Published Maarch 2016 by Gurroo Ltd Based o on the re esults of more th han 240 rresponse es from ppractition ners and d manageers in the e post‐16 6 learningg sector received d betweeen September and Decemb ber 2015 with com mparison ns drawn n to similar surveeys in 20 014, 2013 3, 2012 and 2 2011 Thiss is the re elease co ontainingg an anallysis of survey daata relatiing to Prroviders and Sup ppliers to o the Posst‐16 secctor Compiled and e edited byy Jonatha an Wellss FCIM Charteered Marketer
The Functional Skills Annual Survey 20 016. By Jonathan Wells. Copyrig ght © 2016 Guro o Ltd. All rights reserved. Third ed dition printed 20116 in the United Kingdom. A catalogue e record for this ppublication is available from the British Library. ISBBN 978‐1‐909589‐19‐3. No part of this publication shall be reeproduced or tran nsmitted in any form or by any meeans, electronic o or mechanical, including ph hotocopying, recoording, or by anyy information retrrieval system withhout written permission of the publiisher. Published, Designed and Set by Guroo Ltd. w www.guroo.info. Printed in Great Britain.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
Exxecutive Summarry We are deli W ghted to p present th he results of the Pro oviders and Supplie rs section of the An nnual Funcctional Skills Surveyy publisheed in Januaary 2016 a and based on data ccollected fro om Septem mber 2015 to Januaary 2016. It is the larggest independent su urvey in thhe sector aand over tthe 5 yearrs has rece eived morre than 1200 rresponses. This yea ar’s surveyy results a are based on 244 reesponses, an increaase off almost 20% on lasst year’s re esponses with the results providing a statistically siggnificant iinsight intto the sectors opiniions abou ut Providers and Supppliers off English and maths soluttions. Higghlights fro om the reesults of th his year’s P Providers and Supp pliers surveey incclude: Kn nowledge of policy in maths and Engliish and co onfidence in qualificcations Kn nowledge of policy has impro oved with around 70 0% of resp pondents able to co orrectly ide entify policy guidelines. Confidence off Function nal Skills has remainned high at over 90% % bu ut there is significan nt concern n that GCSSE re‐sits aare not the e right sollution in this sector.
Ovverall providers of English an nd maths solutions Fo orSkills waas rated beest overall supplier,, Guroo was second d and BKSBB third. Fo or initial asssessmentt and diagn nostics, th he market divides evenly betw ween ForSSkills/Guro oo and BK KSB. In the Collegge sector,, BKSB rem mains the favourite choice, in n all other sectors, itt is Fo orSkills/Gu uroo that iis the provvider of chhoice by the survey respondeents.
Aw warding o organisatio ons Off the 6th laargest pro oviders NC CFE rated best supp plier, Pearsson EDI annd C&G bo oth below w avverage ratings. Resp pondents rate fasteer turnaround of ressults and ffree initial assessmeent an nd diagnosstic tool as the most useful addditional sservices
Po ortfolio prroviders Off the 5 larggest e‐porrtfolio pro oviders, OnneFile and d ForSkills are ratedd highly, Sm mart Asssessor is below aveerage.
Moving forw ward Su urvey resp pondents rresponded d very possitively to the ideas that theree should b be a new levvel 3 Funcctional Skills qualificcation andd that scho ools should offer Fuunctional SSkills from m ye ear 10 to those learn ners whosse ambitioons lie in the vocatio onal area..
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
Hiistory an nd basis o of the su urvey witth significant add ditions foor 2016 This report is based on th he results o of the 5th Fu nctional Skills Annual SSurvey. Thiis year, the survey drew w ressponses fro om 244 resp pondents (up 20% on laast year) in the FE and Skills secto r, with answ wers being pro ovided betw ween Septeember 2014 and Decem mber 2015. It iis the largest independ dent surveyy in the secttor and ove er the 5 yea ars has receeived more than 1200 ressponses. As well as intrroducing neew question ns and subjeects each ye ear, each an nnual surveyy also uses some qu uestions thaat are the saame or similar as previoous years to o allow for d direct compparison and d trend analysis. The survey is broken into o four distin nct areas pluus a section n on the secctor and jobb type of the e responden nt. The areas aree:
Respo ondents exp perience in aand prepareedness to deliver Functtional Skills and GCSE q qualification ns Opinio ons and ideas on the developmen t of maths aand English in the postt‐16 sector Use an nd opinion o of Awardingg Organisattions Use an nd opinion o of major Re esource Pro viders to th he sector Use an nd opinion o of e‐portfollio systems
Fo or the first tiime this yeaar, we also introduced a “new ideas” questio on where re spondents gave their op pinion on fivve new ideaas to do with h maths andd English an nd we also include oppportunities ffor “free texxt” en ntries, this yyear receivin ng more thaan 150 respponses. The reports iss published in two sections, this iss the Providers and Sup ppliers repoort. The Quaalification rep port is availlable separaately. There is also aa public “prrezi” availab ble http://biit.ly/English__and_mathss_results20116 that details the key ffinds of the survey..
