Welcome to FunctionalSkills.com
What is so good about Functional Skills?
First of all, let me make it clear that I am an unashamed Functional Skills enthusiast. I firmly believe that having the ability to use English, maths and ICT skills in practical contexts to suit different situations means that Functional Skills underpins every aspect of learning, work and life.
Employers want and need workers with good Functional Skills. With functional skills your students will be able to draw on a bank of transferable skills they need to succeed in all areas of life.
Why do Functional Skills?
- Your students need them.
- At Level 2 they are worth half a GCSE each.
- Students enjoy seeing how skills they learn in the classroom have genuine application in life, work and school.
- You are almost certainly teaching them anyway (if you’re teaching GCSE English or maths they are a vital component of the 2010 specifications).
- They give you the freedom to link skills to real-life.
Any drawbacks?
You can’t teach to the test - students can’t revise in a traditional sense. Instead, they need to learn and then practise, practise, practise the skills until they are mastered – which is why it is really important to enter students for stand-alone examinations at the right level.
The good news
Students have responded particularly well to Functional Skills’ problem solving approach. You can tailor content to student need and interest. For subjects other than Maths, English and ICT you can use case studies and projects to show how your own subject has real-life application.
Here to help
The purpose of functionalskills.com is to provide you and your students with information, advice and hints and tips to give you the best possible chance of passing functional skills assessments and to help you embrace the Functional Skills ethos. We aim to do this by:
- giving you access to Functional Skills experts for you to ask any burning questions
- debunking myths about Functional Skills
- providing you with free Functional English, Functional Maths and Functional ICT resources to use with your students
- offering suggestions and advice on how to devise your own resources
- helping you deal with Entry Levels
- giving you clear advice from examiners.
I hope you find the site useful, if you have any questions please contact us.
Regards,
