-08:00

Just returning from an industry meeting today and there was much talk of "hands off Government". You get the budget to spend as you wish but don't expect to get any more if we ask you to do something else in the future. And a thought struck me in relation to Vince Cable's announcement about Providers having to teach Functional Skills maths and English to ALL Apprenticeships. That thought was driven by another comment on linked in about budgets.

What if the Government takes the view that they have ALREADY provided the budget to teach Functional English and maths and asking providers to continue teaching English and maths is just part of the overall picture.

How would providers manage in this perhaps very real scenario possibility?

Level 2 Functional Skills for all Apprentices

2011-11-17T00:26:00.000-08:00

The joint announcements from John Hayes, Vince Cable and the Apprenticeship summit in London has led me to draw an interesting conclusion.

All providers will now be expected to offer English and maths to level 2 as part of ANY apprenticeship programme. Note it says says offer as opposed to pass, nevertheless, that's quite a big change. At the moment Apprentices typically follow Level 1 Key Skills, that has been changed to Functional Skills (latest change date is September) as confirmed by John Hayes.

So they will have to pass Level 1 Functional Skills as a minimum, now they must do Level 2 Functional Skills throughout their programme, presumably as part of the Government's push to get all 16-19 year olds continuing their maths and English study.

I have to say, excellent news for Functional Skills providers such as ourselves at Guroo!

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Nov 8th

2011-11-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

November 8th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we have very important news about the future of Functional Skills in Apprenticeships, an update from the Awarding Organsiations on how on-screen assessments are developing, events and news that are relevant to Functional Skills, and the launch of Wednesday Webinars from Guroo.

The Minister confirms that Functional Skills will replace Key Skills in all Apprenticeship programmes in September.

We received confirmation this week from John Hayes MP, the Minister of State for Further Education and Skills, that Functional Skills will definitely replace Key Skills by September.

The Minister said

I was interested to read the finding from your own survey, particularly that there is a high level of confidence with Functional Skills across providers, colleges and schools. We know that Functional Skills involve high quality teaching away from the job and this is important to provide apprentices with an essential base of high quality transferable skills to support their career progression.”

The full text of the letter is here.

Changes to on-screen assessments from the Awarding Organisations

In the same week that the Minister confirmed his support for Functional Skills, City & Guilds made an update announcement about Functional Skills assessments covering:

Functional Skills Mathematics on-screen available now
Functional Skills ICT on-screen arriving this month
Anytime paper assessment moves closer

Click here for the City & Guilds annoucement.

Edexcel are following a similar path with an update to their progress towards on-screen assessments here.

And we know of at least one AO that is developing an assessment system where students sit their exam on a Friday, with results on Monday! Keep reading this newsletter for more information about all these developments.

14-19 events and other news

You'll find the Guroo team at "The Future of Apprenticeships" in London on November 24th. Click here for a link to the full programme. This is an event that Guroo will be attending as exhibitors.

Much as we'd love to be there, unfortunately we can't attend the Skills Conference in Nottingham this week. Have a great time if you're going and maybe we'll see you at this event next year.

Learning and Skills Network (LSN, one time managers of the Functional Skills Support programme and heavily involved in many aspects of 14-19 education and support) have gone into administration. More on this from FE Week here.

The Wednesday Webinar from Guroo

Guroo are delivering a series of "Wednesday Webinars" over the next few weeks.

Scheduled for late afternoon so you can grab a cuppa, click the link, and relax while we take you through an on-screen presentation in around 20 minutes.

Wednesday 9th November - Initial Assessment and Diagnostics for Functional Skills by Guroo
Wednesday 16th November - Teaching and Learning Resources for Functional Skills by Guroo
Wednesday 23rd November - What's new in Guroo 2.1 (aimed mainly at existing customers)

You can just sit back, watch and listen - or interact and ask questions via online chat.

Is Wednesday a bad day for you? Then email us and we'll sort something out just for you!

It really is definitely, absolutely unequivocally happening

2011-11-07T06:58:00.000-08:00

What is - Functional Skills replaces Key Skills as a mandatory component of all Apprenticeships from September 2012.

Now, it could be argued that it was already definite, and indeed it was, but some organisations (AELP, AoC and FAB amongst them) had been fighting against the change, arguing it was being implemented too quick and the qualification too rigorous. Looks like they have will have to change their tack and we hope to part of the solution that they put forward to their members.

The letter is here.

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Oct 25th

2011-10-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

October 25th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we have the results of the Functional Skills Annual Survey, more about Initial Assessment and Diagnostic solutions, news from DfE, BIS, Apprenticeships and Chambers of Commerce, events coming up and links to some new resources for Functional Skills.

Results of the Functional Skills Annual Survey

It taken a little while but the results of the survey conducted at the end of last term are now fully available. More than 300 responses make this survey the largest and most important of its kind. We've put a full copy of the survey for free download here.

