Monday, 21 October 2013

Newsletter October 22nd

October 22nd - the Functional Skills newsletter
In this week's Functional Skills newsletter we cover the OECD comparison of Literacy and Numeracy standards, Guroo (sponsors of this newsletter and my employers) would like to let you know about a new way to get high quality but low cost face to face training with the launch of "Guroo Open Training" and we have a full summary of several new events and exhibitions that will be of interest to our readers.  
We've fully updated the webinar recording list and this weeks "Wednesday Webinar" will be "getting the best from your Guroo Free Trial, delivered by daisy this week.
As always, we aim to send this newsletter out every two weeks, your comments and thoughts are always appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk
England's young adults "trailing the world" in literacy and maths
This has been the story of the last couple of weeks.  Technically, England doesn't trail the world (as the USA is bottom) but it isn't a very good picture at all.  The OECD report is here, a nice touch is that you can compare different age groups too; England doesn't do so bad with older people!  There were lots of news reports about the focus on young people though:
The BBC led with the headline used at the beginning of this article.
The Guardian went for "nothing short of a national disgrace".
The Government appeared to want to blame FE Colleges; however this seemed to be a little bit of bluster to divert attention away from themselves and their over-reliance on grade C GCSE.  FE Week reported MP's "sadness".
Whichever line you believe, there is no doubt that the whole system needs a complete rethink, perhaps with a distinct move away from GCSE towards getting the basics right by using Functional Skills as the GCSE hurdle for which it was originally designed?
Guroo Open Training is a three hour training session (including break) on how to use Guroo to support the teaching of Functional Skills.
A new innovative method of delivering high quality but low cost face to face training, the first session will be in Milton Keynes on 26th November.  If this proves popular and sells out, don't worry, simply let Cathy (who's organising them) know and we'll add some more dates and locations.
The sessions will be led by Sally Bryant, an experienced Functional Skills practitioner, author and examiner, the session will take you through the Functional Skills Learner Journey and the tutor experience using all aspects of the Guroo system.  During the session we'll cover:
  • Initial assessment and diagnostic
  • Using teaching and learning resources
  • Preparing for external assessments
  • Group and user admin
  • Reports and tracking
Open training is for anyone who uses Guroo as part of their tutor/assessor role.  The course size is typically 8 up to a maximum of 20 delegates from several establishments.  You must bring your own wifi enabled laptop to get the best from the session - wifi is provided.  If you do try to book and it's full, please let us know straight away and we'll add more events and locations to meet demand.

Key events coming up
The AELP conference is happening Tuesday 22nd October in Birmingham.  Guroo will be there of course showing all of the new features and additions to Guroo 3.1 released since the summer.
JISC North West are having a "16+ suppliers day" on November 12th at Haydock, Liverpool. Not specifically about Functional Skills, but as Guroo has so many regional customers in the North West, it will be a great chance to see you all. 
EMSkills have announced a date for the Maths and English Skills Conference of January 31st 2014, again at the Paragon Hotel, Birmingham.  Always well attended and informative, early bird prices are available for delegates now.  As usual, this event is being supported by Guroo and other Functional Skills providers. 
The Learning and Skills show runs alongside the Learning technologies exhibition and takes place on 29th and 30th January at Olympia in London.  All of the leading Functional Skills companies are expected to be there, Guroo will be on stand 329.
Apprenticeships 4 England are running their conference in London on March 4/5. Another very well attended show, expected to be supported by all the major Functional Skills providers including Guroo.
Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm
"Using the Guroo Free Trial" is Wednesday's webinar with Daisy Wells, on Wednesday 23rd October at 4pm.  
A 20 minute look at using the Free Trial process from sign-up to creating assessments, reviewing diagnostics and finding resources. Ideal for potential new customers and those considering Guroo. Join us live, but we record every session as we know that many more people enjoy coming back for the recording afterwards, so if you want to join or just want to watch the recording, just drop an email to info@guroo.co.uk
Join us on Wednesday 23rd October at 4pm.
All previous webinars are recorded and available anytime for playback - login as a guest and the password is password.  Simply click on the links below and don’t forget, if you’d like to have your own 1:1 webinar looking at how Guroo can help you support Functional Skills, just call us on 0191 305 5045 or email info@guroo.co.uk and we’ll take it from there.

Guroo group and user admin  
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, 14 October 2013

Shocking Results

Young adults in England have scored among the lowest results in the industrialised world in international literacy and numeracy tests.  21/24 in Literacy and 22/24 in Numeracy.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24433320

Surely, Functional Skills in schools can help here?


