Monday 29 April 2013

April 30th - the Functional Skills newsletter, Ofsted, videos, events and webinars


April 30th - the Functional Skills newsletter
We attended an AELP meeting about Functional Skills and an Ofsted HMI gave a really interesting session on findings since September.  We've summarised our thoughts in this newsletter and will do the webinar this week on the same subject.
We've also picked up on the addition of video resources to the Functional Skills marketplace, a reminder about events coming up in the next couple of months and special offers and product announcements from Guroo. 
As always, your comments and thoughts are appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk

Ofsted and Functional Skills
The bullet points below are taken from a presentation by an HMI from Ofsted to AELP members at the Functional Skills Special Interest Group.
  • Getting an accurate initial assessment is really important. And note that there can be big differences depending on which IA is used.  We now have anoymised but fully independent research that compares the rigorous Guroo IA with another popular IA.  Please call Jonathan Wells if you'd like to discuss this on 0191 305 5045.
  • Using the information to make sure that learners are "stretched" to work at a challenging level suggest that an E3 initial assessment should mean a Level 1 course.
  • The motivation of learners and how much they understand the importance of Functional Skills not only as part of their course, but in th wider context too is also judged by Ofsted.  Attendance rates, withdrawal rates and student interviews are all used to assess this.
  • Ofsted are looking at assessing English and maths (and ICT) independently and i every area of learning.  Para 160 refers to how progress in English and maths is monitored , reviewed and marked carefully by all tutors, not just responsible for Functional Skills.  
  • How strategies are developed to support the improvement of different groups of learners is taken into account.  Part of this is also about staff qualifications and experience and access to staff who have above level 2 in maths, a particular area of concern for Ofsted.
  • Ofsted are keen to see leadership ensure that providers have a clear strategy for developing and implementing good teaching and learning resources and that learning activities should be "practical, purposeful, engaging and memorable".
  • Teaching to the test isn't something Ofsted expect to see and they look for constructive individual feedback that supports further learning to re-enforce this.
This week’s webinar is based on the HMI's comments, if you'd like to join - see below

Events, videos and comments
A reminder that Guroo, along with other leading suppliers will be attending the "All Things Functional" event in Birmingham on June 14th organised again by EMSKills.  The last one was great, the workshops for this one look great too.  Simply click here to go to the events page for more details.
For those who follow the linked in Functional Skills groups, this week it was about videos!  The JGA group posted a Functional Skills maths video seeking comments.  Watch it here.
As an experiment to gauge interest, Guroo have placed some of their Functional Skills videos on the elearning marketplace site.  Note these (plus the rest of the collection) are available free of charge to Guroo customers, so if you are a Guroo customer, there is no need to buy them.  But if you aren't, well, it's a good place to se them.   We also have a 2 minute showreel of clips now available on You Tube.
And in other news, we picked this up last week.
City and Guilds have run into some criticism over their decision to "export" Functional Skills papers to India to be marked.  It's all to with speed of turnaround as well as costs but with more and more companies "re-importing" activities from India back to the UK, will it go down well with C&G's customers?  Click here for the Telegraph story.
5 key product announcements from Guroo and a promise!
  1. Paper based initial assessment and diagnostic now available
  2. Off-line initial assessment and diagnostic available this week
  3. Paper based ICT Level Checker now available and free to all Guroo customers
  4. Guroo 3.0 now released
  5. 20 x tutorial videos now live and free to all Guroo customers. 
  6. Coming soon with Guroo 3.1 - Exam Practice, revised ICT Initial Assessment and core curriculum tags.
And for orders in April and May only - we are automatically adding 25% extra licences absolutely free to your account. 

Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm
"Functional Skills and Ofsted" - a summary of a presentation by Ofsted about how they judge Functional Skills with notes and comments by Jonathan Wells.  We did a similar one a few months ago and it was very popular so a good time once again to look at the key issues.
"Functional Skills and Ofsted" is aimed at both customers and those thinking of becoming customers. As always we find that many more people enjoy coming back for the recording afterwards, but if you'd like to be live, just drop an email to info@guroo.co.uk
Join us on Wednesday 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
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Tuesday 23 April 2013

Paper based initial assessments from Guroo


5 key product announcements from Guroo and a promise!
  1. Paper based initial assessment and diagnostic now available
  2. Paper based ICT Level Checker now available and free to all Guroo customers
  3. Guroo 3.0 now released
  4. 20 x tutorial videos now live and free to all Guroo customers. 
  5. Spring offer - get an extra 25% licences free when you order in April  or May.
  6. Coming soon with Guroo 3.1 - Exam Practice, revised ICT Initial Assessment and core curriculum tags.  
Paper based initial assessment for maths and English
Designed for the WBL sector and for learners with difficult access to the internet.  A full 50 question initial assessment for maths and English.  Buy a pack covering both subjects for just £6.  This includes single use tests, pre-paid envelope to send to Guroo, results available within 2 days including a full diagnostic and ILP,  emailed in pdf form to the tutor and learner, with the learners personal Guroo area updated for future progress assessment.
Contact Guroo on 0191 305 5045 or info@guroo.co.uk for more information or to buy your packs.
Paper based ICT level checker
  • "Hi Guroo,  I had had a look at the ICT skills checkers and they look very good, looking forward to seeing the revised diagnostic."
  • "Well done, I wish everybody worked that quick."
  • "Glad Guroo exists."
Complements the existing Maths and English level checkers and designed primarily for use in the interview process or as an effective screening tool, a paper based resource supplied either as a pdf (free to ALL Guroo customers) or as a full colour A4 leaflet (30p each).   
Contact Guroo on 0191 305 5045 or info@guroo.co.uk for more information or to buy your packs.
Guroo 3.0 is now live
  • "Glad Guroo exists."
  • "makes it so much easier to find things - just what we need"
Featuring a new header bar that's always "on top" and gives one click access to all resources, plus a quick launch feature that means almost all popular tasks are available in one click.  It makes Guroo  faster, easier and so much nicer to use.  There's nothing to install, as soon as you log in, Guroo 3.0 is ready to use.
20 tutorial videos now live
  • "These are really good because they include references to context and touch base with analytical thinking"
·         "I really liked the videos about probabilities and formulae and hope to use these with my learners"
These have gone down a storm with our tutors and learners with more than 10,000 views already.  They currently cover all the criteria in Maths L1, plus most of E3 and L2 and the first two English videos for apostrophes and commas are also now live.
Order in April or May - get 25% more licences for free.
April and May is a quiet time in our part of the education world.  It's also a great time to place an order.  Anyone who either places a new order for Guroo, or adds more licences to their existing account will find an extra 25% added for free.  All you have to do is order in April or May.  There's no change to the base price, just a great deal from Guroo.  Click here for the latest price lists.
And with Guroo 3.1 just around the corner, there really isn't a better time to take action - contact our friendly business team Cathy (on the left) or Daisy (on the right) and they'll help you.

As always, your comments and thoughts are appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk
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Monday 15 April 2013

Functional Skills newsletter April 16th


April 16th - the Functional Skills newsletter
Lots to cover this week.  Major news from the leading provider of Functional Skills resources, assessments and diagnostics is the early release of Guroo 3.0, which features "quick launch" to provide one-click access to all the common areas of Guroo and one click access to all the resources and assessments.  
We've also drawn together a number of new BIS publications and comments which make interesting reading about the direction the Government is moving in skills, Apprenticeships and now Traineeships.
And news about this weeks webinar which is all about Guroo 3.0 - key additions and changes.
As always, your comments and thoughts are appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk

Guroo 3.0 is now live
Well ahead of schedule, the Guroo guys in the basement of Guroo Towers have made Guroo 3.0 live.
Guroo 3.0 is all about usability with a brand new "quick launch" facility with all the popular features of Guroo now available in one click and permanent access to all teaching and learning resources from the new header bar - again one click access.
Add in a brilliant new ILP facility, new session usage reports and a range of new and revised support videos and we're really pleased with how easier it makes using Guroo.