Se ector dem mograph hics of re esponden nts The major sou urce of resp pondents is the Functioonal Skills newsletter that is sent ffortnightly tto around 10 0,000 peoplee in the sector. The on nly real stepp change to the sector demographhics for 2016 is that thee pro oportion off responden nts from the e FE sector iincreased w with an equivalent reduuction in the e Adult Learning secto or. m all responndents diffe er significan ntly from th ose from a specific secctor, Where the results of the survey from we e have noteed this in thee report.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
39 9% of all respondents d describe the emselves as Functional Skills tutorr, another 1 4% classify themselvess as a G GCSE tutor 333% classifyy themselve es as departtmental or ssenior managers with 14% saying they are asssessors/advvisors/verifiiers/examin ners. The level of experience o of responde ents in Funcctional Skillss has increased significaantly over tthe years off the survey and no ow has plateeaued with 90%+ desccribing them mselves as “experience d”. The 2016 figures for confidence were very sim milar to 201 15, more thaan 60% describe themsselves as “V Very experie enced” and 93 3% as “experienced”. W Within GCSE the picturre is a little different, reflecting thhe demographic make‐‐up of the survey respondents.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
Kn nowledgge of matths and E English p policy in p post‐16 In 2015, this w was a majorr area of concern for thhe survey re espondentss. The 20155 table below w repeats the staatement, sh hows the co orrect answe er and thenn how manyy responden nts were un sure or gavve the wrong answer with tthe averagee unsure or incorrect appproaching 50%.
Correect Answ wer
% u unsure or in ncorrect
Final exam ms for the neew specificattion (2015) G GCSE exams w will be immediately availablee on‐line and on‐demandd
FALS E
67%
Apprenticces with a graade D GCSE m must take GCCSE re‐sit as a condition of fundingg
FALS E
64%
First exam ms for the neew specification (2015) G GCSE are in M May 2017 with two aassessment windows per year
TRUEE
63%
All learners with a graade D GCSE h have to re‐sitt GCSE now u until they pass at grade C
FALS E
51%
Apprenticces and adultt learners are e funded to ffollow Functtional Skills until at least 2020
TRUEE
41%
If an Apprrenticeship requires level 1 maths annd English, ass soon as learners h have passed level 1 they can stop takking maths an nd English
FALS E
31%
Adult learrners without a level 2 qu ualification aare fully fund ded to take Functionaal Skills or GC CSE
TRUEE
30%
All learners aged 16‐1 18 on full time courses w ith a grade D D GCSE have to re‐sit G GCSE from Seept 2015
TRUEE
29%
GCSE replaces Functio onal Skills wh hen the new specification n GCSE starts in SSeptember 20 015
FALS E
28%
Statemeent (2015 5 survey)
The 2016 queestion asked d responden nts which coourse they w would sugg gest or selecct for learne ers in differeent cattegories and this year the level off confidencee has increaased. The table on tthe next page shows th hat around 70% made the correctt choice wheere clear gu uidelines haave be een issued. It iis also clearr from this ttable that Fu unctional Skkills remain ns the qualiffication of cchoice acrosss most of the vocational secctor and ind deed there were subst antial negative comme ents about tthe usefulness and rellevance of m making learrners re‐sit G GCSE insteaad of putting them onto the moree practical Functional Skills course. A seleection of th hese comme ents is show wn underneath the policy results ttable.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
“I think Functtional Skills iis an excelleent qualificaation for myy learners a as it is relevaant to practtical real lifee sittuations. Wh hereas makking them reesit GCSE's jjust appearrs to make tthe learnerss more disen ngaged with h a qu ualification tthey have a already 'faileed' .” ‐ Funcctional Skillss Tutor, TICA A Academyy “W We are havin ng real issuees with reteention over the GCSE ree‐sit retirem ment. It's creeating an un nderclass off young peoplee who are so o frustrated d with GCSE,, which let’ss face it, is a a qualificatiion that hass lost confidence byy almost eveeryone.” Se enior Managger, Midlands FE Colleg ge. “Leearners on work‐based d programm mes should ddo Function nal Skills ma aths and Engglish. The G GCSE syllabu us is farr too length hy and in‐deepth to get tthrough givven the leng gth of time w we have witth each stud dent. Students wh ho have had d six weeks or more aw way from accademic study are prettty much leaarning from scratch aga ain. It'ss amazing h how quicklyy they forgett any previoous learning g. This comp pounded wiith social prroblems, lacck of sup pport in thee home, low w self‐esteem m, mental hhealth issuees and lack o of motivatioon make GC CSEs ina accessible fo for many of our young. Functional Skills are at least more e relevant too young people's lives.” Senior Managger – Nation nal Training Provider. “N Not all studeents are aca ademic and capable of completing g GCSE. This is apparennt when teacching in thee FE secctor. Studen nts in the FEE sector tend to be studdents who w want to learrn a vocatioon and stud dents who w were no ot allowed in nto their 6th h form at scchools becaause of low g grades. Exp pecting FE too upgrade sstudents to at lea ast a C in on ne year of teeaching (wh hen schoolss have not su ucceeded in n 5) is creatiing lots of b barriers to lea arning. New w qualificatiions should be designedd and recog gnised for English and M Maths, to eenable the leess academic stud dents to ach hieve Englissh and Mathhs qualifications.” Dep partmental Manager – FE College..
