Functional Skills Context Review
Hello and welcome to the Functional Skills blog for February 2023. This month the blog will be looking at the contexts that Pearson uses for its Functional Skills and the in depth review we are carrying out in 2023.
Pearson saw the reform of Functional Skills in 2019 as an opportunity to improve upon our assessments. A major part of this was to look at the contexts we used and ensure that they were suitable for the learners that took our assessments. This was an important piece of work. While Functional Skills learners are supposed to be able to engage with any contexts, it was felt that choosing the right contexts would help learners fully demonstrate their skills. As an interesting aside, this month’s Insights Into Post 16 English and Maths podcast looks at the importance of contexts while working with learners with autism. You can listen to that podcast on Spotify here:
Episode 4 | Creative Writing and Autistic Learners
With this in mind, we engaged with over 250 practitioners across the country from a varied range of teaching backgrounds. In addition, we held a half day workshop on our contexts with experts from a range of fields and engaged with learners directly. From this, we settled on the following list as the core element of our assessments:
What is interesting for me is that since that review the number of practitioners that I have spoken with who wished to complain about accessibility of contexts has dropped significantly. Four years later, we are now embarking on another major review of these contexts to ensure that we have achieved what we set out to do and to make changes as and where necessary.
Timeline of the Review
Stage 1 of our review timeline is already underway. We are currently carrying out an internal audit of the contexts that we have used in our Entry Level reading assessments and our Level 1 and 2 reading, writing and maths assessments. This information will be used to form the basis of Stage 2, our practitioner research survey.
Alongside this, Stage 3 will commence, involving talking directly to learners and providers to learn about their views and experiences. Following on from this, Stage 4 will be a chance to further feedback and discuss. Our practitioner workshop is on 19 April.
Once all the information has been gathered, Pearson will produce a report (Stage 5) to update providers on what we have learnt and what changes will be implemented. There will also be a session on the outcomes at the 2023 Festival of Functionality (Stage 6 and 7).
Final Stage 8, changes will be implemented and will start to be incorporated into assessments from 2024 onwards.
Practitioner Surveys
Stage 2 is our practitioner research. The starting point of this is our surveys. These surveys are now live and give practitioners the opportunity to comment on and feed into our research. They look at what we have done for the past four years and what practitioners have liked and disliked about our contexts and include a section on ideas for future contexts. When you are producing as many assessments as we do, it is always good to get fresh new ideas. They also include a section on diversity to ensure that Pearson is doing all it can to ensure our assessments are inclusive and diverse.
Functional Skills English Practitioner Survey
You can access the English Practitioner Survey here: Functional Skills English Contexts 2023
Functional Skills Maths Practitioner Survey
You can access the Maths Practitioner Survey here: Functional Skills Maths Contexts 2023
I would encourage everyone to spend five minutes completing the research.
In addition to the practitioner surveys, we will also be holding individual conversations with providers and groups of learners in the next few months.
We hope that this review will ensure that Pearson’s Functional Skills assessments stay current and accessible for learners as well as bringing in fresh ideas for the future of Functional Skills and other qualifications. If you have any questions about the research or want to take part, please do get in touch.
Chris Briggs - Product Manager Post 16 English, Maths and Digital Skills