Tuesday, 30th March '10
ALP has been inundated with anecdotal evidence from members and partners that the fears expressed by ALP are a real and present danger to the currently high performing apprenticeship programme. At an ALP Inspection event this week several ALP members who have been involved in the pilot of Functional Skills approached ALP’s Director of Sector Reforms & 14-19, Paul Eeles, to confirm their own experience. One provider who is piloting functional skills alongside key skills reported that their learners achieved 92% success for key skills and the same learners achieved 43%, another provider reported that his learner’s success rates had reduced to 50% success rate. Clearly if this pattern is repeated the impact of apprenticeship success rates will be significant. 2
Earlier this week at the Qualifications Reform & Delivery Board, Paul Eeles was challenged as to why independent providers were only now raising the concerns about Functional Skills and why there were issues in the delivery of Functional Skills to employer based programmes. What became apparent in the conversation that ensued was that the development and piloting of functional skills had been focused primarily on providers who deliver GCSE and Diploma. There was little understanding or indeed evidence in the room that employer based delivery was either understood and had certainly not been thoroughly tested. To add insult to injury, ALP understands that the majority of awarding bodies who have sought to have online and on demand testing approved for functional skills testing have had that rejected by Ofqual, so we are stuck with paper and pencil testing in controlled exam conditions for the foreseeable future.
ALP’s assertion that schools based delivery and assessment methodology is being proven. To make matters worse the fact that the system has not been thoroughly tested in the context of work based learning and where it has the impact on success rates is clear. ALP’s concerns have been logged on a risk register somewhere; however rather than just registering the risk, it is urgent action that is required to safeguard learners.
There is though, a potential solution on offer. Schools begin teaching functional skills within the curriculum from September this year. It is going to be two years before these young people find themselves within the FE system and on apprenticeship programmes. It would seem sensible to ALP to extend the delivery of Key Skills within all apprenticeship frameworks until August 2012. This would then allow a practical, employer friendly delivery and assessment methodology to be developed for learners on apprenticeships.
*Source: ALP Newsletter, Issue 462 - 26th March 2010
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