Functional Skills

Embedding Functional Skills

What are Functional Skills? English Maths ICT So what’s the Functional bit? Basic practical skills required in everyday life, education and the workplace

Common Questions Why do we need Functional Skills in Lifelong learning? Isn’t this what children learn at school?

We need to improve 49% of the population (17 million adults) are at Entry 3 or below, which means they may not understand the calculations in their payslip. 49% of the population (17 million adults) are at Entry 3 or below, which means they may not understand the calculations in their payslip.

We need to improve Only 56% of the population has achieved Level 2, which the government says all adults should have.

We need to improve

Are schools getting better? 2012 school leavers with A*-C grade (Level 2): 59% in Maths 65% in English Remember, the government says you need Level 2 skills to productively function in every day tasks

Why do Functional Skills at college? 22% of school leavers have only Entry 3 Maths or below. This means they cannot understand their payslips. 17% have Entry 3 English or below. This means they can only write in simple sentences with patchy grammar and may not understand complex sentences found in daily texts.

How do we compare with the rest of the world? YearEnglishMaths 20007th8th th28th UK Performance in Worldwide rankings:

What do employers think? Employers who report weaknesses in their work force’s basic skills: 56% English 55% numeracy 66% ITC 35% of firms say they are not happy with school and college leavers’ English skills (and 30% not happy with their maths).

Why Functional Skills at college? In order for our learners to succeed beyond the classroom, they need good functional skills, and– as we have seen– a great many of them arrive here without the needed standard.

Activity Which functional skills did you use yesterday?

Your responsibility as a non- Functional Skills Teacher Professional standards require that teachers: “Know the different ways in which language, literacy and numeracy skills are integral to learners’ achievement in own specialist area, and “Work with colleagues with relevant learner expertise to identify and address literacy, language and numeracy development in own specialist area.” From LLUK Domains: New overarching professional standards for teachers, tutors and trainers in the lifelong learning sector

Your responsibility as a non- Functional Skills Teacher In practical terms, this means: Functional Skills is not a bolt on or an extra You should identify the functional skills necessary to do the tasks in the lesson Give support to develop these skills as required Lesson plans should not include a laundry list of all functional skills utilised, but instead should identify a particular skill or skills which will be developed and assessed in that lesson. Look for opportunities to develop independent and critical thinking

Activity Identify the Functional Skills required to complete a sample assignment

Activity Think of a future lesson. Identify at least 2 functional skills opportunities you could develop.

“Homework” Plan and deliver at least one embedded functional skills activity before our follow up on Bring in your lesson plan to that session along with your evaluation of the activity