Functional Skills

Explain ways to embed functional skills in your specialist area.

Functional skills are skills we need to function in everyday life. ‘Functional skills are essential skills in English, mathematics and ICT that enable everyone to deal with the practical problems and challenges of life – at home, in education and at work. They are essential to all our lives. For example, they help us recognise good value deals when making purchases, in writing an effective application letter, or when using the internet to access local services or online banking. They are about using English, mathematics and ICT in everyday situations’.
‘This means that functional skills are;
• real skills
• for real audiences
• for real purposes’.
(QCA online undated).
My subject area is childcare and functional skills are important throughout childcare courses and will be developed throughout a course with the support of the tutor. It is now part of a tutor’s role to improve and support the development of Literacy, ICT and Numeracy.
Literacy
As part of completing a childcare course learners will have to write assignments of a high standard. I would support learners to achieve this skill by initially providing opportunities to complete small written assignments with constructive feedback. I then would increase the size of the assignment required. I would also teach a session on writing effective assignments before giving the learners a big assignment to complete.
All learners are encouraged to give presentations as part of the course as when they go on to work within the childcare sector they will be required to talk confidently and appropriately to parents, other members of staff and organisations. I would promote this key skill throughout a course by first encouraging learners to speak out in front of the class in a small way, such as sharing their thoughts in an active discussion. I then would again build on this giving the learners more opportunities to speak in front of the class...