FAQs - Functional Skills

You can make the group up with staff (e.g. tutors etc but with no vested interest) or other learners; these additional participants whether staff or learners are often called “ghost learners”.

Ghost learners are required to follow learner guidance and should take a full role in the assessment as if they are taking the assessment themselves. This will allow for assessed learners to access the full scopes of study.

Please note the default setting on XAMS is that there must be 3 – 5 learners in an assessment. If a ghost learner is required to make up numbers, please contact the Customer Services Team at Open Awards at least two working days before the planned assessment. Where a minimum of 3 learners have been booked in the assessment and circumstances result in less than 3 learners being available (e.g. absent through illness), a last minute ghost learner can be allowed so as not to disadvantage those learners in attendance.

There is no minimum age. You must ensure that a full initial assessment has been completed with learners to check that the qualification is appropriate for them. This should include considering their intended progression routes and individual targets.

Dictionaries can be used in English reading assessments. They cannot be used in English writing assessments.

Dictionaries must be standard English language and must not contain a Thesaurus or grammar aids. They cannot contain annotations or notes.

Wherever possible, dictionaries should be provided by the provider to ensure these requirements are met. If a learner is using their own dictionary, this should be checked at the start of the assessment by the invigilator.

Open Awards does not endorse any specific English dictionary, but anticipates learners are likely to have access to a mini-school dictionary or school dictionary.

Pass marks for Level One (1) and Two (2) English Reading, Writing and Maths assessments vary per assessment version and are set following standardisation and awarding activities.

Each Maths assessment is designed to enable a minimally competent learner to achieve a pass mark of around 36 out of 60.

Each English Reading assessment is designed to enable a pass mark of around 18 out of 30 and each English Writing assessment is designed to enable a pass mark of around 36 out of 60.

However, the awarding process will determine specifically where the pass mark sits for each assessment version. Therefore, the pass mark may vary between assessments.

Entry Level assessments have pre-set pass marks as below:

• Entry Level 1 Reading – 8 out of 12
• Entry Level 1 Writing – 19 out of 30
• Entry Level 2 Reading – 10 out of 16
• Entry Level 2 Writing – 22 out of 34
• Entry Level 3 Reading – 12 out of 18
• Entry Level 3 Writing – 24 out of 36
• Entry Level 1 Maths – 16 out of 24
• Entry Level 2 Maths – 19 out of 28
• Entry Level 3 Maths – 24 out of 36

For Entry Levels One (1) – Three (3), providers devise their own Speaking, Listening and Communicating (SLC) assessments using the sample structure available on the qualification page of the website. These assessment tasks will be externally verified by your Quality and Standards Advisor. Word document templates are available via the portal.

Levels One (1) and Two (2) SLC assessments are set by Open Awards. The live assessments can be downloaded from the portal by your assessment administrator. These assessments are confidential and must be kept secure at all times. There is a sample assessment for each assessment available on the qualification page of the website. The samples cannot be used as a live assessment; but should be used to prepare the learner.

Providers can choose to write their own assessments for Levels 1 and 2. This should be done following the instructions in the ‘Guidance on Setting Provider Devised SLC Assessment Tasks’ and submitted to Open Awards for approval in advance of any assessments taking place. There is no fee charged for the approval of provider devised Level One (1) and Two (2) SLC assessments.

No, learners are not able to use components (e.g. Reading, Writing or SLC) from the legacy qualifications towards the reformed qualifications. This is due to the amount of changes to the subject content and assessment approach.

Learners registered to the legacy qualification would have been certificated (unit transcript) for any components they had achieved at the time. If they did not achieve the full qualifications by 30th June 2020, you will need to register the learner on the reformed Functional Skills qualification and they will need to achieve a ‘pass’ in all three (3) components to be awarded the qualification.

For Levels One (1) and Two (2), paper-based assessments will be posted directly to your provider around one week prior to the assessment.

For Entry Level, assessments will be made available for your approved administrator to download directly from the XAMS system from two (2) weeks before the scheduled assessment.

Question papers and any other confidential material, e.g. answer booklets, must be stored securely at the provider’s registered address in a safe or secure lockable cupboard with restricted access in a secure locked room. The contents of all materials must be treated as strictly confidential and should not be shared with anyone other than those taking or administering the assessment.

The following adaptations of externally-set assessment versions are permitted:

• Adaptation to the context of a question or set of questions to meet learners’ needs
• Provision of physical objects during the assessment to meet their learners’ needs (e.g. money or shapes)
• Translation of the assessment into Braille to meet their learners’ needs

No amendments to the knowledge, skills, understanding or level of demand are permitted.

All adaptations need to be approved in advance by Open Awards Quality Assurance team. Further information is provided in Guidance for Adapting Functional Skills Assessments available via The Portal.

To achieve the qualification, learners must successfully pass an assessment set by Open Awards at the level of the qualification. This includes a calculator and non-calculator section.

To achieve Functional Skills English, learners must successfully pass all three assessment components at the level of the qualification:

• One externally set assessment in Reading
• One externally set assessment in Writing
• One internally (Entry Level) or externally set (Levels 1 and 2), and internally assessed assessment in Speaking, Listening and Communicating (SLC)