The survey covers confidence, where Functional SKills are used, an analysis of Awarding Organsiations chosen and an analysis of the value of the newesletter. The box below shows some of the ket findings; read the full report via the link above.

Functional Skills Initial Assessment and Diagnostic

Initial Assessment and Diagnostics is the most notable new feature in version 2.1 of Guroo's Functional Skills subscription service, released this week.

Designed specifically for Functional Skills, the Guroo Initial Assessment uses question content and structures that test specific skills against the official criteria, and the Diagnostic results provide links to the Guroo resources that develop the required skills.

The system uses randomised questions to support repeat assessments, and adapts to the learner's answers to indicate a final level between "Working towards Level 1" and "Working at Level 2".

The Sales Bit: Guroo are guaranteeing no price increases for new subscriptions taken out in October and November, so depending on your priorities you can view this as great resources with free Initial Assessment, or a great price on Initial Assessment with free resources! Guroo staff are standing by to give you a quick (or in-depth) online demonstration at a time that suits you. Call them on 0191 305 5045, or email sales@guroo.co.uk

More from the DfE, BIS, Apprenticeships and Chambers of Commerce

Functional Skills are the talk of town all of a sudden. First we had the DfE consultation which stated:

"For those who need more intensive support to move towards achieving a C grade GCSE providers are best placed to determine what will meet their needs and enable them to progress. Based on level of rigour, assessment arrangements, skills taught and views of employers, the qualifications that we recommend to providers are: functional skills and free standing maths qualifications."

The National Chambers of Commerce have now weighed in with calls for changes to the skills training system in report entitled "Skills for Business:More to Learn?" It takes a similar line to recent CBI studies in calling for higher standards of English and maths plus a need for softer skills such as work ethic, problem solving and communcation. There's more here.

Meanwhile, over at the National Apprenticeship Service, a major row is brewing over the number of 12 week programmes being advertised. The general view is that it isn't possible to deliver a quality learning programme that includes Functional Skills in anything less than a year. FE Weeks carries a nice summary of the issues.

Michael Gove may very well be preparing the ground for significant changes to the way in which performance tables are measured. In his 5000+ word speech at Ofqual, he again emphasised the problem of equivalence to "easy to pass assessments" post-Wolf and indeed indicated that he expects to see published results drop as a new realism is brought in that is based on rigour.

Resources for Level 1&2 Functional ICT from CIA Training - and why not try these RAF resources on skillsworkshop to see if your students can apply their skills in a completely "novel" situation?

CIA Training, specialists in developing ICT resources, have just published ICT Functional Skills - a student workbook for Levels 1&2 ICT Functional Skills based on the "Big Planet" theme park.

Click here for more information.

The RAF and Army are both moving to Functional Skills for all their English and maths requirements up to level 2. The link below is taken from the RAF pre-recruit training course. Now we know that many of our readers will have no idea what an "ML824 Sunderland" is, but what a great way to test your students' skills in a completely novel sceanrio!

Please Plus One us on Google follow us on Twitter @guroofs and like us on Facebook at guroo.functionalskills. The next newsletter is likely to be Tuesday November 8th - if you have anything you'd like us to know about, just get in touch jwells@guroo.co.uk

Apprenticeships being stretched and potentially in danger of losing their good status

2011-10-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

When we mention apprenticeships, I think we all think about the traditional 1 or 2 year training programme with some day release at college. That's changing quickly, and not necessarily for the better.

The National Apprenticeship Service has lots of 12 or 26 week apprenticeships advertised - indeed my own daughter did a 12 week contact centre apprenticeship in the summer. The problem with these is that often all the time is spent in a training environment with none or virtually none in a real working environment - to me that's not an apprenticeship at all.

Plus it gives no time to the vitally important aspects of literacy and numeracy training - hopefully Functional Skills.

These 12 week programmes have a very bad spell about them - why do providers always try to reduce good programmes down to point of being pointless, are we the only country where quality and experience is less important than getting the boxes ticked as fast as possible?

Time for a re-think on this - perhaps BIS need to provide unequivocal guidance about Functional Skills and length of time to stop providers trying to break and bend the system.

Annual Functional Skills Survey out now

2011-10-16T05:17:00.000-07:00

Click here for the full download and see what a positive view it is. More than 300 responses, high levels of confidence in Functional Skills across all sectors and it even gave us valuable information about what readers want to know about in the Making Sense of Functional Skills newsletter written by Jonathan Wells of Guroo.

And the best news is that the survey it the most authoritive about Functional Skills and completely spin free.

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter October 11th

2011-10-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

October 11th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we have a DfE consultation that positively recommends Functional Skills, initial assessment and diagnostic news from Guroo, more DfE consultations including funding per student rather than per qualification, further events in the 14-19 calendar, and a page from BBC Skillswise that shows that no matter how much money you spend and how many checks are made, we all make blindingly obvious errors!

