May 29th - the Functional Skills
newsletter
There has been a fair amount of
activity in the sector recently so it's a really good time to review Functional
Skills Policy. This week we feature news about funding and GLH, links to
lots of new support from LSIS and AELP and advance news of an exciting
partnership between the UK's leading Functional Skills specialist and a major
provider of e-learning solutions.
There isn't space in this week's
newsletter for full details of the AELP Functional Skills survey but it does
report a significant shift in the confidence of providers to deliver successful
implementation this summer. And don't forget that Guroo's innovative
Functional Skills Direct initiative is running successfully and includes self-service access to
the free trial system, something which is proving incredibly popular.
New support materials from LSIS and
AELP released
LSIS have released the Functional
Skills Starter Kit on the Excellence Gateway pages. There's lots of good
stuff in the kit with comprehensive sections on:
- Functional
Skills key policy messages
- Self-check
and action planning advice including a downloadable readiness tool
- Developing
effective practice
- Case
studies
- CPD
AELP with support from LSIS have
published "Moving from Key Skills to Functional Skills" a step by
step guide for independent training providers. It's a 30 page booklet
featuring 8 key steps to consider in the transition:
- Developing
a strategy and policy
- Raising
awareness
- Conducting
a skills audit
- Delivery
models
- Resources
- Approaches
to teaching, learning and assessment
- Deciding
on awarding organisations
- Gaining
employer engagement
The funding landscape
At the AELP special interest
group for Functional Skills, speakers from SFA and LSIS covered the latest
developments in funding and GLH, it's this topic that will be included in
Wednesday's Webinar, but in summary;
Functional Skills delivered as a
standalone qualification in a workplace has been given 54 GLH, which in round
numbers equates to about £300 of funding.
For the funding year 12/13,
Functional Skills remains an unlisted qualification in FE and Apprenticeships
with "spikes" in GLH claims reported around 80 hours and 120 hours.
For comparison, Key Skills carried a rate of 36 GLH.
There's no doubt that SFA
recognises that Functional Skills is a much more rigorous qualification than
Key Skills but will funding recognise this? A funding simplification document
is expected to be released in June which will contain details of "shadow
rates" for Functional Skills in Apprenticeships and as standalone
qualifications in FE. These shadow rates will then be tested with a final
decision being made by January 2013 for funding rates in all sectors for the
academic year 13/14.
Does that mean that we now know how much providers will be paid for
delivering Functional Skills? The answer to that is still no, but we live
in hope that June will make it all clear!
Advance news of exciting developments
in Functional Skills
Guroo, the UK's leading specialist in
Functional Skills are teaming up with Virtual College, one of the UK's biggest providers
of on-line e-learning resources with more than 750,000 learners.
E>nable is Virtual Colleges complete learner management solution. It is a feature rich solution
carefully structured to allow customers to specify and create their own feature
profile including progress tracking, learner completion
reports and customisable corporate branding.
The partnership will be launched at the
AELP conference in London on 19/20 June, if you'd know more now, or to book an E>nable
demo featuring Guroo Functional Skills resources simply email jwells@guroo.co.uk or liam.prendergast@virtual-college.co.uk
The Functional Skills Wednesday Webinar
A return to the webinar hot seat for
Jonathan this week who will review Functional Skills Policy and Support with a
focus on:
- Funding
and GLH guidance
- AELP
developed support materials
- The latest
survey results into confidence about FS
- A
look at the newly launched LSIS Functional Skills Starter Kit
Email info@guroo.co.uk and we'll send you the link on Wednesday.
It's a session that's relevant for
everyone with an interest in Functional Skills so join us at 4.05pm on
Wednesday 30th May for another informative webinar.
Replay previous webinars at the links
below. Simply enter your name and use guroo as the password.
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