Newsletter with Government statements, expos, e-learning all to do with English and maths for the post-16 sector.

Edition 203 - Friday October 23rd 2015

This week we have brought together a number of different threads involving Apprenticeships and Functional Skills.

We all know about the 3 million apprenticeship promise and the apprenticeship levy proposals, but now we're also seeing some opposition to activities and plans - we pull together those threads below.

We also have news of a new type of expo event organised by AELP - ForSkills are in the e-learning zone which is entirely appropriate as ForSkills is the ONLY company able to support claims of e-learning success with independent evidence and we have a link to a new "prezi" about that.

As always, feel free to contact Jonathan Wells, the editor of this newsletter on 0191 3055045 or jonathan@forskills.co.uk

Government support, but plenty of criticism too.

An interesting week or two that has seen plenty of Government support for Functional Skills and Apprenticeships mixed with some negativity on both quality and quantity.

Nick Boles, in commissioning the ETF reform programme, makes it totally clear that Functional Skills is here to stay (see our little sample image below) and in a separate address he also provides lots of support for promoting Apprenticeships by Apprentices.

But at the same time, Emily Thornberry of labour was expressing her concern about burger flipping Apprenticeships.

Ofsted then weighed in with their comments, albeit based on quite a small sample, which the BBC reported last week under the headline "devaluing brand".

AELP robustly defended Apprenticeships and issued a statement following their Autumn conference to that effect.

E-learning works

A short on-line "prezi" of the University of Sunderland research on e-learning

Are you prepared for the digital future?

Keeping up to date with the developments in ICT that support digital technology including e-learning and e-assessment is vital to the success of the sector.

On November 5th at the ILEC Conference Centre, London, AELP will hold a new type of event - the #aelptechexpo

Featuring five dedicated zones, a dozen workshops, great speakers and exhibitor briefings, this is an event for your diary.

ETF to manage reform programme for Functional Skills

Functional Skills reform off and running

The Education and Training Foundation have been commissioned by the Government to produce a programme to reform Functional Skills.

The initial report will be delivered to Ministers in August 2016 with the intention of having the new qualifications available for 2018.

Our view is that this is genuinely good news that shows Functional Skills have significant support from the Government. Indeed Nick Boles (BIS Minister) said that "Functional Skills are delivering an employer-recognised level of English and maths skills that help learners into lasting work".

Full details of the announcement.

Changes to Assessments

Functional Skills Changes

English Reading

Source materials will have more resemblance to what candidates see in their daily activities. At level 2 there will be at least three texts to read.

Answers will require more explanations rather than ‘lists’. There will be a greater variety in terms of coverage so that it will be more important to teach skills rather than ‘teach to the test’.

English Writing

There will be less guidance and structure, requiring candidates to provide more extended responses. There will be an emphasis on candidates working in normal ways, so a clarification that grammar and spellcheckers are allowed.

At level 2, candidates with weak SPaG will not necessarily be able to pass purely on the content marks.

Maths

The format of assessments will remain unchanged with three assessments covering number; measures, shape and space; and handling data. There will be reduced guidance within tasks, less scaffolding of questions. There will also be an addition of specific planning and reviewing steps for cdates to demonstrate the effectiveness of their working.

Task 1 (number) will have the most significant changes with a planning step at the start, reduction in guidance throughout and a review at the end of the task. Tasks 2 and 3 will have a similar structure to existing assessments but with reduced guidance.

16 to 19 funding for maths and English

Key changes from previous guidance are:

Where targets for 2014/15 were missed by less than 5%, no funding deduction will be made. Outside of this 5% tolerance, the funding reduction per student will be reduced from 100% to 50% of the national funding rate.

The Government have said that 97% of students without GCSE A*-C did an approved course (typically either Functional Skills or GCSE re-sit) in 2014/15 which means that 35,000 students did not.  Institutions who did not fully comply will also be required to complete a survey to say why and what they are doing to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Almost all Apprenticeship programmes retain Functional Skills as an option, as does adult learning courses.  The full guidance is here.

Can it be 8 years since I wrote this

"Make them important"  -an article from August 2007 by Jonathan Wells

"One of the key reasons why Key Skills is a cinderella subject at college is that students, staff and employers don't see them as important. Students don't need to do Key Skills, nor pass them (MA excepted). A level students at school don't even do them.

With Functional Skills we all have the opportunity to make them important. So let's make sure that EVERY student understands them, EVERY employer knows what they are and ALL college staff know why they are important.

If it was me I would treat Functional Skills like a brand new consumer brand and go about marketing it in the same way - viral marketing, product launch, recognition adverts, supermarket sampling, free trials, simple marketing messages."

Have things changed that much?

Newsletter out today

This week's packed newsletter is being delivered at a different time - an experiment on our part.

This week we have a summary of the Government and Employers Skills Agenda and news of a recent OECD report into the use of technology in schools which makes for very interesting reading, not so much for what it says, but for it doesn't!

A reminder than the 2015 survey is running and your valuable input is sought plus ForSkills is recruiting for a Customer Engagement Officer with a salary guide of £30-40K - watch the video for more details.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUndgahy9OY

As always, feel free to contact Jonathan Wells, the editor of this newsletter on 0191 3055045 or jonathan@forskills.co.uk 

Job anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUndgahy9OY

Watch and apply!

Customer Engagement Officer.