Skills Minister, Nick Boles, has commissioned a programme to reform English and maths Functional Skills qualifications.

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) will lead the programme to ensure Functional Skills “provide a route for young people, and adults returning to education, to achieve a robust qualification that has credibility with employers” which is “rigorous, challenging and well-taught”.

The ETF’s earlier review Making maths and English work for all found that Functional Skills were “not broken”, but that work could be done to improve their relevance and content, as well as to improve their recognition and credibility in the labour market.

This subsequent review will seek a range of views from the post-16 education and training sector to result in a report - scheduled for August 2016 - with policy recommendations to include:

• What levels of Functional Skills are needed for life and work
• The breadth of skills that the new qualifications should include
• The number of guided learning hours needed to successfully achieve Functional Skills for learners on technical and professional programmes of study, including Apprenticeships.
  

An important outcome will be a revised set of National Adult Standards for maths and English that has employer and sector buy-in.

The intention is for new qualifications to be available in 2018.