Teachers beat the system too!

Taken from the Indy on Saturday

This isn't really news as such, more of a filler story in the time of slow news just before Christmas. Two things jump out at me:

• It shows that Grade C GCSE is not proof or evidence or competence.
• Teachers need a degree to get into a PGCE - how on earth did they pass a degree without basic competency in English and maths?

It also shows how teachers are being taught to the test - you don't suddenly become competent in English and maths by passing a very simple and straightforward test after 10+ failures.

The changes can't come too soon and the "teachers leader" who seems to intimate that knowing basic English and maths isn't relevant should hang their head in shame.

Oh - and lets not worry about designing tests for teachers, just use Level 2 Functional English and Functional maths as the test - easy!

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!

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Dec 6th

December 6th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we focus on analysing a number of Government policy announcements and consultation papers in the last couple of weeks, plus links to speeches from John Hayes and Vince Cable, relevant press news, and this week's Wednesday Webinar which looks at Functional Skills Policy; very relevant after all the recent announcements.

The Government publish FE and Skills reform plan.

A readable and relatively compact document that is subtitled "Building a World Class Skills System". It looks at 10 areas of reform:

• Students at the heart of the system
• A national careers service from April 2012
• A ladder of opportunity with clear progression
• Excellence in teaching and learning
• A review of learning programmes and qualifications
• Opening up post 14 learners to the FE sector
• Freedom from central control and bureaucratic burdens
• Simplified funding system focused on high quality provision
• Moving empowerment for quality assurance away from Government to the student
• Addressing the global FE market

In relation to Functional Skills, the report is unabiguously clear, with a key action to: "Confirm that, from the 2012/13 academic year, all Apprenticeship providers will be required to support Apprentices in progressing towards the achievement of Level 2 English and Maths. From October 2012 all Apprentices starting English and Maths courses will be taking Functional Skills or GCSE qualifications."
Another thing that comes through powerfully is the Government's use of the words 'English' and 'Maths'. Indeed the first key action on the list is to re-establish those terms!

Review of research and evaluation on improving adult literacy and numeracy skills - BIS

This document was published by BIS on 1st December and runs to more than 200 pages.

Findings about ALN were mixed with the evidence indicating:

• good evidence was found on adult basic skills levels, teaching and learning, and personal, social and economic returns
• limited evidence was found on skills acquisition, retention and loss, and on adults’ everyday practices in literacy and numeracy, including patterns of self-study
• little evidence was found on the cost-effectiveness of ALN programmes, either as a whole or of specific delivery models and methods
• the evidence of the impact of ALN on productivity was found to be very weak; it is stronger but far from robust on further learning, and on employment and wages
• there is a lack of good evidence on information and communications technology (ICT), and on the role and impact of ICT in blended learning provision.

Looking forward to the literacy and numeracy skills that are needed shows how changes to SfL are likely to happen:

• There is growing evidence of the need amongst employees for a more complex combination of skills than in the past, including a combination of ICT and mathematical literacies. Individuals in employment who struggle with skills in ICT or literacy or numeracy are likely to suffer losses in the other two areas. The growing range of demands and contexts for reading and writing, and for using and manipulating numeric data, is further evidence in favour of a focus on functional skills.
• Employers frequently cite the need for (improved) reading, writing and maths skills in the workplace, and report a significant gap between the skills levels of employees and skills needs in the workplace. However, there is much less evidence on employees’ perceptions, and there is scope for the use of more refined assessment instruments to determine the skills that employers need.

So major support for Functional Skills in the adult sector too, adding to the clear support for Apprenticeships.

More ministerial speeches

At the AoC conference a couple of weeks ago, John Hayes and Vince Cable both made speeches that pre-announced some of the headlines in the policy documents above.

For the record, here are the links:

Vince Cable

John Hayes

Press Reports

Press reports continue to carry unfavourable reports about the levels of Literacy and Numeracy amongst young people. In the latest one from The Telepgraph, the focus is on Morrisions supermarket who also hit the news a few weeks ago with 12 week apprrenticeship programmes. Click here for the full story.

Youth Contract

On the positive side of press coverage, much has been written about the £1bn youth contract to provide work placements, apprenticeships, IAG and support for 16-17 year old NEETs.

Wednesday Webinar from Guroo

Our programme of twenty-minute Wednesday Webinar events is going down really well - and it continues tomorrow with a different presenter.