DfE consultation recommends Functional Skills

We've been hinting that we were expecting positive guidance from DfE and BIS about Functional Skills for a while. The first of those announcements has now been made.

The DfE consultation entitled "study programmes for 16-19 year olds" published on 6th October and ending 5th January follows Professor Alison Wolf's report. One of the key elements of that report was to recommend that students aged 16-19 who did not have an A*-C GCSE pass in English and maths should continue to study those subjects through to age 19.

In response to that recommendation, DfE says:

6.3 It is clear that providers will need to adapt their English and maths offer depending on the needs of students. For example:

Some young people will need an immediate, focussed intervention to turn a near miss into a GCSE pass at the first opportunity
Some may require more intensive help over a longer period (and possibly taking other qualifications en route to act as stepping stones to the GCSE)
Some, for whom GCSE success is a long way off, might be better served by taking other qualifications or programmes.

6.4 For those who need more intensive support to move towards achieving a C grade GCSE providers are best placed to determine what will meet their needs and enable them to progress. Based on level of rigour, assessment arrangements, skills taught and views of employers, the qualifications that we recommend to providers are: functional skills and free standing maths qualifications.

So there we have it, the DfE recommends Functional Skills as the qualification of choice for students progressing towards GCSE, or unlikely to achieve GCSE. Click here for the link directly to the consultation paper.

Functional Skills Initial Assessment and Diagnostic

Initial Assessment and Diagnostics is the most notable new feature in version 2.1 of Guroo's Functional Skills subscription service, released this week.

Designed specifically for Functional Skills, the Guroo Initial Assessment uses question content and structures that test specific skills against the official criteria and the Diagnostic results provide links to the Guroo resources that develop the required skills.

The system uses randomised questions to support repeat assessments, and adapts to the learner's answers to indicate a final level between "Working towards Level 1" and "Working at Level 2".

More from the DfE

The annoucement about Functional Skills wasn't the only piece of news from DfE this week. Several other consultations were announced by Schools Minister Nick Gibb that affect the whole of post 16 education, including changes to funding so that schools and colleges will be funded on a per student basis rather than per qualification.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

The current funding system is plagued by perverse incentives that have diverted some students towards weaker qualifications.
Every student should be taking courses which give them the best chance of succeeding in life.
The current system incentivises schools and colleges to load too many students with low-quality, small or easy qualifications, often in random combinations, that employers do not value.
These reforms will ensure young people are given the information they need to take the courses that benefit them, and that all courses available broaden rather than narrow their options.
It is time the system was fairer and simpler – and worked in favour of young people.

He added:

Too many young people are dropping English and maths before they have secured a good grounding. These vital subjects are critical to the economy and as a country we need all our young people to be fluent and comfortable in these basic skills.

http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00198873/gibb-simpler-fairer-funding-system-to-improve-post-16-education

14-19 events coming up

LEACAN is the national education network for local authorities and those working across the 14-19 agenda.

The Winter Forum on Friday 2^nd Dec at Leamington Spa, brings together professional peers and colleagues and will be addressed by high calibre national colleagues including the Rt Hon. Estelle Morris; Tim Oates, Cambridge Assessment and Chair of the Expert Panel, National Curriculum Review; Jon Coles, Director General for Education Standards, DfE and Steve Besley, Head of Policy, Pearson.

Guroo will be there of course and the event is open to non-members at £250. If you would like to book or know more please contact Susanne.wait@leacan.co.uk

Another event where you'll find the Guroo team is at "The Future of Apprenticeships" in London on November 24th. Click here for a link to the full programme. This is an event that Guroo will be attending as exhibitors.

Come on BBC Skillswise, even with all the cuts, you can surely do better than this!

We noticed this on the recently re-launched BBC Skillswise site. As they say in BBC land - answers on a postcard please.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/quiz/ma10mult-l1-quiz

Rude Awakening for Retail Giants?

2011-10-03T02:29:00.000-07:00

Regular readers will know that I have written in the past about the expansion of the Apprenticeship programme. There has been lots of "good news announcements from the Government quoting figures of 20,000, 50,000 or indeed 500,000 places, but we've also seen many in the sector wonder where these numbers have come from.

This piece, spotted by the Big Vocational Debate on Facebook, maybe shows where some of the smoke and mirrors are in the Apprenticeship landscape.

However, this is not all bad news as with every new Apprenticeship, comes learning and now that we are moving away from the awful, easy to pass Key Skills which is more about accreditation than learning to wards Functional Skills which is definitely about Learning rather than accreditation, we'll see these big employers having to make a very big investment in their staff.

So I for one am looking forward to seeing how these Apprenticeship programmes develop over the next 2 years as we transition from Key Skills to Functional Skills. After all, if employers sign up and take the money, they should deliver the learning as well - this is not a free ride!

