Thursday 19 September 2013
At NCFE we’re dedicated to supporting you and your learners towards achievement. As Key Skills ends, Functional Skills within both apprenticeships, study programmes and as a standalone qualification is more important than ever. We want to help you manage the transition as smoothly as possible and support you in the delivery and assessment of Functional Skills. We’ve got some key information for you, including everything we have on offer to support you and your learners.
NCFE’s Functional Skills Amplification Guides are perfect for centres that are up-skilling their staff and assessors to support the delivery of Functional Skills whilst looking for practical examples of how to explain the application of Functional Skills. These guides are designed to act as an expansion to Ofqual’s standards, providing further clarification in an easy to use format.
ForSkills offers an initial assessment and diagnostic tool that is available both offline and online to offer truly flexible and interactive testing, from Entry Level 1 to Level 2. With NCFE you can access this resource totally FREE by registering your learners with NCFE. You can also store, update and manage a learner’s Individual Skills Plan (e-ISP). Contact your Centre Support Assistant to arrange a demonstration.
Qualification Support packs are developed by our Research and Product Development Team with you in mind. They have schemes of work, session plans and delivery resources, including guides to best practice. We’ve also got an excellent offer through our partners Nelson Thornes, a leading education publisher. You will receive 1/3 off the published price of their Functional Skills Progress materials when you’ve registered learners with NCFE. Why not join Nelson Thornes’ Functional Membership Programme at www.planetvocational.co.uk and get access to exclusive information and resources as well as your free Functional Skills Fact File, a great additional resource for you and your colleagues!
Practice assessments are an excellent way to prepare your learners for the External or Internally Controlled Assessments. There are a bank of papers available on our website under the relevant subject heading and you can also schedule an online practice assessment. It’s done in the same way as a live assessment, just make sure you select the Exam leading with Practice! Remember, these won’t be submitted for marking so you’ll need to mark these at centre level with your learner whilst the assessment is on screen.
Internal controlled assessments you’ll receive the valid packs on registration of your learners for the Entry Level qualifications and Level 1 and 2 English for the Speaking, Listening and Communication component. They will include everything that you need to deliver to the learners including Assessor Guidance and observation sheets. Sample packs are available on the website under the relevant subject heading. NCFE set the tasks, you mark them and they are then externally moderated by NCFE. As new packs become available they will be sent to the named contact you identify at registration.
Live Papers - NCFE run a live bank of rolling papers. This allows us to be responsive to your needs and provide a comprehensive schedule of marking windows, with 25 windows available this year. Having both a paper based and online option creates further flexibility for your learners. Our online assessment system also enables you to sit your learners offline and upload the assessment next time you connect, which is ideal for work based learners. With a live bank there are certain things that we ask you as Centres to both be aware of and take responsibility for. A key point is that all papers, used and unused must be returned to NCFE after the assessment within the agreed timeframe of 24 hours and must not be looked at by anyone other than the learner.
Invigilation - Appropriate Invigilation of the External Assessments is key to maintaining the integrity of the assessment and ensuring your learners aren’t inadvertently or unnecessarily disadvantaged. NCFE can offer you Invigilation Training to ensure all your staff are fully conversant with our Regulations for the Conduct of External Assessment. This can be requested through your Centre Support Assistant. We also know that you’ll have your own internal expertise when training new and existing staff in maintaining the standards of Invigilation. Please remember it is your centre’s responsibility to ensure all appointed Invigilators are appropriately trained and aware of their duties. You’ll need to use NCFE’s Regulations for the Conduct of External Assessment for L1 and L2 external assessments. For all Entry Level and L1 and 2 Speaking, Listening and Communication you’ll need to follow the Regulations for the Conduct of Controlled Assessment – Functional Skills.
Post-Assessment - We recognise that learners will want to reflect on their assessment experiences and discuss any areas for improvement with tutors and their peers. However, it’s essential that through the course of these discussions the actual content of the assessment isn’t discussed, as this could inform any future re-sits and sometimes can lead to investigations. Equally we recommend that Assessors sit a Functional Skills qualification to support the delivery of Functional Skills but it’s important that when sitting the external assessments they aren’t used as an opportunity to familiarise yourselves with the format, content or operation of our systems. We have a bank of sample assessments that can support you in preparation for the assessments and we will continue to build on those already available. We know that you will be aware of your responsibilities but also wanted to take this opportunity to highlight them.
Chief Examiner reports are also regularly published to our website and provide generic feedback on learner assessments, highlighting key trends and areas for improvement. They are subject specific and are a beneficial tool to support delivery and identify where marks are commonly lost. Please let us know if you’d like to be notified when new reports are published and we’ll drop you an email and point you in the right direction. They can be found under the external assessment tab of each subject on our website.
NCFE’s External Moderators can offer support for the internally assessed qualifications or components both on the visit as well as before or after through email support. Equally your Centre Support Assistant can guide you through our processes and systems.
We’re always looking to review and improve our offer to you and we’ve some exciting things in the pipeline for 2013-2014 which we hope to update you about soon. If you do have any feedback, queries or need some extra support don’t hesitate to get in touch.
We look forward to hearing from you and guiding you and your learners from registration to achievement.
The Functional Skills Team