Ofqual to improve quality and assessment of functional skills

Training Journal January 27, 2015 in Business and industry, Education and skills Tagged Assessment, Business, Change, Culture, Engagement, Organisational development, Research - 2 Minutes

A report out today by Ofqual sets out improvements that awarding organisations are making to current functional skills qualifications

The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) has announced plans to improve the quality and assessment of functional skills to better reflect meet employers’ needs.

A report out today by Ofqual sets out improvements that awarding organisations are making to current functional skills qualifications, following a recent review. These changes will make sure that the qualifications are high quality and that standards are consistent.

In particular, awarding organisations will be:

improving the quality of assessments, to provide more real-life context and allow students to demonstrate a wider range of skills
strengthening awarding processes and undertaking additional monitoring to give greater assurance that standards have been met
working more closely with employers and other users to make sure that the qualifications meet their needs

Jeremy Benson, executive director for vocational qualifications, said: “We take the quality of functional skills qualifications very seriously and have high expectations of the awarding organisations that offer them. The changes awarding organisations are making should result in real and visible improvements to functional skills assessments – making them more relevant and more reliable. We will follow up on these changes and if we find that qualifications don’t meet our requirements, we will take further action.

David Hughes, chief executive of NIACE, said: “Practical English and maths skills are vital to help young people and adults get on in life and in work. We know from our work that functional skills qualifications, when delivered well, can make a real difference to learners by making learning relevant to them.

“We welcome the work Ofqual is doing to improve the quality of these important qualifications. It is vital that they are understood and valued by learners and employers, the quality of the qualification itself and the way it is taught are both important parts of that.”