Previous events have covered:

• Initial Assesment and Diagnostic
• Cross Curriculum resources
• Teaching and Learning resources
• Guroo 2.1 admin and reporting

We have recorded video versions of most of them - email us if you'd like the link to replay the webinars.

The schedule moving forward is:

Wednesday 7th at 4.05pm - Functional Skills Policy Review with Jonathan Wells of Guroo

Wednesday 14th at 4.05 - Functional Skills Initial Assessment and Diagnostic with Stewart Hutton

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!

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

Skills for Life

I'm expecting to see an announcement about Skills for Life changes, including how Functional Skills will be incorporated into the new adult structure today.

More later on .......

Growth of NEETS

With NEETS now well past 1 million, we are now seeing a number of announcements to do with managing this pretty big number.

Here's another from DWP that will encourage employers to take on young jobless in jobs or as apprentices.

Let's hope that DWP equip them with Functional Skills before they join the programme!

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!

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Nov 8th

November 8th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we have very important news about the future of Functional Skills in Apprenticeships, an update from the Awarding Organsiations on how on-screen assessments are developing, events and news that are relevant to Functional Skills, and the launch of Wednesday Webinars from Guroo.

The Minister confirms that Functional Skills will replace Key Skills in all Apprenticeship programmes in September.

We received confirmation this week from John Hayes MP, the Minister of State for Further Education and Skills, that Functional Skills will definitely replace Key Skills by September.

The Minister 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.

I was interested to read the finding from your own survey, particularly that there is a high level of confidence with Functional Skills across providers, colleges and schools. We know that Functional Skills involve high quality teaching away from the job and this is important to provide apprentices with an essential base of high quality transferable skills to support their career progression.”

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.

Changes to on-screen assessments from the Awarding Organisations

In the same week that the Minister confirmed his support for Functional Skills, City & Guilds made an update announcement about Functional Skills assessments covering:

• Functional Skills Mathematics on-screen available now
• Functional Skills ICT on-screen arriving this month
• Anytime paper assessment moves closer

Click here for the City & Guilds annoucement.

Edexcel are following a similar path with an update to their progress towards on-screen assessments here.

And we know of at least one AO that is developing an assessment system where students sit their exam on a Friday, with results on Monday! Keep reading this newsletter for more information about all these developments.

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.

Much as we'd love to be there, unfortunately we can't attend the Skills Conference in Nottingham this week. Have a great time if you're going and maybe we'll see you at this event next year.

Learning and Skills Network (LSN, one time managers of the Functional Skills Support programme and heavily involved in many aspects of 14-19 education and support) have gone into administration. More on this from FE Week here.

The Wednesday Webinar from Guroo

Guroo are delivering a series of "Wednesday Webinars" over the next few weeks.

Scheduled for late afternoon so you can grab a cuppa, click the link, and relax while we take you through an on-screen presentation in around 20 minutes.

• Wednesday 9th November - Initial Assessment and Diagnostics for Functional Skills by Guroo
• Wednesday 16th November - Teaching and Learning Resources for Functional Skills by Guroo
• Wednesday 23rd November - What's new in Guroo 2.1 (aimed mainly at existing customers)

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!

It really is definitely, absolutely unequivocally happening

What is - Functional Skills replaces Key Skills as a mandatory component of all Apprenticeships from September 2012.

Now, it could be argued that it was already definite, and indeed it was, but some organisations (AELP, AoC and FAB amongst them) had been fighting against the change, arguing it was being implemented too quick and the qualification too rigorous. Looks like they have will have to change their tack and we hope to part of the solution that they put forward to their members.

The letter is here.

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter Oct 25th

October 25th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we have the results of the Functional Skills Annual Survey, more about Initial Assessment and Diagnostic solutions, news from DfE, BIS, Apprenticeships and Chambers of Commerce, events coming up and links to some new resources for Functional Skills.

Results of the Functional Skills Annual Survey

It taken a little while but the results of the survey conducted at the end of last term are now fully available. More than 300 responses make this survey the largest and most important of its kind. We've put a full copy of the survey for free download here.

The survey covers confidence, where Functional SKills are used, an analysis of Awarding Organsiations chosen and an analysis of the value of the newesletter. The box below shows some of the ket findings; read the full report via the link above.