Functional Skills Newsletter Sept 27th

2011-09-27T00:12:00.000-07:00

September 27th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we have policy news about Functional Skills coming from BIS and DfE, an update on the national picture for initial assessment and diagnostic services, a summary of events that readers of the newsletter may be interested in and snippets of news and comment.

The future for Functional Skills looks very bright

Three weeks into the new term and we're starting to hear snippets of news coming out of BIS and DfE about Functional Skills. Four things that caught our eye:

A combination of a mauling in the Wolf report and the last set of national tests for Key Skills being released to Awarding Organisations confirms the fact that Key Skills finally end in September 2012 and there is no prospect of a reprieve unless the Government sets up a new quango to develop more national tests - we think that unlikely!
The Government (through DfE) remains committed to GCSE English and Maths as the "Gold Standard" qualification and we understand would prefer all 16-18 year olds to continue studying for GCSE but accepts that Functional Skills is a qualification with progression towards GCSE.
The Government (through BIS) has no appetite for introducing any new Literacy/Numeracy qualifications although it is listening to suggestions about how quickly assessments can be turned round to support those on Apprenticeship programmes. Watch this space for an announcement about the Adult Skills qualifications shortly.
Practitioners (through the annual Functional Skills survey) have expressed very high confidence levels in Functional Skills, supporting the generally held view that with good delivery preparation, they are a valuable and valued qualification that are liked by students, tutors and employers alike.

Initial Assessment and Diagnostic for Functional Skills

This really is the story of the moment in Functional Skills with lots of activity and developments going on, so we thought it would be useful to report on the alternatives available in the market.

BBC Skillswise is in the process of being relaunched, but disappointingly, quizzes (even at levels 1/2) are simple multiple choice and not at all Fuunctional!

Guroo customers get the first version of their initial assessment and diagnostic tool this week. If your site already subscribes to Guroo, you don't have to do anything - other than let Guroo know if you'd like to be involved in the beta testing. Guroo are especially interested to hear from sites who have other initial assesment processes in place and who would like to compare the results. The Guroo version will not only provide an initial indication of the learner's level, but will include diagnostics that indicate strengths and weaknesses in terms of the official Functional Skills criteria ... and of course link direct to the Guroo resources that are designed to further develop those specific skills.

A free version of the levelling part of the Guroo tool will be made freely available at www.myfunctionalskills.co.uk once initial assessment has rolled out as a standard feature for Guroo subscribers. Go to www.myfunctionalskills.co.uk to register your interest.

Pearson have a beta version of the initial assessment tool for Functional English and Maths and welcome feedback. Access it here.

SkillsWorkshop has a range of free resources submitted to the site. Very helpfully, Maggie (who runs the site) has catorgorised resources into assessment, so they are fairly easy to find. Click here for a summary.

BKSB has a soon to be available interactive initial assessment tool. More details here.

ForSkills have SkillsAssess for Basic and Functional Skills. More details here.

Events coming up

With the expansion of the Apprenticeship programme very much in the news at the moment, Neil Stewart Associates are organising "The Future of Apprenticeships" in London on November 24th. Click here for a link to the full programme. This is an event that Guroo will be attending as exhibitors.

Another event that Guroo will be at is the Education Investor Awards 2011. And that's because Guroo have been shortlisted for the "best use of educational technology" alongside Pearson, Espresso, Promethean and others. Great company to be in!

Press reports and press releases related to Functional Skills

The BBC ran an interview with Chris Kirk (CEO of GEMS Education Solutions) about a Price Waterhouse Coopers report that suggested IT skills are most valued by employers who also report that 60% of employees need to improve skills in literacy and numeracy. It's still available on-line here.

City & Guilds have joined with BKSB to mutually endorse each others offer for Functional and Key Skills and to create a seamless set of support tools. Click here for more.

Nelson Thornes have signed an exclusive partnership agreement as resellers for ForSkills. More details here.

The new look TES ran a story about how £9bn of investment in adults basic skills had "fallen short" suggesting that too few enrolments on lower-level courses and too many people who lacked a certificate being accredited for higher level courses whose literacy and numeracy was acceptable.

Lord Digby Jones on Radio 4

2011-09-27T00:10:00.000-07:00

Talking about skills, caused by the loss of jobs at BAE.
He continues to emphasise the need for good literacy and numeracy skills in the workforce and again criticises the education system for allowing half of all youngsters to leave full time education without these. Yet another pressure for Functional Skills.

Is 59% bad?

2011-09-20T00:45:00.000-07:00

Radio 5 recording of an interview based on a report by PWC looking at basic skills.

Click here to listen

The 59% refers to the percentage of British business's who are unhappy with the skills of schools leavers, particularly Functional Skills.