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
Lo ooking to o the future for m maths an nd English in postt‐16 The survey reevealed som me very interesting andd indeed som mewhat inn novative ressults when w we asked resspondents tto think abo out ideas fo or the futuree. The survvey presentted several iideas, both currently im mpacting and d with possible future impact and the graph below show ws the perceentage of re espondentss wh ho thought that each id dea was goo od or great..
The two ideass with excelllent support were thatt 68% of resspondents b believe thatt a new leve el 3 Functio onal Skills qualificaation for advanced app prenticeshipps should be e developed d and 70% bbelieve thatt schools should offer FFunctional SSkills from yyear 10 for tthose with cclear vocational aspiraations. On n the negatiive side, thee policy abo out GCSE re‐‐sits finds vvery little support. The survey th hen asked reespondents to rate theeir confidence in a rang ge of statem ments aboutt maths and d En nglish. The ttable on thee next page e has been ssorted so th hat the state ements withh the highest weighted d levvel of confid dence appear at the to op of the listt. Off note are th he views on n rigour and the value tthat employyers place o on each typee of qualificcation. The staatements ab bout enjoym ment of eacch qualificattion should also be notted as this ooften directtly relates to o en ngagement. Fin nally, we haave included d some additional free comments about English and matths in post‐‐16.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
“Better awareeness and reespect for ffunctional skkills, Standa ard recognittion for UCA AS, if truly eequivalent w why do o some univeersities not recognise ffunctional s kills.” Functtional skills teacher, naational train ning provideer. “I don't think GCSE qualiffications are fit for purrpose. They are more about interppretations off text than en nsuring peop ple can read d, write and d speak welll. Forcing sttudents to resit these iss ludicrous, and resultss show it a huge waste of time and reesources. I hhave seen so o many stud dents disilluusioned with h their college exp perience beecause of fo orced GCSE rresits.” Stafff developm ment, FE college. “FSS do not have the samee prestige a as GCSEs to employers. However, ffor people w who are nott academic they pro ovide an exxcellent wayy of training g in any job that is not a academic. T This is wherre the probleem is. I'd likke to seee FS become more robust in its’ co ontent to shhow employyers that thiis qualificattion shows tthe candida ate is ab ble to take o on problem solving taskks and handdle complexx tasks regarding comm municating tto others nu umerically a and in writin ng.” Adult le earning teaccher, nation nal charity. “Functional Skkills should count in the school leaague tables ‐ they are a a valuable ppiece of our armoury esp pecially wheen teaching g those with h SEN/LD. “ Classroom teacher, accademy witth 6th form. “W What happened to doin ng the best tthing for eaach student ‐ were now w forced to ddo what thee College sayys.” De epartmental manager, FE college. “TThere should d be a level 3 Functiona al Skills.” Appprenticesh hip assessorr, training pprovider.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
Aw warding Organisations Alll five annuaal surveys haave included questionss relating to o the use of Awarding O Organisations and how w happy respon ndents are w with that ch hoice. The graphic b below maps the 2016 re esults show wing the pop pularity of tthe awardinng organisattion againstt the sattisfaction raating in the survey. On nly AO’s witth statistically significan nt results arre included in this grap phic.
The survey alsso asked respondents to rank 7 vaalue added benefits that Awardingg Organisattions could de eliver – the ttop four aree shown in tthe graphicc below in order.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
Ke ey provid ders of software and servvices to tthe secto or A ccommon feature of preevious annu ual surveys has been analysis of re espondent’ss views and d opinions o of key suppliers in the secto or. The 201 16 survey m maintains this and this ssection sum mmarises the e opinions o of e respondents with thee analysis b broken downn into the
Initial assessmentt and diagnostics E‐learning resourrces includin ng engagem ment of learrners and su upport for pproviders e‐porttfolio use an nd satisfaction
Givven the high level of reesponses to o this part o f the surveyy, the resultts provide aan accurate picture of tthe use and perceeption of eaach provider to the secctor.
