What are functional skills?

They are designed to provide the necessary levels of literacy, numeracy and information and communication technology skills needed to “function” in today’s society and workplace.  Functional skills are to be included in the Diploma, GCSEs, awarding body stand-alone qualifications and the foundation learning tier, as well as being stand-alone qualifications in their own right.

The development of functional skills is seen by the Government as essential “to address employers’ concerns that young people and adults are not achieving a firm enough grounding in the basics”.  The qualifications are being designed to provide a ‘single ladder of achievement’.  They build on existing key and basic skills qualifications and Skills for Life, which they are expected to replace in time.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has been working with its regulatory partners ACCAC (Now DELLS, Wales) and CCEA, awarding bodies, practitioners and employers to develop a set of draft standards through trialling.  These standards describe the scope and demand of functional English, maths and ICT and the knowledge, understanding and skills that are expected at Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2. Please download Functional skills standards from QCA Website.

You may wish to make use of the generic presentation below, which provides the most up-to-date information that Edexcel has available on the development of Functional Skills.  You are free to make use of this presentation for training purposes in your centres.