Posted by at No comments:

Functional Skills Newsletter

October 8th - the Functional Skills newsletter
This week’s Functional Skills newsletter has a summary of the main political parties’ education policy as related to 16-25 year olds plus news of more funding for traineeships.  
Closer to home, the results of the Functional Skills Annual Survey are now in with an amazing response rate of more than 400!  The Wednesday webinar will focus on the top level findings and as always will be recorded with links provided in future newsletters. 
As always, we aim to send this newsletter out every two weeks, your comments and thoughts are always appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk

Policy statements
With the main political conference season just recently closed, it's worth having a little look at the main policies being put forward.
The Conservatives majored on "Earning or Learning" with a threat to remove welfare benefits for 1 million young adults under 25 who are not in Education, Training or Employment.  In his speech, David Cameron said "It’s time for bold action here. We should ask, as we write our next manifesto, if that option should really exist at all. Instead, we should give young people a clear, positive choice: go to school. Go to college. Do an apprenticeship. Get a job. But just choose the dole? We’ve got to offer them something better than that."
The Labour Party promised to implement "many of the recommendations from the independent Skills Taskforce in particular improving vocational learning in FE and adopting a benchmark in apprenticeships of L3."  The Pearson think tank has a great summary of all three parties position.     
The Lib Dems policy adopted by conference includes support for traineeships  "For those with no work experience, we support the introduction of six month traineeships which combine structured job search, continuing English, Maths and ICT support for those who need it and work experience in return for an allowance." and mandatory skills training for 18-24 year olds "It is vital that mandatory skills training under the new Universal Credit regime is of sufficient duration to allow unemployed younger adults to achieve qualifications up to full Level 3 qualifications.
More funding for traineeships
As apprenticeships move steadily up the rigour and value chain, there is lots more focus on the 6 month long traineeships with the latest announcement a very interesting one as it applies solely to 19-23 year olds.
An extra £20m of funding has been allocated to the traineeship programme that offers workplace experience alongside Functional Skills in English & maths plus employability training.
FE Week report.  BDaily report.
Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm
"The Functional Skills Annual Survey" is Wednesday's webinar with Jonathan Wells, on Wednesday 9th October at 4pm.  
A look at the top level findings of the summer survey based on more than 400 results.  Join us live, but we record every session as we know that many more people enjoy coming back for the recording afterwards, so if you want to join or just want to watch the recording, just drop an email to info@guroo.co.uk
Join us on Wednesday 9th October at 4pm.
All previous webinars are recorded and available anytime for playback - login as a guest and the password is password.  Simply click on the links below and don’t forget, if you’d like to have your own 1:1 webinar looking at how Guroo can help you support Functional Skills, just call us on 0191 305 5045 or email info@guroo.co.uk and we’ll take it from there.
Guroo group and user admin


Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Functional Skills newsletter Sept 24th

September 24th - the Functional Skills newsletter
What a busy Autumn!  The focus on English and maths has really taken hold and confidence in Functional Skills is at an all-time high (more on this based on the survey in the next newsletter).  And the evidence is much more than anecdotal, Guroo are recording website usage levels more than five times higher than this time last year with more than 5000 initial assessments being completed each week.
So a packed newsletter this week with features about politics, 16-19 accountability measures, events and as always, links to the ever popular webinar series.
As always, we aim to send this newsletter out every two weeks, your comments and thoughts are always appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk
16-19 Accountability Consultation
The Government published a 10 week consultation on how new 16-19 accountability measures will be applied to FE and Sixth form colleges.  
The consultation indicates there will be 5 key measures in new 16 to 19 performance tables covering attainment, destinations, completion, progress, and combined attainment and completion.
A key driver in developing the tables is a new measure to show how well post-16 providers do in helping young people get a C or better in English and maths. As of this academic year, all young people who go into post-16 education without a grade C in those subjects must continue to study them until they get at least Level 2 in Maths and English, typically following the Functional Skills route.
Pearson publish a very useful summary of the current position. Pearson Policy Watch
And the Government Press release from 13 September is here.  Government Consultation
Apprenticeship recruitment, traineeships and politics
There has been a lot of political comment about Apprenticeships and Traineeships recently.  The excellent linkedin group run by Lindsay McCurdey and available at tracks many of the political developments, some of which are summarised below.  
Some FE Colleges are requiring applicants to already have a grade C GCSE in maths and English before accepting an application.  Original comment by Jonathan Wells based on a FE Week investigation. 
At the Labour Party conference, a new policy was proposed where employers who recruit a “tier 2” employee from outside of the EC would then have to create an Apprenticeship opportunity in the same area of work.  
On the negative side of Traineeships, reports of employer abuse over working hours and no pay from FE Week.
On the positive side of Traineeships, OCR celebrates the first 25 successful trainees. This video gives the learners perspective of the pilot.
World of Learning Conference
The conference and exhibition season starts shortly with the first major event of the year being held at Birmingham NEC on 1/2 October.  Guroo will be exhibiting on stand J100 featuring their all new Exam Practice solution, the unique Pay As You Go pricing option and all visitors will be able to collect the brand new Learner Journey Poster. 
Apprenticeships4England have announced 4/5 March as their conference date and again, Guroo is one of the sponsors of this event.
We're expecting a January date for the next All Things Functional Event organised by EMSKills and don't forget Learning Technologies/Learning and Skills in January. 
Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm

