Functional Skills tests are typically undertaken by young people who have not achieved a pass grade in English and Maths and need a qualification in order to gain employment, an apprenticeship, or even work abroad.
With tens of thousands of learners undertaking Functional Skills qualifications annually in the UK, Midlands-based educators Lyn Calver and Pete Middleton have created hundreds of written and video resources to help tutors and training providers across the UK.
The Government has recently announced scrapping Functional English and Maths requirements for post 19 apprentices. But Lyn and Pete say these are still important skills for learners to accomplish and required by many employers.
Both hailing from a background as trainers, Lyn and Pete are dedicated to improving social mobility and breaking down barriers to learning by creating relatable resources using real life examples.
They have created a one-stop shop for tutors and training providers making it easy to access resources in Functional Skills to help learners who may have found traditional GCSE learning a struggle.
Lyn and Pete use real world examples in their resources, saying obscure scenarios often found in the GCSE curriculum do little to help reach those who may find traditional qualifications a struggle but are still keen to succeed in life.
Through their website: Functional Skills Resources, the duo say they still are still seeing high demand from tutors and training providers who work with learners to gain vital English and Maths qualifications.
Lyn, from Staffordshire, who has been involved in further education for many years, said: “There are lots of people who need English and Maths qualifications whether in their adult life or younger years. You might need them to apply for a job or to go on a training course for another career. I have worked with someone in the past who wanted to emigrate to Canada and needed English and Maths to do that.
“Of course, there are other people who want these qualifications because they want to achieve what they might not have managed in their school life.
“We work with people from all walks of life – in prison, for example, gaining functional English and Maths qualifications can be so important in people leaving an institution and not going on to re-offend.”
Pete, from Nottingham, who has been working as a tutor for many years helping people progress in their lives through acquiring English and Maths qualifications, said: “We help people achieve things that they might not have done at school by creating resources that are engaging, by using examples from real life. Our resources cover topics such as Black Friday – things that people will have heard of and can relate to. If you look at resources typically used in GCSE maths and English, it’s no wonder some people struggle as they bear little relation to real life.
“Some people live in situations where there is a low cycle of expectation. They are hampered by the idea they come from an area where there is an embedded view they will not do anything with their life. Our resources are all about reaching out to those people and helping them achieve what they thought they couldn’t.”
The Functional Skills Resources site compiled by Lyn and Pete is constantly being updated and features more than 400 sets of resources covering areas such as mental health, income tax, how to write an email, and figures in popular culture.
Julie Lawrence, owner of Birmingham-based recruitment agency Able Personnel – who works closely with Functional Skills Resources – said employers were certainly not slowing down in their desire for candidates with English and Maths, despite the recent Government announcement.
She said: “When younger people haven’t done well at school in English and Maths, functional skills tutors will then need to get them through those qualifications. Employers do still want to know that they have got English and Maths – they will say they really need their staff to have those skills.
“We definitely know that employers are still looking for English and Maths and they are still very important. When we are interviewing new candidates we always make sure to ask whether they have English and Maths, so functional skills are still vital for today’s workplace and that’s definitely something we are seeing. Only recently we had a candidate go for an interview and an employer contacted us to check on their English and Maths, so the need has certainly not gone away.”
Access to Functional Skills Resources is available for as little as £11.97 a month for an individual user. For more, see https://functionalskillsresources.co.uk/