Functional Skills Newsletter Sept 13th 2011

2011-09-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

September 13th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In the first issue of the 2011/12 year, we have news about the Vorderman maths report, results from the Functional Skills Annual Survey that will impact on future newsletters, a completely unscientific look at pass/fail rates using Twitter, news about Guroo 2.1 including exciting developments around initial assessment and diagnostics and a brief look at events coming up.

"A World Class Maths Education For All"

Carol Vorderman led a team that was commissioned by the Conservative Party when in opposition to look at Maths teaching in all sectors. This report was published in August and came down very heavily in support of Functional Maths. Key points I picked out include:

75% of those with a grade C GCSE in Maths can’t do simple percentages, ratios and areas. The report suggested there was no point in force feeding trigonometry and algebra after age 14 when young people can’t even calculate a percentage.
Need two GCSE in Maths – one practical (including Financial Maths) and one for those who will continue to A level and beyond.
Radical change is necessary – can’t be right that only 15% of pupils study Maths post 16 when in other industrialised nations, it’s nearer 100%. Ms Vorderman said more than 300,000 16-year-olds each year completed their education without enough understanding of Maths to function properly in their work or private lives.
The syllabuses must be allowed to reward students who are able to achieve a higher standard in a smaller area of the curriculum, rather than a low standard across a much wider curriculum (however this is eventually structured). Regulation currently prevents this from happening even though nearly half of our young people fail GCSE. By the age of 14 many of these have been turned off Mathematics and, when they finish studying Mathematics two years later, are still functionally innumerate.
This often leaves pupils and students able to answer examination questions but without the functionality that they will need if they are to put the subject to use in employment or in other areas of study.

Michael Gove welcomed this report and recommendations.

Get ready for Guroo 2.1 - Initial Assessment, Diagnostics, and extra control

We are in the final stages of creating version 2.1 of Guroo, which will include:

Functional Skills Initial Assessments for English and Maths, using Functional Skills questions, and testing specific elements of the Functional Skills criteria at all Levels. The Guroo Initial Assessment will include Functional Skills diagnostics that indicate strengths and weaknesses … along with links to Guroo resources that are designed to develop those skills.
myChallenges and myTasks. Teachers will be able to track and report on Functional Skills that are practised and developed outside Guroo. For example, classroom discussions, field trips, sports day … add them to Guroo as “myChallenges”, identify the Functional Skills being practised, and from then on they become part of Guroo, with myFunctionalSkills reports combining the results from Guroo activities and your activities.
New admin roles. Guroo 2.1 will give you more control over day to day items such as changing user names and passwords … and over the Groups that are so useful in managing your learners and associated reports.

As always, these new features will be rolled out automatically to existing customers at no extra cost.

The Functional Skills Annual Survey

We were absolutely delighted by the response from our 7000+ newsletter readers. Because we had such a large response, analysis is taking a little longer than we expected but it's really good to be able to share this finding about the newsletter relating to information and advice.

The majority of the survey respondents were readers of the Functional Skills newsletter. 49% of survey respondents said they were regular readers with another 36% classifying themselves as occasional readers. The remainder were not readers, or simply forwarded the newsletter onwards to their colleagues.

The Functional Skills newsletter is a valued source of information with 83% of respondents who answered this question rating the newsletter as useful to really useful. The six most valued key features in order of usefulness (along with the percentage of respondents who rated the feature as “really or quite useful”) are:

Links to freely available Functional Skills resources (85%)
Summary of official reports and papers (78%)
Links to Awarding Organisation Functional Skills pages (62%)
News and information about relevant events and conferences (54%)
Press reviews (52%)
News about the Guroo service (46%)

Based on this evidence, we'll be sure to do a lot more of the things above - thank you if you responded.

Events coming up

Capita Conferences are organising an event called "The Future of 14-19 Curriuclum". More on this in future editions.

Unscientific analysis of pass rates, jobs, and activity on Twitter and my blog.

Since the start of September, we've been following some indicators about Functional Skills on Twitter.

The number of tweeps who declared they had passed was 23, and tweeps who said they failed was 12.

The number of Functional Skills related jobs advertised on my twitter feed was 25.

And thank you to the 17000+ people who have visited my blog!

If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, #jwellsatguroo will work.

Functional Skills pass rates (on Twitter)

2011-09-07T01:04:00.000-07:00

This is a completely unscientific analysis of tweets by people who have declared either a pass of fail on twitter. Results since the beginning of term are pass = 14 and fail = 7.

So we may as well conform to level 2 maths criteria and say that's a ratio of 2:1 in favour of passes or approximately 67% or two thirds pass rate!

More on employability

2011-09-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

It is a recurring theme this one, and rightly so.

Students need practical skills to be able to succeed in the workplace.

Again, it sounds like a recipe for Functional Skills again and again and again ........

