Tuesday 26 March 2013

March 26th Newsletter


March 26th - the Functional Skills newsletter
Our lead story this week is taken from the Government's response to the Richards Review of Apprenticeships.  Section 4 of the response is all to do with Functional English and maths and has two consultation questions attached to it.  The links are in the report below.
In other news, EMSkills have announced a second "All Things Functional" event on June 14th in Birmingham and Guroo have started development of Guroo 3.0 and are seeking feedback from customers on what should be included.  News of this week's webinar rounds off this newsletter.
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


Government response to Richards Review
“Apprenticeships should attract some of the best students, including those who have already excelled in maths and English at school. But, for those who have not yet reached a good level by the time they start, achieving a good level of maths and English, a more stretching level than many Apprentices currently attain, should be a pre-requisite for completion.”
The quote is taken from Section 4 of the Government's response to the Richard Review of Apprenticeships.  Read down a little further and the timescale is identified as August 2014, less than 18 months away!
"From August 2014, we will go further by requiring that all Apprentices who begin their Apprenticeship with only level 1 qualifications in English and/or maths take up the current offer and work towards level 2 during their Apprenticeship. This will align with a similar strengthening of requirements for those aged 16 to 19 undertaking study programmes."
The Government is seeking consultation on two questions in Functional Skills:  Click here for the link to the consultation response.
Question 13: What are the specific obstacles to all Apprentices achieving level 2 English and maths as part of their Apprenticeship, and how could these be overcome?
Question 14: How would a requirement to have all Apprentices achieve level 2 in English and maths impact on employers, providers and potential learners? What are the risks and potential solutions?

All things functional conference June 14th
Following the success of the first conference in January, EMSkills have organised a second event in Birmingham on June 14th.
Supported once again by all the leading providers in Functional Skills, this event features 12 workshops plus expert speakers from all areas of Functional Skills policy.
Click here for the link to the event and take advantage of the early booking offer of just £75.
Have your say on what Guroo 3.0 should include!
The Guroo Guys locked in basement of Guroo Towers are working hard on lots of exciting new Guroo 3.0 developments.  Some of them are already underway, but not all - so if you've used Guroo, whether that was through a free trial or as a customer, and you'd like to comment, and/or make suggestions on what we should do in Guroo 3.0, here's your chance.
Click here for a 6 question survey that takes less than 5 minutes to complete.

Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm

A change in the presenter this week.  Daisy will be taking her first webinar:
"A quick guide to Guroo" which is aimed specifically at those new (or newly coming back to) Guroo highlighting all the features and benefits in a twenty minute dash around Guroo Functional Skills. 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.


Monday 11 March 2013

Functional Skills newsletter March 12



March 12th - the Functional Skills newsletter
This week we lead with the DfE review into vocational qualifications and provide a link to the  consultation questionnaire.  We've also picked up on another two interesting stories - one from the schools sector about showing progression and the other from America where the move towards problem solving in maths seems to be taking hold eventually and of course, news about this week’s webinar on Wednesday.
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

More on vocational qualifications consultation
Following our report last newsletter about schools pulling away from vocational qualifications, we've picked up a number of other "snippets" that are closely related.
The press notice from the DfE has full details of the exchanges which can be summarised as:
  • The introduction of "high quality courses" that are GCSE sized in Construction and Engineering for 14-16.  Is it a coincidence that these were considered the successful Diplomas?
  • The Tech Bacc that has at its' core "high quality substantive qualification".  
  • The differentiation between general and occupational qualifications.
All of the areas of consultation have Functional English and maths as a common and indeed core element.  Click here for the link to the 16-19 consultation paper.
 
International Functional Skills?
About two years ago, I did a lot of research into the US market, just at about the time that many US States were talking about adopting the "math common core standards".  Now it appears that they may actually be coming.  
A Guardian report has picked up on the change away from "disconnected skills without context or creativity" towards problem solving or as the Americans have termed it "Constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others"!

How to show progress during Ofsted observations
The references apply to schools, but the principal works in all sectors.  The new Ofsted inspection framework places a great emphasis on the quality of teaching and learning and it makes explicit the teaching of reading, writing, communication and mathematics in all classes.
This piece was published in Sec-Ed and it looks specifically at how to demonstrate visible improvements during a teaching session.

Wednesday Webinar at 4.00pm
A change in the presenter this week.  Jonathan and Cathy are both attending the Apprenticeships for England conference and exhibition in London on Wednesday so this week we have Daisy presenting:
"A quick guide to Guroo" which is aimed specifically at those new (or newly coming back to) Guroo highlighting all the features and benefits in a twenty minute dash around Guroo Functional Skills. 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.