"The Learner Journey" is Wednesday's webinar with Jonathan Wells, on Wednesday 25th September at 4pm.  Join us and get your free poster!
A look at the complete Learner Journey.  And as a special "treat", everyone who joins us live on Wednesday will be sent a brand new, full colour, A0, pre-production Learner Journey poster.  But even with this enticement, we know that many more people enjoy coming back for the recording afterwards, so if you want to join or just want to watch the recording, just drop an email to info@guroo.co.uk
Join us on Wednesday 25th September at 4pm.
All previous webinars are recorded and available anytime for playback - login as a guest and the password is password.  Simply click on the links below and don’t forget, if you’d like to have your own 1:1 webinar looking at how Guroo can help you support Functional Skills, just call us on 0191 305 5045 or email info@guroo.co.uk and we’ll take it from there.

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, 9 September 2013

Colleges introducing a Catch 22 for Maths and English?

A report in FE Week this morning suggests that a significant number of Level 2 Apprenticeships being advertised, require the applicant to have already passed GCSE A*-C in Maths and English.

Is this so the providers (Colleges in the main) can avoid having to teach English and maths, specifically Functional Skills?  Forgive me, but surely, this is the purpose of 16+ Learning Providers?

If providers are allowed to sidestep this requirement and cherry pick the students they want to teach presumeably because it takes less time, pass rates are better and therefore they get more money for doing less, then we'll be faced with an even bigger and ever growing problem of NEETS.

Carrying this policy forward, it will mean that far from RPA being raised to 17 then 18 as an inclusive measure and ALL 17 and 18 years olds continuing to study Maths and English, it will go the other way - ONLY those with GCSE A*-C at age 16 will be able to take part in further education because those without this will be rejected at the application stage.

So come on BIS, SFA and other interested parties, get this sorted quickly.


Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Functional Skills or GCSE now compulsory for 16/17 year olds

"250,000 school leavers each year suffer a huge impairment to life and work"
The Government confirmed on Monday that 16 year old school leavers who hadn't passed GCSE maths and English at grade C or above would be expected to continue studying the subjects.  Skills minister Matthew Hancock said the requirement to keep studying English and maths was not about re-sitting exams but about continuing to develop these essential skills.
"For those who fail to get a C at GCSE, it's a huge impairment to their future life, their ability to participate not just in work but also as a citizen," he said.  BBC report and video interview with Matthew Hancock.
Whilst the major news stories focussed on GCSE re-sits, the Government announcement re-enforces the importance and value of Functional Skills in the learner journey.
"Those who have not achieved a C or better in GCSE maths or English will ideally study GCSEs. However, they may take other qualifications – including functional skills and free-standing mathematics qualifications accredited by Ofqual - as a stepping stone to GCSE study.
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, 2 September 2013

Functional Skills Exam Practice from Guroo
Contact Guroo on info@guroo.co.uk or 0191 305 5045 for more information.
Guroo 3.1 is now live featuring "Exam Practice".  Guroo customers on the "All Inclusive" price plan automatically received free access, everyone else can add the system independently and cost-effectively, including those who use alternative products such as BKSB.  
"Exam Practice" is unique, all questions have been developed by Functional Skills examiners, they feature full mark schemes for tutors, feedback options and even secure file upload and review for ICT questions.  Best of all, it is offered as a completely standalone option so even non-Guroo customers can simply add "Exam Practice" to their existing portfolio of resources. 


At the heart of the EP system is a bank of 72 exam style questions.  Key features of the questions include:
  • ·         12 questions at two levels (Level 1 and Level 2) and in each subject (Maths, English and ICT) – note that 4 questions in each level/subject are available at launch
  • ·         A number of scenarios are offered at both levels to give the learner (and tutors) an understanding of the differences in expectations between levels
  • ·         Each question is designed to have 15 marks and take 20 minutes
  • ·         On screen tools include a clock, calculator, drawing tools and secure file upload system for data-files and applications
  • ·         Scenario always includes mark allocation guidelines to support learners.
F

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)