Insight blog

Welcome to the March 2026 edition of the Pearson Functional Skills blog. Over the past three months, Pearson has been conducting research on the appropriacy of the contexts for our Functional Skills assessments. As part of this research, we gathered feedback from 156 English practitioners each sharing their perspective on the value of Functional Skills English. In this blog, we’ll explore those insights and what they tell us about the impact of the qualification for learners and providers.

Hello and welcome to the Pearson Functional Skills blog for December 2025, Part 2. In this edition, we’ll explore ResultsPlus for Functional Skills English, and how it can support teaching, learning and provide meaningful feedback for individual learners.

Hello and welcome to Pearson’s Functional Skills Blog for August 2024. This month we have a case study looking at maths delivery at Gateshead Council, Learning and Skills. This is another example of a case study that demonstrates the incredible support for teaching and learning that goes on in Functional Skills. I spoke with Sarah Richardson, the Essential Skills Manager at Gateshead Council, about the support they have put in place for Functional Skills maths and how it has helped give their learners incredible success.  

Hello and welcome to Pearson’s Functional Skills Blog for June 2024. This month we will be taking a look at the decision to extend the apprenticeship English and maths flexibilities pilot. Under new rules, apprentices can work towards and pass a lower level of Functional Skills English and maths at Entry Level 3 without an EHCP as long as there is an identified need. Many of these learners might not have an EHCP in place and this chance provides more opportunities for these learners to access apprenticeships and to develop the necessary skills for their job roles.

Hello and welcome to this month’s Functional Skills blog. In September and October 2022, Pearson will be hosting Festival of Functionality, a series of online events to support tutors of Functional Skills, ESOL and EDSQ provisions and help prepare them for the new academic year of delivery. This will be our largest CPD event with over 20 hours of CPD and updates available for tutors and managers, free of charge.

Hello and welcome to an update on Reformed Functional Skills.

This month we have been doing some future gazing about what might be happening in the world of post 16 English and maths from September 2020 onwards.

Hello and welcome to an update on reformed Functional Skills English and maths.

(with apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

Hello and welcome to an update on the reform of Functional Skills English and maths.

Like many of you I’m sure, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time over the last nine weeks discussing the current situation with colleagues in education predicting the impact and ramifications of Covid on our sector. With all the normal caveats of a fast-moving and uncertain situation firmly in place, this is a summary of these conversations and looks at the bigger topics of discussion.

Hello and welcome to an update on the reform of Functional Skills English and Maths.

This September saw the introduction of the Pearson reformed Functional Skills qualifications in English and Maths. There have been changes to both content and assessment structure from the legacy qualifications to the reformed qualifications, however there was no intention from the regulator Ofqual, for there to be a change in the standard of the qualifications.