Ke ey provid ders – initial asse essment and diaggnostics Ovver 90% of aall respondeents mentio oned either BKSB or Fo orSkills/Guro oo which al most certaiinly reflectss the strrength and experience and of thesse companiies in this paart of the m market. Witthin College es, BKSB wass used most, fo or WBL it waas ForSkills//Guroo. Theere is a disttinct split be etween subb‐sectors over their hoice which h almost cerrtainly refleects the relaative markett share of thhe leading p providers in n plaatform of ch each sector.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
Ke ey provid ders – e‐‐learningg resourcces The picture fo or the use o of e‐learningg resources is differentt to that for initial asseessment and d diagnosticcs. Firrstly, fewer respondents answered d this questtion – and this almost ccertainly refflects the m much lower rellative level of use of e‐‐learning resources. Esssentially, th he survey reesults show that almos t everyone in the post‐16 sector uuses some fform of initiial asssessment but use of e‐‐learning is limited to aabout 75% o of the secto or. The results off the surveyy in relation to favouritte providerss is also marrkedly diffe rent to thatt of initial asssessment –– ForSkills/G Guroo score very much higher com mpared to BKSB, typica lly recordin ng a choice rratio of more than 4:1 and sligghtly more peripheral pproviders are mentioned in the suurvey.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
Ke ey provid ders – en ngageme ent, supp port and ease of u use Survey respon ndents weree also asked d to nominaate which p provider the ey consider best acrosss a range of service and prroduct relatted. Althou ugh ForSkillss and Guroo o have merg ged and aree now the same compaany, oth productss are sold and used sep parately andd so each b brand has a separate enntry in this ssection. bo The table belo ow shows the number of responddents that raanked each provider beest in each section.
Ke ey provid ders – ovverall perception n Taking into acccount initiaal assessme ent, diagnosstics, resourrces, support, engagem ment and eaase of use, w we asked respondents to ran nk each pro ovider accorrding to the eir experience and percceptions. The final tablee below sho ows the survey summaary.
4
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
Ke ey provid ders ‐ e‐p portfolio o use and d satisfacction In 2015, we id dentified the use of e‐p portfolios w was growingg and introduced a secttion to allow w respondents to the survey to say what they used. In the 2016, ju ust over 50% (123 resp ponses) ansswered this question w where respo ndents werre asked wh hat sysstem they u used and to relate their opinion onn a scale of “very happ py” to “veryy unhappy” . A n number of o other providers were m mentioned including IC CQ, E‐cordia a, EQ Managger and Leaarning Assisttant bu ut the numb ber of respo onses were under 10% and therefo ore did not individuallyy represent a large eno ough sample. With hin the secto or, the provviders with the most re esponses we ere OneFilee and Smartt Assessor w with the e other threee productss all receivin ng commennts from 15% %‐20% of th he respondeents who an nswered thee qu uestion.
The graphic above showss the weigh hted averagee of custom mer satisfacttion from thhe largest 5 providers o of e‐ po ortfolio solutions to thee sector from m the 123 rrespondents who answ wered this seection of th he survey in n 20 016.
2015 Functioonal Skills Annual Survey Report
So ource of news an nd inform mation An nd finally within this survey, we assked responndents whatt sources off informatioon they valu ued. The table be elow shows each source ordered b by a weighteed average of confiden nce.
If yyou would tto receive the Post‐16 newsletter – simply em mail jonatha an@forskill s.co.uk with h your requ uest.
Co ontact an nd more informa ation This report haas been writtten and co ompiled by JJonathan W Wells and pu ublished by G Guroo Ltd. Jonathan is a Fellow of CIM M and Charteered Marke eter holdingg a Professio onal Postgra aduate Diplloma in Marketing and BSc in Mathematiics and Statistics. The survey waas produced d using “Survey Monkeey” softwarre with a strrict limit of oone response per persson allowed to maaintain integrity of resu ults. nathan Wellls is the autthor of the fortnightly “Functionaal Skills newsletter” thaat is delivere ed to aroun nd Jon 11 1,000 peoplee in the sector. His wo ork on the nnewsletter aand this report is suppoorted by ForSkills Ltd aand Gu uroo Ltd. De etailed results includingg analysis of responsess by sector aand/or related responsses for all questions may alsso be available at an ad dditional charge to covver the costs of furtherr analysis annd research work. Ple ease contacct Jonathan Wells on 0191 30550445 or email jonathan@forskills.co..uk for furth her informaation and requests..