Functional Skills Initial Assessment and Diagnostic Initial Assessment and Diagnostics is the most notable new feature in version 2.1 of Guroo's Functional Skills subscription service, released this week. Designed specifically for Functional Skills, the Guroo Initial Assessment uses question content and structures that test specific skills against the official criteria, and the Diagnostic results provide links to the Guroo resources that develop the required skills. The system uses randomised questions to support repeat assessments, and adapts to the learner's answers to indicate a final level between "Working towards Level 1" and "Working at Level 2". The Sales Bit: Guroo are guaranteeing no price increases for new subscriptions taken out in October and November, so depending on your priorities you can view this as great resources with free Initial Assessment, or a great price on Initial Assessment with free resources! Guroo staff are standing by to give you a quick (or in-depth) online demonstration at a time that suits you. Call them on 0191 305 5045, or email sales@guroo.co.uk More from the DfE, BIS, Apprenticeships and Chambers of Commerce Functional Skills are the talk of town all of a sudden. First we had the DfE consultation which stated: "For those who need more intensive support to move towards achieving a C grade GCSE providers are best placed to determine what will meet their needs and enable them to progress. Based on level of rigour, assessment arrangements, skills taught and views of employers, the qualifications that we recommend to providers are: functional skills and free standing maths qualifications." The National Chambers of Commerce have now weighed in with calls for changes to the skills training system in report entitled "Skills for Business:More to Learn?" It takes a similar line to recent CBI studies in calling for higher standards of English and maths plus a need for softer skills such as work ethic, problem solving and communcation. There's more here. Meanwhile, over at the National Apprenticeship Service, a major row is brewing over the number of 12 week programmes being advertised. The general view is that it isn't possible to deliver a quality learning programme that includes Functional Skills in anything less than a year. FE Weeks carries a nice summary of the issues. Michael Gove may very well be preparing the ground for significant changes to the way in which performance tables are measured. In his 5000+ word speech at Ofqual, he again emphasised the problem of equivalence to "easy to pass assessments" post-Wolf and indeed indicated that he expects to see published results drop as a new realism is brought in that is based on rigour. Resources for Level 1&2 Functional ICT from CIA Training - and why not try these RAF resources on skillsworkshop to see if your students can apply their skills in a completely "novel" situation? CIA Training, specialists in developing ICT resources, have just published ICT Functional Skills - a student workbook for Levels 1&2 ICT Functional Skills based on the "Big Planet" theme park. Click here for more information. The RAF and Army are both moving to Functional Skills for all their English and maths requirements up to level 2. The link below is taken from the RAF pre-recruit training course. Now we know that many of our readers will have no idea what an "ML824 Sunderland" is, but what a great way to test your students' skills in a completely novel sceanrio! Please Plus One us on Google follow us on Twitter @guroofs and like us on Facebook at guroo.functionalskills. The next newsletter is likely to be Tuesday November 8th - if you have anything you'd like us to know about, just get in touch jwells@guroo.co.uk

Apprenticeships being stretched and potentially in danger of losing their good status

When we mention apprenticeships, I think we all think about the traditional 1 or 2 year training programme with some day release at college. That's changing quickly, and not necessarily for the better.

The National Apprenticeship Service has lots of 12 or 26 week apprenticeships advertised - indeed my own daughter did a 12 week contact centre apprenticeship in the summer. The problem with these is that often all the time is spent in a training environment with none or virtually none in a real working environment - to me that's not an apprenticeship at all.

Plus it gives no time to the vitally important aspects of literacy and numeracy training - hopefully Functional Skills.

These 12 week programmes have a very bad spell about them - why do providers always try to reduce good programmes down to point of being pointless, are we the only country where quality and experience is less important than getting the boxes ticked as fast as possible?

Time for a re-think on this - perhaps BIS need to provide unequivocal guidance about Functional Skills and length of time to stop providers trying to break and bend the system.

Annual Functional Skills Survey out now

Click here for the full download and see what a positive view it is. More than 300 responses, high levels of confidence in Functional Skills across all sectors and it even gave us valuable information about what readers want to know about in the Making Sense of Functional Skills newsletter written by Jonathan Wells of Guroo.

And the best news is that the survey it the most authoritive about Functional Skills and completely spin free.

