News & Events

NCFE Functional Skills statement (June 2010)

We're committed to offering the full suite of Functional Skills qualifications in 2010-2011, and we're working hard with Ofqual and QCDA to ensure we can do this. We'll have more information about our Functional Skills suite in July.

For more information about our fast growing portfolio of QCF qualifications, check out our NQF to QCF development timetables which can be found on our website at www.ncfe.org.uk.

If you've any questions about Functional Skills changes and developments, just get in touch with Rebecca Brenard, our Functional Skills Project Leader, on 0191 239 8043, and she'll be happy to help.

NCFE Functional Skills statement (March 2010)

Over the last 3 years NCFE has been working hard with our centres to develop and pilot the new suite of Functional Skills qualifications. This range of qualifications has been designed to provide practical skills to help learners aged 14 and above to ‘function’ confidently, effectively and independently in their work and their lives. The Functional Skills pilot has been supported by the industry regulator, Ofqual, and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) and will end on 31 August 2010. Ofqual contacted all awarding organisations this week to confirm which awarding organisations have had their Functional Skills qualifications accredited following the pilot. In common with the rest of the pilot awarding organisations, we’ve been extremely surprised and disappointed by Ofqual’s response which (we understand) has resulted in no single awarding organisation receiving accreditation for the fullsuite of Functional Skills qualifications. As far as we're aware, the full suite of Functional Skills qualifications is not available, even if you worked with all of the awarding organisations who have had their qualifications accredited.

We are extremely concerned about the impact this action will have on you and we’re working closely with Ofqual and QCDA to seek a solution that will allow you to offer these important qualifications to your learners from September 2010.

If you have any comments or concerns in relation to this announcement, we are happy to hear from you, and our dedicated Functional Skills team can be reached by contacting either Rebecca Brenard or Toni Redden on 0191 239 8000.

Transition Arrangements for English Functional Skills Components

Ofqual have informed Awarding Organisations that candidates can carry forward their component achievements in Functional English from the pilot to the post-pilot qualifications for a period of 12 months only (September 2010 to August 2011).

This will be a time-limited arrangement to recognise that the post-pilot qualifications meet different criteria with different requirements to those that applied to the pilot qualifications.

This carry-forward arrangement applies to Functional English only. No similar arrangement can apply to Functional Mathematics or Functional ICT as they are single component qualifications in the post-pilot assessment arrangements.

There will also be the facility to transfer component achievement between Awarding Organisations where necessary, and more information will be available on this in the next few months.