The report states: 'In general, younger people lack numerical skills, research skills, ability to focus and read, plus written English.'

One unnamed entrepreneur told researchers: 'Plenty of unemployed, mostly without experience in my sector. The interpersonal skills of some interviewed in the past have been very poor.'

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter August 25th

2011-08-25T00:42:00.000-07:00

August 25th - the Functional Skills newsletter

A holiday special newsletter that focuses on Policy announcements and press comment covering the Further Education Reform Programme consultation and the Vorderman Report on Maths Education along with a couple of good news stories about Functional Skills. And if I may add, it's really good to say that just about every story I've monitored over the holidays about Functional Skills has been positive.

Have your say on FE reform

The Government has published a paper entitled "Next Steps in Implementing the Further Education Reform Programme".

This is part of the "New Challenges, New Chances" consultation. Highlights of the proposal include amongst other things:

A new framework for the FE sector will help improve employer and provider collaborative partnerships.
From 2013/14, loans for adults aged 24 and over will be available to support Level 3 and 4 qualifications, including Higher Apprenticeships.
Providing greater freedom for the sector to ensure vocational qualifications meet employer requirements.
The provision of basic literacy and numeracy for adults will be reviewed to help providers offer responsive solutions to meet shortages.
As part of general changes to form a more responsive sector, FE providers will have the opportunity to strengthen employer-focused courses by developing innovative delivery methods to meet employer requirements.

"A World Class Maths Education For All"

75% of those with a grade C GCSE in Maths can’t do simple percentages, ratios and areas. No point in force fed trigonometry and algebra after age 14 when young people can’t even calculate a percentage.
Need two GCSE in Maths – one practical (including Financial Maths) and one for those who will continue to A level and beyond.
Radical change is necessary – can’t be right that only 15% of pupils study Maths post 16 when in other industrialised nations, it’s nearer 100%. Ms Vorderman said more than 300,000 16-year-olds each year completed their education without enough understanding of Maths to function properly in their work or private lives.
The syllabuses must be allowed to reward students who are able to achieve a higher standard in a smaller area of the curriculum, rather than a low standard across a much wider curriculum (however this is eventually structured). Regulation currently prevents this from happening even though nearly half of our young people fail GCSE. By the age of 14 many of these have been turned off Mathematics and, when they finish studying Mathematics two years later, are still functionally innumerate.
This often leaves pupils and students able to answer examination questions but without the functionality that they will need if they are to put the subject to use in employment or in other areas of study.

CBI comments on Maths report

“Maths is a subject of critical importance, and this report rightly highlights that there needs to be more focus on teaching ‘useful maths’ that is relevant for future employment and day-to-day life. Businesses are most concerned about basic levels of numeracy and it’s alarming that more than one in five 16-19 year olds are considered functionally innumerate. To help address this problem, all young people should continue to study some form of maths until the age of 18. Pupils with good maths ability should continue to study the full curriculum, but all pupils, regardless of ability, should go on to study a functional numeracy qualification.”

“Employers say that even those who pass GCSE are not functional in mathematics, meaning that they cannot apply what they have learnt in the workplace”

The full link is here.

Good news stories!

As well as policy, it's always good to reflect on the little snippets of good news stories we hear about. Here's a couple that we picked up.

We like this one from Rochdale, it's the sort of think we all want to see happen regularly.

And a one from the end of term from Central Skills.

e-petition for Financial Education

2011-08-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

This has been brought forward by Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert fame. I like Martin, he talks sense. It echoes the issues that Carol Vorderman highlighted earlier this month when she quoted ratios, percentages and fractions in addition to financial education.

And every single one of these skills are part of Functional Skills, especially finance which is covered at all levels.

So go for it Martin, but let's make it Functional Skills rather than just Finance. I have already signed, just as 40,000 other people have.

Demand for Functional Skills is real, urgent and necessary!

2011-08-17T02:47:00.000-07:00

British Chamber of Commerce report - the report states: 'In general, younger people lack numerical skills, research skills, ability to focus and read, plus written English.'

One unnamed entrepreneur told researchers: 'Plenty of unemployed, mostly without experience in my sector. The interpersonal skills of some interviewed in the past have been very poor.'

As I've said before, let's start calling a bird that lives on a pond and quacks a duck and start making Functional SKills absolutely essential for everyone!

Review of Carol Vorderman's comments re Maths

2011-08-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

Radio 4

Carol Vorderman interview with John Humphries

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9558000/9558798.stm

75% of those with a grade C GCSE in maths can’t do simple percentages, ratios and areas.

No point in force fed trigonometry and algebra after age 14 when young people can’t even calculate a percentage. Need two GCSE in Maths – one practical (including financial maths) and one for those who will continue to A level and beyond.

Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/aug/08/maths-taskforce-gcse-split

Focus of this story is very much on splitting GCSE into two areas. Also criticises early entry maths where achieving grade C at GCSE is seen as “all that’s needed”

BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14437665

Radical change is necessary – can’t be right that only 15% of pupiols study maths post 16 when in other inditrialised natins, it’s nearer 100% Ms Vorderman said more than 300,000 16-year-olds each year completed their education without enough understanding of maths to function properly in their work or private lives.

Another focus on how GCSE should be split but no mention of functionality of financial focus.

Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8687244/Study-maths-up-to-18-says-Carol-Vorderman-report.html

Focus here is on greater macro-econimc position that failure in maths hurts the country.

“Unless major alterations in our mathematics education are made, and quickly, we are risking our future economic prosperity.”

CBI

http://www.cbi.org.uk/ndbs/press.nsf/0363c1f07c6ca12a8025671c00381cc7/90fe4145e8126880802578e6003299aa?OpenDocument

Short statement, but quite pointed so in full it says.
“Maths is a subject of critical importance, and this report rightly highlights that there needs to be more focus on teaching ‘useful maths’ that is relevant for future employment and day-to-day life. Businesses are most concerned about basic levels of numeracy and it’s alarming that more than one in five 16-19 year olds are considered functionally innumerate. To help address this problem, all young people should continue to study some form of maths until the age of 18. Pupils with good maths ability should continue to study the full curriculum, but all pupils, regardless of ability, should go on to study a functional numeracy qualification.”

The report also agrees and also states “Employers say that even those who pass GCSE are not functional in mathematics, meaning that they cannot apply what they have learnt in the workplace”

The Report focuses on suggesting changes to the way Maths is taught

http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2011/08/Vorderman_publishes_report_on_maths_education.aspx

Commissioned by the Tories when in opposition, but clearly supported by Michael Gove who last month introduced the idea of maths being taught to at least age 18 in this speech. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13958422

Key parts of the report include:

We are advising a radical change in mathematics education from the age of 14 to 18 with two critical recommendations. The first involves fundamental changes to GCSE. The second is that there should be some form of compulsory mathematics education for all students to the age of 18. Both of these recommendations must be considered together, and not individually, as the first has a direct effect on the second. The impact of the changes in GCSE, particularly for the half of each cohort which currently “fail”

GCSE, will then be enhanced by a continuation of mathematics for a further two years from age 16 to 18.

The syllabuses must be allowed to reward students who are able to achieve a higher standard in a smaller area of the curriculum, rather than a low standard across a much wider curriculum (however this is eventually structured). Regulation currently prevents this from happening even though nearly half of our young people fail GCSE: by the age of 14 many of these have been turned off mathematics and, when they finish studying mathematics two years later, are still functionally innumerate.

This often leaves pupils and students able to answer examination questions but without the functionality that they will need if they are to put the subject to use in employment or in other areas of study. At school policy level, some secondary schools are now choosing to concentrate their resources on students at those thresholds that are critical for the targets against which performance will be reported, for example grade C at GCSE. This is at the expense of the attention given to able students, those likely to go on to A level, and to those at the other end of the spectrum who are seen as certain to fail. Another policy that is being driven by performance tables is the increasing tendency to enter students for GCSE before they are ready.

Carol Vorderman fronting the maths campaign

2011-08-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

Whist it's absolutely true that the Government report says that Functional Skills should be applied in English as well, it's great that Ms Vorderman is able to bring such good publicity about the issue of Functional maths.

Keep it up, but let's not beat about the bush, let's say Functional maths please.

I shall write more on this later today when I've had a chance to review the interviews with Carol on R4, ITV Daybreak and BBC News.

EBacc subjects high on the list of student choices

2011-07-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

Originally a question, a year later, it's now a statement. The press, including the BBC are reporting that secondary schools are pressuring students into choosing subjects that form the basis of the EBacc. The next curriculum year also sees the new maths and English GCSE curriculum first exams which has far more functional skills related content. I'm keen to see how well students do.

League Tables

2011-07-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days we've seen various proposals by the Government about league tables. They suggest that new league tables should not included anything below a full GCSE - what about Functional Skills?

It doesn't meet a number of objectives such as being 1/2 a GCSE (not a full one) and not having grades (a requirement of qualifications that are included in the league table).

Does this mean that the 50% of 16 year olds who do not pass grade C GCSE in both maths and English are to be ignored? That's not quite what Wolf said is it? It also means that qualifications such as Apprenticeships would be deemed worthless by the Government - can't be right!

We have a chance to comment though, it's just a proposal with a consultation period so if you feel strongly, please make your feelings known.

Functional Skills Annual Survey

2011-07-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

July 19th - the Functional Skills newsletter

Just one item in this last newsletter of the curriculum year - the 2010/11 Annual Survey.

