News 12 Nov 10

Functional skills for GCSE and for life

Government-funded research has found that around a fifth of students leave school functionally illiterate and innumerate, with the NUT seeing this as confirmation of a ‘long tail of underachievement’. Added to this, employers are keen to take on employees who already have the right basic skills for the job, meaning that school leavers who lack these skills are likely to miss out.

In response to this evidence, functional skills assessment has become a core component of GCSEs in English, maths and ICT. The assessment requires the teaching of transferable skills that apply to daily or working life, allowing young people to move from full-time education to employment. All GCSE Mathematics specifications include at least 20 per cent of questions that test functional skills.

Pearson Publishing’s Functional Skills in Mathematics provides a comprehensive resource for teaching the necessary skills for Key Stage 4 exams in any mathematics syllabus. The resource consists of: a diagnostic tool to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses within the subject; a set of tutorials based around real-life situations; practice exercises to reinforce specific skills; and full teacher’s guidance and relevant Web links.

Functional Skills in Mathematics is easy to use, can be tailored to each student in order to meet individual needs, and provides a coherent programme of support to use during a mathematics course or as exam preparation.

For more information on Functional Skills in Mathematics, use the link below or ring 01223 350555.

• Functional Skills in Mathematics