Functional Skills

Feedback from the Pilots

2008-9
Linda McDonald – English
Norman Strickson – Maths
Paul Derbyshire - ICT
QCA Promotion of Functional Skills
 The Contexts

• Replaces key skills 2010, and possibly

basic skills 2013
• Achievement of functional skills is a
requirement for achievement of the
Diplomas
Functional Skills and Diplomas
• All Diplomas will include a component
called generic learning
• FS will be a mandatory part of generic
learning
• Learners will be required to achieve FS:
- At level 1 for Diplomas at level 1
- At level 2 for diplomas at level 3
 Fundamentals of Functional Skills
• Mastery and application of skills
• Transferability of skills
• Problem solving elements
• Means that ALL staff will need
to support skills development to
get students there.
• Now un-coupled from
GCSEs
 OFSTED Survey of Functional Skills
and LEA Approaches to Diplomas

• Reviewed partnership working

• Quality systems for FS
• Staff training and CPD
• Learner views of FS
• Results from pilots
• OFSTED follow the learner
journey from IAG to placement
and progression
Capacity Building & Pilots Run So Far
2006-7 and 2007-8
• OCR and EDEXCEL
• Approx 20 students
• Paid each student £5 to sit exam

2008- 2009
• EDEXCEL and City and Guilds
• Approx 50 students, 20 of whom were on a
Level 1Diploma in ICT and had to do all 3
Functional Skills
• Dual assessed the Diploma students as they
have to pass FS to pass the Diploma.
 Generic Lessons From
the FS Pilots
• Higher level of reading &
problem solving skills are
needed for FS tests than key
skills
• The standards have risen i.e.
L1 FS is more challenging than
L1 adult lit/num
• Weaker students struggle with
the amount of handwritten work
required in the paper based
exams and standards of writing
are poor under test conditions
 Diploma FS Exam results
100 EDEXCEL 100 C&Guilds
90 90
80 80
70 69 70 69
60 61 60 61
50 50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0 1
maths ICT English maths ICT English
 Feedback on the English Paper
Based Exams
EDEXCEL
• Externally marked paper
• Sat exam in Polish Hall
• Nearly full attendance
• Students took it seriously
• Reading & Writing papers
split so many only needed to
re-sit writing
• S&L moderated by EV who
observed teacher assessing
discussions in class
• EV likes ‘real’ situations
City & Guilds
• Exams run in class
• Reading paper fine
• Too much paperwork
• Written paper was email and a
blog ( 75 and 150 words )
• Mark scheme penalised by
number of errors
• Allowed to re-phrase a question
if a student got stuck
• Sporadic attendance for exam
so ended up strung out over
several weeks
 Feedback on the Maths
• Covered areas not at level 2.
• More focused on extended project to allow real
world relevance.
• Test papers changing in style made exam
preparation difficult.
• Although the students felt they were well
prepared they did not like the extended task
concept and struggled to pick up the easy
marks.
• 50% passed Edexcel, 1 C&G awaiting the
Edexcel resit results.
Feedback on the ICT
 What The Students Said
• Enjoyed the lessons but didn’t like the exams so
much– felt they were like GCSEs!
• More able students preferred set time, separate
room and exam conditions of EDEXCEL.
• Weaker, less confident students much preferred
City & Guilds assessments that took place in the
classroom.
• Enjoyed using the computer to type up written
assessment for English with City and Guilds and
felt this was relevant to real life.
 What We felt as Assessors
Our anecdotal thoughts:

• Levels varied a bit between exam boards

• C&G mark scheme was over complicated
• Paperwork required for C&G was extensive
• Attendance was poorer for the C&G in class
assessment than the exam-room based EDEXCEL
• C&G probably suits small groups but not so
manageable for large groups of full-time students.