inDEPTH


GETTING READY FOR REFORMS


Functional Skills are undergoing the biggest reforms since their inception in 2010. SET member Sam Hart talks to experts about the challenges.


unctional Skills (FS) qualifications were originally introduced to improve the core knowledge of English and maths after


successive reports had found these skills were lagging behind those of other countries, and not fit for the demands of 21st century employment. Specifically, they were aimed at those struggling with GCSEs, and were intended to test skills using


real-life uses of English and maths, rather than more abstract, decontextualised exercises. FS qualifications have grown to become the biggest single suite of qualifications, and every year around one million students pass one, preparing them for work and further study. Despite these achievements, the FS qualifications


have not had the easiest of rides – with some seeing them as the poor relation to GCSEs, and lacking in rigour and consistency. They nearly slipped off the radar altogether in 2016


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when the then skills minister Matt Hancock’s mantra of ‘GCSEs for all’ threatened to relegate them to a ‘gateway qualification’. But FS survived and, from this September, all students taking them will be enrolled on the revised qualifications.


The modifications for FS qualifications have sprung


from the 2015 Making Maths and English Work for All report commissioned by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and chaired by Ed Sallis, the former principal of Highlands College in Jersey and a Fellow of SET. “My report found that the qualifications were


recognised and valued by employers, colleges and students, particularly for those for whom GCSE was a struggle,” says Sallis. “But there were many negatives, including a lack of rigour and consistency in the assessment, and a divergence of standards among awarding organisations.”


Cameron Law


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