Guroo Functional Skills Newsletter 23/02/10

Our bi-weekly look at the world of Functional Skills.

The demise of ALAN in 14-19 is announced, exam boards gearing up for accreditation, functional skills live blog with a Liverpool teacher, 'tis the season for conferences and bulletins, and transition arrangements.

Changes to funding for ALAN. DCSF and LSC have published a statement of priorities and investment strategy in which it stated that providers are now expected to deliver functional skills qualification for young people where ever possible. This means that it should no longer be necessary for learners to take the Certificates in Adult Literacy or Adult Numeracy. Subject to confirmation, adult literacy and numeracy qualifications will no longer be funded for young people aged 14-19 after 2010/11. Full text here.

Exam boards gearing up for accreditation. In advance of the QCDA March 19th announcement on "who got through" we've met several exam boards recently: EDI are looking for people to write on-screen assessments - get in touch with Cheryl Bott in the first instance (mention us and she'll know where it came from) CherylBott@ediplc.com. OCR have got a series of Functional Skills events lined up covering all subjects and all levels. Go to their event booker and search using Functional Skills.

Tis the conference season - and we can add to that the publication season as well! Register for your digital copy of Delivering Diplomas Magazine here. Simon Boyd Publishing has another 14-19 skills bulletin coming out shortly. See Guroo at ASCL (5/6 March - Hammersmith), Naace (17 March - Blackpool), Diploma Conference (18 March - Birmingham) where we'll also be delivering the Functional Skills workshop.

Get local! We pride ourselves on finding links you won't find anywhere else. We spotted this in the pages of the on-line version of the Liverpool Echo - a Functional Skills masterclass presented by Jacqueline Marshall, a teacher in Liverpool, as a live blog. Experienced Functional Skills practitioners probably won't find anything new here but you may find the comments (which are based on real life reflections from the edexcel pilot) interesting.

Transition arrangements announced. Ofqual have informed Awarding Organisations that learners can carry forward their component achievements in Functional English from the pilot to the post-pilot qualifications for a period of 12 months only (September 2010 to August 2011). More on the WJEC site here.

Nice to be popular

For three years, I've been writing a newsletter diligently every month or every two weeks as it now is. It is a slow burn but eventually, there is a little recognition to be had. After about 50 newsletters, the subscription level has risen from about 50 to 4000, the open rate from a few to many hundreds and the amount of comment we get back from none to lots.

It's even now got the attention of the "Authorities". Not in a bad way, but we are now getting asked to publicise events from exhibitions and conference to events from FSSP, QCDA and Exam bodies.

Maybe every one loves a trier, but it could also been that after 50 practices, we are now starting to get the Functional Skills newsletter (and it's baby brother the functional skills forum) from Guroo just about right. Here's hoping that success continues and I can continue to write for 14-19 education about Functional Skills news resources.

Jonathan Wells of Guroo

An increase in activity

Maybe it's just me, maybe there is something in the air, maybe it's the turn of the year, possibly it's the fact that there aren't many exams left but I'm detecting a significant interest in what we do at guroo from schools and colleges.

By that I mean, more usage, more phone calls, more requests for demos. Add to this a season of conference and exhibitions where we seem to be out every week for the next month and there is a definite increase in interest and activity in Functional Skills.

And not only is the interest high, it's getting higher every week.

Jonathan Wells of Guroo Functional Skills, the leading provider of resources for 14-19.

Surprise and delight

Just been to the Sunday for Sammy show at Newcastle City Hall.

Just sometimes, not very often, something happens that is a complete surprise and delight, Mark Knopfler played Local Hero and I was there!

Functional Skills an answer to "cheats"

Now here's a theory to go for.

Just suppose, we take Functional Skills to it's ultimate degree whereby students can come up with solutions to problems by any means.

This is what happens in real life, people have problems, they ask their colleagues, friends, mum, search the internet, reference books and so on and they are judged ultimately by how good the solution is, not how they arrived at it.

Could we set an assessment in Functional Skills like this - could we allow students to use whatever means they can come up with to get at a justifiable solution?

If we could, and it would be a rave politician that sanctioned it, it would end cheating!

Now there's a thought - and maybe there's something in it!

Guroo Functional Skills Newsletter 02/02/10

Our bi-weekly look at the world of functional skills.

News about UCAS points, new Teachers TV lesson starter videos, more about the FSSP regional events and a reminder about Diploma Awards and Conference - all in all, a busy couple of weeks!

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10 temporary UCAS points. From now until Sept 2011, each level 2 functional skills pass will carry 10 UCAS points. This has been introduced as a short term measure to ensure students with Functional Skills qualifications are not penalised compared to other level 2 qualifications. The intention remains that from 2011 all level 2 qualifications will be removed from the UCAS Tariff. New lesson starter videos on Teachers TV. Two 6 minute videos based around the Engineering and Hair & Beauty Diplomas have been released. Each video is split into four sections covering Inspiration, Maths, English and ICT Functional Skills (although they have used the terms communication and numeracy). They are billed as lesson starters for year 10 and 11. Click here for a shortcut. QCDA have also put up another video about ASL in the Diploma based on the experience of the Isle of Wight consortium, and just for fun, look at the info box to see how good the QCDA spell checker is!

FSSP regional events in March. Our friends at the Functional Skills Support Programme (run by LSIS and now managed by Deloittes) have been in touch to remind everyone in post 16 that the March events are now open for bookings. There are open sessions about the new regulatory criteria for Sept 2010 and regional support events for practitioners. Click here to go the events page and book online. Also on the official line, the latest DCSF newsletter is here.

Get nominating now! The deadline to enter the Delivering Diploma Awards is fast approaching. Click here if you have a student, teacher, employer, exam officer or consortium nomination - but don't hang around, the awards evening is on March 26th in London and the conference is March 18th in Birmingham.

A delivery for Guroo subscribers. Brand new tutor packs start shipping Thursday - keep an eye out.

Jonathan's Functional Skills blog - 175 entries and counting.......

Click here for the new website for functional skills support from National Strategies and LSIS

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