This month has seen the clocks go back and the autumn is well and truly upon us. And so what can we look forward to? Focus on English and maths continues to hit the headlines. The OECD report, published this month, had some interesting findings that were not always picked up by […]

      The survey warns that in England, adults aged 55 to 65 perform better than 16 to 24 year olds at foundation levels of literacy and numeracy (it’s the only country in the developed world where the generation approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest adults). Out of the 24 […]

      Welcome back to the new term…which brings many changes and challenges; it’s hard to know where to start! We have been working hard over the summer break to update the Facts Sheets, View Points and Info Sheets to reflect the new developments that are being introduced this year so that you have […]

      The announcement follows one of Alison Wolf’s recommendations from her 2011 review of vocational education, which exposed the limited value of many of the vocational qualifications currently on offer for young people. Education Secretary Michael Gove has said that English and maths “are, quite simply, the most important vocational skills a young […]

  As this academic year draws to a close we look back to what has been achieved and forward to the challenges and opportunities that we face from September. The need for English and maths as the key components for all learning has dominated the sector this year as the government strives to ensure that […]

I have been really busy training, attending conferences, speaking at events, all of which are heavily oversubscribed and filled with delegates keen to find out how to deliver effective functional skills, as both key skills and functional skills qualifications draw to a close. Watch out for final registration and certification dates for key skills and Skills […]

  Welcome back to all things functional! This month has been really busy and as more and more providers offering apprenticeship frameworks have started their preparations to deliver functional skills and are looking for support. This is good news and AELP support this trend. They have just released their latest survey ‘Key Skills to Functional […]

  We are moving to the time when providers start to evaluate how things have gone this year and start to prepare for next year. And so at Nelson Thornes we are taking stock of what we have got on offer and looked to see how we can continue improve our service. We have started […]

  Welcome to my monthly blog and I hope that I find you making good progress with your functional skills implementation. We have had an interesting turnaround from AELP this month. You might remember how hostile the organisation was towards functional skills and how they kept arguing for the continuation of key skills. Well, full […]

I would like to say a big thank you to Nelson Thornes  for offering me this opportunity to bring together information, news and comments.  With the demise of some of the agencies that would have brought together this sort of information…QCDA, BECTA, National Strategies…Nelson Thornes had stepped into their space and undertaken to keep you […]