League table qualifications

I have it on very good authority that Functional Skills is what's termed "collateral damage" in the Government's efforts to remove the vocational qualifications from the league tables they don't want to be there.

It brings an interesting question forward:

The Government accept that Functional Skills is rigorous, does have and does lead to progression, and is a valuable qualification, but because it doesn't have a grading system and is treat as a half course, they currently do not meet the requirements for inclusion in the league tables from January 2015.

I predict that will change. Just as some of the key diplomas (Engineering in particular) will be upgraded to reflect their complexity and value, Functional Skills will find their way into the tables. They will do so because they will treat English and maths as a single and you will have to pass both to count plus we will see some development of the qualification to introduce grades.

So you read it here first - Feb 2012 Jonathan Wells of Guroo Functional Skills

Beating the exam system

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!

Morrison's forced to teach school leavers the basics

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

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Nov 22nd

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

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!

Controversial Budget thoughts

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

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!