Functional Skills: October 2013

Monday 28 October 2013

Apprenticeship Reform -

Key Dates

From 2017/17, all apprenticeships will be based on the new standards with relevant changes to the funding frameworks. A transition period starting 2015 will lead to this with new Apprenticeship standards and qualifications developed (to replace frameworks) in 2013 and 2014.

The requirements for English maths start to get implemented from September 2014 when, irrespective of framework requirements, all learners will be required to study to level 2 Functional Skills with stronger requirements from 2015 eventually leading to the requirement that all apprenticeships will need to have GCSE English and Maths (likely to be from 2017 and based on the new GCSE specifications with first teaching in 2015).

Summary

All Apprenticeships will be required to last at least 12 months with no exceptions

English and maths requirements will be stepped up gradually, reflecting the importance of these transferable skills.

In the section - What is an apprenticeship?

An Apprenticeship develops transferable skills, including English and maths, to progress careers.

In the section - Employers setting the standards

Any new standard may specify the level of English and maths achievement required if this is above the general requirements for all apprentices and specify any qualifications that are necessary.

In the section - English and maths

We are making sure the new GCSEs (first teaching 2015, first exams 2017) give greater assurance of literacy and numeracy, and why we are requiring all students in full or part-time education aged 16 to 19 to study towards GCSE English and maths if they have not already achieved a GCSE A*-C in these subjects.

All apprentices will be required to achieve a certain standard of English and maths in order to complete their Apprenticeship. The English and maths requirements will be stronger in future Apprenticeships. (Transition starts 2105 with full implementation 2017)

We are not setting any minimum entry requirements relating to an apprentice’s English and maths skills, and expect employers to be flexible in recruiting apprentices with lower initial English and maths skills.

We are stepping up the English and maths requirements in Apprenticeships gradually. From September 2014 every Intermediate (Level 2) apprentice who has previously achieved Functional Skills Level 1 English and maths will have to study towards Level 2 English and maths (either Functional Skills or GCSE). All Intermediate apprentices will have to achieve a minimum of Level 1 English and maths to complete their Apprenticeship, as now. Advanced (Level 3) apprentices will have to achieve Level 2 English and maths to complete their Apprenticeship, as now.

Link to the main document

http://feweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Apprenticeships-implementation-plan.pdf

Guroo have already started development of standards based on the new GCSE requirement. www.guroo.co.uk

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 Sessions

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.

The Guroo Learner Journey

Guroo Exam Practice

Introduction to Guroo then Reporting and Tracking from 45 minutes onwards

Introduction to Guroo then Initial Assessment and Diagnostics from 45 minutes onwards

Ofsted and Functional Skills

Guroo 3.0 in 20 minutes - a brief guide

Guroo reports and admin updates

Teaching Functional Maths

Functional Skills Policy Update

Getting the best from your Guroo free trial

The differences between Key Skills/SfL and Functional Skills

What you really have to know about Functional Skills for Senior Managers

Functional Skills in the Revised Common Inspection Framework

Guroo group and user admin

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?

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.

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.