Functional Skills

Functional Skills reform

Why are Functional Skills being reformed?

The DfE has stated that reform of Functional Skills qualifications was needed to ‘improve their relevance and content, and to build their recognition and credibility in the labour market’.

There is also the desire for a renewed focus on the use for students and employers, to ensure students are fully prepared for employment and further study.

In addition, employers have stated the need for applied skills, problem solving and other skills valued by employers to be central to the reformed qualifications and the DfE have said that ‘rigour, relevance and recognition/respect’ are key to the success of the new qualifications; with the stated aim that the reformed qualifications be recognised in the same way as GCSEs.

Autumn 2017 – DfE consulted on the subject content and Ofqual consulted on the assessment approach

January to June 2018 – DfE published the final subject content and Ofqual confirmed its assessment approach and operational delivery requirements

June 2018 – We began to develop the qualifications

November 2018 – We submit the new qualifications to Ofqual for evaluation and publish our draft sample assessment materials

January 2019 – We'll start to provide resources and CPD to ensure you’re fully prepared to deliver the new qualifications

Spring 2019 – We'll confirm that the reformed qualifications are available to centres and publish the final, approved qualification materials

September 2019 – First teaching of the new qualifications begins.

How is OCR responding to the reform?

We want to develop qualifications that are relevant, practical and meet you and your students’ needs. In order to do that we're adhering to the following development principles:

Research into the use of context in assessment and accessibility of assessments
Understanding of what providers, teachers and students need
Contextualised questions grounded in real-life, enabling students to use their knowledge purposefully
Straightforward assessment structures, with graduated difficulty to support students

We are offering a number of free webinars and face to face CPD events in the lead up to September 2019 to help teachers prepare for teaching the new Functional Skills qualifications.

Visit ocr.org.uk/fsenglishcpd to view & book upcoming Functional Skills English CPD.

Visit ocr.org.uk/fsmathscpd to view & book upcoming Functional Skills Maths CPD.

More events will be added for the spring and summer terms soon. Sign up for subject newsletters or follow us on Twitter (@OCR_English and @OCR_Maths) for the latest updates.

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Functional Skills