Making Sense of Functional Skills Newsletter October 11th

October 11th - the Functional Skills newsletter

In this issue, we have a DfE consultation that positively recommends Functional Skills, initial assessment and diagnostic news from Guroo, more DfE consultations including funding per student rather than per qualification, further events in the 14-19 calendar, and a page from BBC Skillswise that shows that no matter how much money you spend and how many checks are made, we all make blindingly obvious errors!

DfE consultation recommends Functional Skills

We've been hinting that we were expecting positive guidance from DfE and BIS about Functional Skills for a while. The first of those announcements has now been made.

The DfE consultation entitled "study programmes for 16-19 year olds" published on 6th October and ending 5th January follows Professor Alison Wolf's report. One of the key elements of that report was to recommend that students aged 16-19 who did not have an A*-C GCSE pass in English and maths should continue to study those subjects through to age 19.

In response to that recommendation, DfE says:

6.3 It is clear that providers will need to adapt their English and maths offer depending on the needs of students. For example:

• Some young people will need an immediate, focussed intervention to turn a near miss into a GCSE pass at the first opportunity
• Some may require more intensive help over a longer period (and possibly taking other qualifications en route to act as stepping stones to the GCSE)
• Some, for whom GCSE success is a long way off, might be better served by taking other qualifications or programmes.

6.4 For those who need more intensive support to move towards achieving a C grade GCSE providers are best placed to determine what will meet their needs and enable them to progress. Based on level of rigour, assessment arrangements, skills taught and views of employers, the qualifications that we recommend to providers are: functional skills and free standing maths qualifications.

So there we have it, the DfE recommends Functional Skills as the qualification of choice for students progressing towards GCSE, or unlikely to achieve GCSE. Click here for the link directly to the consultation paper.

Functional Skills Initial Assessment and Diagnostic

Initial Assessment and Diagnostics is the most notable new feature in version 2.1 of Guroo's Functional Skills subscription service, released this week.

Designed specifically for Functional Skills, the Guroo Initial Assessment uses question content and structures that test specific skills against the official criteria and the Diagnostic results provide links to the Guroo resources that develop the required skills.

The system uses randomised questions to support repeat assessments, and adapts to the learner's answers to indicate a final level between "Working towards Level 1" and "Working at Level 2".

The Sales Bit: Guroo are guaranteeing no price increases for new subscriptions taken out in October and November, so depending on your priorities you can view this as great resources with free Initial Assessment, or a great price on Initial Assessment with free resources! Guroo staff are standing by to give you a quick (or in-depth) online demonstration at a time that suits you. Call them on 0191 305 5045, or email sales@guroo.co.uk

More from the DfE

The annoucement about Functional Skills wasn't the only piece of news from DfE this week. Several other consultations were announced by Schools Minister Nick Gibb that affect the whole of post 16 education, including changes to funding so that schools and colleges will be funded on a per student basis rather than per qualification.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

The current funding system is plagued by perverse incentives that have diverted some students towards weaker qualifications.

Every student should be taking courses which give them the best chance of succeeding in life.

The current system incentivises schools and colleges to load too many students with low-quality, small or easy qualifications, often in random combinations, that employers do not value.

These reforms will ensure young people are given the information they need to take the courses that benefit them, and that all courses available broaden rather than narrow their options.

It is time the system was fairer and simpler – and worked in favour of young people.

He added:

Too many young people are dropping English and maths before they have secured a good grounding. These vital subjects are critical to the economy and as a country we need all our young people to be fluent and comfortable in these basic skills.

http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00198873/gibb-simpler-fairer-funding-system-to-improve-post-16-education

14-19 events coming up

LEACAN is the national education network for local authorities and those working across the 14-19 agenda.

The Winter Forum on Friday 2^nd Dec at Leamington Spa, brings together professional peers and colleagues and will be addressed by high calibre national colleagues including the Rt Hon. Estelle Morris; Tim Oates, Cambridge Assessment and Chair of the Expert Panel, National Curriculum Review; Jon Coles, Director General for Education Standards, DfE and Steve Besley, Head of Policy, Pearson.

Guroo will be there of course and the event is open to non-members at £250. If you would like to book or know more please contact Susanne.wait@leacan.co.uk

Another event where you'll find the Guroo team is 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.

Come on BBC Skillswise, even with all the cuts, you can surely do better than this!

We noticed this on the recently re-launched BBC Skillswise site. As they say in BBC land - answers on a postcard please.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/quiz/ma10mult-l1-quiz