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Functional Skills Maths / Functional Skills English may be the perfect qualifications, or stepping stone qualifications, for your young person. Doing the research and understanding your young person’s strengths and potential is, of course, vital. Many home educators choose Functional Skills because:
o tests can be taken year round (there isn’t a set ‘exam season)
o fewer learning hours are required, compared to a GCSE/IGCSE
o there is a real-life focus to the required content
o ability at Level 2 may enable a young person to enter a College or Apprenticeship programme
o can provide foundation knowledge and confidence, as well as being a good point to starting earning qualifications
o all of the assessments may be able to be completed online, depending on your exam centre

Click on the images below, for more details:

More about Functional Skills, from Ofqual:
“Functional Skills are applied qualifications which enable students to demonstrate real-life skills in English, mathematics and ICT. They are recognised as gateway qualifications, used in many existing apprenticeships and by students who may not yet have achieved a GCSE grade C or above; they are widely used in adult education. City & Guilds and Pearson are the most commonly used awarding organisations for Functional Skills.
Functional Skills qualifications in English are available at Levels 2 and 1, and entry levels 3, 2 and 1. Each qualification is separate and assessed independently. Functional Skills subject criteria specify the skills, standards, coverage and range for each subject and level. English has three components: reading; writing; speaking, listening and communication; in English, all three components must be passed in order to achieve a pass in the subject. Grading (when you complete your assessment(s) at your exam centre): Pass or Fail. To prepare for Functional Skills assessments, Ofqual recommends 45 learning hours overall. Functional Skills Level 2 are accredited at Level 2 (the same difficulty as GCSEs grade 9-4) but feature a narrower range of content and in terms of “Guided Learning Hours” a Functional Skills Level 2 is worth less than half of a GCSE. To learn more about functional skills, visit: https://qips.ucas.com/qip/functional-skills and https://heexams.fandom.com/wiki/Functional_Skills. To learn more about how functional skills are assessed, contact your local exam centre (you can find a list of some here: https://he-exams.fandom.com/wiki/Finding_an_exam_centre )

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