The Adult Suitability Strand of the Functional Skills pilots

The Adult Suitability Strand of the Functional Skills pilots began in February 2009 and is due to end in August 2010. The pilots are testing different approaches to ensure that Functional Skills qualifications are appropriate to meet the needs of adult learners in mainstream FE colleges, the workplace, prisons and adult and community learning settings. Early feedback from participating centres has been positive and support for Functional Skills qualifications being a suitable replacement for Skills for Life appears to be fairly strong. QCDA are looking for as many organisations as possible to be involved in the adult pilots, so if you are interested in joining please contact Terry Smith at QCDA (Terry.Smith@qcda.gov.uk), or contact one of the participating awarding organisations: OCR: www.ocr.org.uk Edexcel: www.edexcel.com City and Guilds: www.cityandguilds.com Ascentis: www.ocnw.com EDI: www.ediplc.com NOCN: www.nocn.org.uk Further information about functional skills can be found on QCDA’s website at http://www.qcda.gov.uk/6062.aspx The QCA Functional Skills document. Learning Lessons from the pilot is attached here. Functional Skills bulletin Aug 09 http://www.qcda.gov.uk/libraryAssets/images/categories/Functional_skills_bulletin_August_2009.pdf ESOL learners are not formally included in these current pilots 2009/10 with adult learners which are looking towards the replacement of literacy/numeracy S4L with Functional Skills in English and Maths. However QCDA are aware that many bi-lingual learners with English language development needs are likely to be on programmes where FS are being piloted. NATECLA would like to hear about learners and providers experiences. The NATECLA response to the FS consultation is at http://www.natecla.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=423

External Link: http://www.qcda.gov.uk/6062.aspx