Rigour and responsiveness in skills and more ...
Following quickly on the heels of the "Future of Apprenticeships in England" consultation (still open till May 22nd), we see a really interesting title for this new publication from BIS available by clicking here.  Read them through and you'll quickly gather that not only is Functional maths and Functional English key, it's going to get even more important as we move towards requiring at least Level 2 in all Apprenticeships and Level 1 in Traineeships.
At the same time, FE Week reported on how the number of qualifications will be substantially reduced. It all certainly feels and looks like it's all part of the focus on quality, rigour and the basics in maths and English.
Steve Besley of Pearson has produced a really great summary of all the initiatives.  Click here to get to the Policy Watch on FE Reform.  He summarises the reform areas as:
The 6 identified reform areas
1.    Raising standards through a new professionalism, a more robust intervention regime and more empowered customers
2.    Reforming apprenticeships by supporting the model of employer ownership set out in the response to the Richard Review
3.    Introducing Traineeships by creating new programmes set within a defined framework of skills and learning
4.    Reforming qualifications by simplifying the qualification system and focusing on qualifications that can offer added value and progression potential
5.    Simplifying the funding system to support responsiveness, local needs  and quality provision
Better information and data through new market intelligence, a monthly scorecard and improved course information

But not everyone thinks it's a good idea ...
Perhaps driven by the celebrity status, and perhaps aided by some quotes out of context and a little confusion about level 2 qualifications, we also saw a report questioning the value of GCSE for catering students.
It was featured in the Daily Mail's site This is Money.  Why include it here - it shows that there is still along way to go to get over the idea that Functional Skills are lifetime qualifications for all practical aspects of everyday life.  
On a slightly different subject, Roger Francis (definitely a thought leader in Functional Skills) wrote a piece about the fall in Apprenticeship numbers - it makes an interesting read.

Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm
Guroo 3.0 is the subject of this week's webinar - what's new and what's changed:
"Getting the best from Guroo 3.0" which is aimed at both customers and those thinking of becoming customers. As always we find that many more people enjoy coming back for the recording afterwards, but if you'd like to be live, just drop an email to info@guroo.co.uk
Join us on Wednesday 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.
As always, your comments and thoughts are appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk
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Guroo 3.0 live now

Well ahead of expectations, Guroo 3.0 is now live and available for all customers.  Comments and thoughts appreciated!
Jonathan Wells of Guroo Functional Skills
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Monday 8 April 2013

25% extra Guroo - for FREE and ICT Level Checker for FREE - The Guroo Spring deal


April 9th - 25% extra Guroo - ICT Level Checker now available free of charge to all Guroo customers.
An extra special edition this week, focussed on a great Spring Offer from Guroo and really important news for users of ICT.
So let's start with ICT
In response to several customer requests, Guroo have now developed and launched a paper based ICT Level Checker and associated guidance notes to complement the extremely successful English and maths papers.  It is available free of charge to ALL Guroo customers in pdf form.  To get it, just email us here, confirming your SITE CODE and contact details.
All the Level Checkers are designed for use as part of Apprenticeship recruitment and complement the automatically marked on-line initial assessment that produces the Functional Skills diagnostic. The Level Checker takes around 10-15 minutes per subject to complete, the full initial assessment around 50 minutes per subject.
The picture below is a snapshot of the ICT Level Checker. 

Order in April or May - get 25% more licences for free.
April and May is a quiet time in our part of the education world.  It's also a great time ot place an order.  Anyone who either places a new order for Guroo, or adds more licences to their existing account will find an extra 25% added for free.  All you have to do is order in April or May.  There's no change to the base price, no change to price lists, just a great deal from Guroo.
And with Guroo 3.0 just around the corner, there really isn't a better time to take action - contact our friendly business team Cathy (on the left) or Daisy (on the right) and they'll help you.
As always, your comments and thoughts are appreciated - let us know what you'd like us to cover in the newsletter by emailing the editor - jwells@guroo.co.uk
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Tuesday 2 April 2013

Chefs need to be able to read too!

A little bit of a row broke out this weekend, with several famous "celebrity chefs" coming out and saying that forcing new Apprentices to learn English and maths by having to pass Functional Skills would lead to "no new chefs".
Sorry - don't agree.  Let's not forget that chefs are not always chefs - they do change jobs and need transferable skills, and surely to be successful, you do need to be able to manage a menu, understand costs, recruit and employ and so on.
And let's not forget that an Apprenticeship should be seen as an aspirational qualification, and the that being able to read well, write and do  simple maths is a basic necessity of modern life.
So come on chefs, support the basics, you wouldn't let a chef in your kitchen that couldn't make good scrambled eggs or a tasty stock from basics, the same should apply to Functional Skills, maths and English.

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