We have created a 5 minute survey about Functional Skills through Survey Monkey. You may already have received a direct link and answered, if so, there is no need to do it again. If you haven't received a survey response request, please click the link below or copy into your browser.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DGX3HPF

Getting the views of the Functional Skills community is important, and we'll report the findings early in the new curriculum year.

Guroo shortlisted for national education award

2011-07-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

Very pleased and indeed very proud to say that Guroo has been shortlisted for the best use of educational technology at the Education Investor national awards.

The winners are announced on 17th November at the Dorchester.

We're up against some illustrious competitors though including Espresso, Pearson, Promethean, Uniservity and Frog.

Not bad at all for a little north east based company developing resources for Functional Skills!

Performance Measures for schools

2011-07-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

The Telegraph today carries more details about how Michael Gove is thinking about performance measures.

It does just seem like an ever so sensible solution in my view especially as one of the measures will be Functional Skills.

Functional Skills Newsletter July 5th

2011-07-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

July 5th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In the penultimate issue of the newsletter this year, we report on the development of a Functional Skills diagnostic tool by Edexcel, we repeat the links to all the Awarding Organisations (due to popular demand), review the press over the last month or so and report on lots of new resources and reporting features released for Guroo 2.0.

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Initial Assessment Tool for Functional Skills

Edexcel have developed an Initial Assessment Tool (IAT) to provide a simple way of helping teachers and tutors to screen a learner's existing skills and give an indication of their functionality in Functional English reading and Functional Mathematics from Entry Level 1 up to Level 2.

The BETA test version is now online - try it now on the Pearson website.

Edexcel are keen to get a range of views on the tool – in particular, they are asking for your help with testing, so your feedback can help them shape future improvements, in particular:

How do you use the Initial Assessment Tool?
What changes and improvements would you like to see?

Click the link above and you get access both to the tool and to the survey.

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Guroo 2.0 enhancements and developments

There's such a lot been happening over the past few weeks, we thought it would be worthwhile letting our readers know about all the additions and changes.

Learners Personal Reports now allows a learner to keep track of all their progress and results in one easy place including assignment grades, myFS results and quiz marks. We've also changed the process so that each quiz attempt can now be revisited giving feedback on answers a learner has submitted.

A messaging system has been added that allows learner to tutor and tutor to learner messaging (but not learner to learner). Great for distance learning and homework and works especially well when used with task setting.

On-line interactive tasks have been added to all the following challenges

English Entry 1 Face Off
English Entry 1 New York, New York
Maths Entry 1 Up To You
Maths Entry 1 Be Patient
ICT Entry 1 Blog It!
English Entry 2 New York, New York
Maths Entry 2 Up To You
ICT Entry 2 Mum's The Word
Cross Curricular Entry 2 Fashion Parade
Cross Curricular Entry 2 Eating Out
Cross Curricular Entry 3 Fashion Parade
Cross Curricular Entry 3 Eating Out
Cross Curricular Level 1 The Long Way Home
Cross Curricular Level 2 The Long Way Home
Cross Curricular Level 1 Beautiful View
Cross Curricular Level 2 Beautiful View

We've also started adding on-line quizzes to all the cross curricular challenges which will add a further 1400 Functional Skills questions to the Guroo 2.0 service by September.

As always - get more information, an on-line demo or just a sensible chat about Functional Skills from Guroo on 0191 305 5045 or info@guroo.co.uk or www.guroo.info

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Press review for June

According to the TES, the top 3 needs of business leaders are:

High standards of English and maths
Skills to think in different ways
The ability to distinguish good evidence from bad in the Google age

There's much more here!

An interesting discussion led by education journalist Warwick Mansell and hosted by Pearson about on-line testing and standards. Catch the summary and videos here.

CBI remain concerned about Numeracy standards with the Minister pledging to put maths back at the heart of the curriculum for all students up to age 18.

GCSEs to fall into line with Functional Skills as modular courses are replaced with end of year exams.

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Links to all the Awarding Organisations Functional Skills pages

Following a number of requests to help with curriculum planning, we have been asked to repeat this item featured in the last newsletter. We have done our best to get as close as possible to the Functional Skills part of the each website below.

1st4Sport - English L1

AQA - all subjects and all levels

Acentis - all subjects and all levels

BHEST - English L1

City and Guilds - all subjects and all levels

Skillsfirst/EAL/IMI consortium - All subjects at levels 1&2

EDI - all subjects and all levels

Edexcel - all subjects and all levels

NCFE - all subjects and all levels

NOCN - all subjects and all levels

OCR - all subjects and all levels

SQA - English and maths levels 1&2

WJEC - all subjects and all levels

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Please Plus One us on Google follow us on Twitter @guroofs and like us on Facebook at guroo.functionalskills. The last newsletter is likely to be Tuesday July 19th - if you have anything you'd like us to know about, just get in touch jwells@guroo.co.uk