Teaching Key skills for apprenticeships

prem0132

Hi

I was hoping somebody may have either completed the key skills/functional skills test or currently teaches it.
I am going for a job this week to teach key skills in Maths , English and ICT and although I understand how they work within the apprenticeship scheme I have no idea how they are actually taught within the classroom.
I am a qualified secondary teacher and I am used to having schemes of work and lesson plans etc either created for me to adapt or made by myself.

Is there a programme through which they are taught or do you just judge the pupils depending on how they do on a mock paper? Do teachers uses worksheet resources or talk through particular questions and explain how they are answered and how long do you normally get to work with the candidates? I believe the course I am hoping to teach is through Edexcel.

Thank you for reading and advice would be really appreciated I really would love this job!


Heres Hoping xx

saintjammyswine

If you google EDEXCEL Key Skills it will bring up the Pearson/EDECXEL website for this area. Will be application of number, communication and Information Technology. Should give you papers, standards etc. Each provider will work differently but will follow these standards.

Noops

I teach Key Skills as part of Apprenticeships. You work to a set of standards similar to NVQ standards and the Key Skills are made up of a portfolio (one or more projects) and an exam. The projects need to have a real purpose and should be work based where possible. They can be transferred so for example, my students might plan a team building event, calculate costs, present it in Excel and Word using graphs and text and this would cover (if you're clever) elements from Comms, ICT and AON. A lot of it is also embedded into the Apprenticeship so my learners would also use their projects for the NVQ.

I teach the full framework though so it might be different to just taking on the individual elements.

pennypitstop_2

If you are going to interview, be sure to mention 'functional skills' in English, Maths and ICT - they are soon to replace Key Skills in most Apprenticeships and it will go down well if you demonstrate that you are aware of the changes and are ready for them. Could even be a good thing that you are not so familiar and ingrained in the old Key Skills ways of assessment - you're fresh to the new wave of qualifications your future employer will have to adapt to...

HTH

Penny

mavisangelica

Yes, SEMPTA, the Engineering Sector Skills have already switched to Functional Skills. DS has started a pre apprenticeship programme this year and I have been doing a bit of research (I work in adult education). and am having a bit of a battle as the IT qualification that he came out of school (that was a compulsory subject) with does not map across to the new standards but did map to Key Skills. English and Maths were no problem as they were GCSEs so he is exempted from doing those sections.

Noops

mavisangelica wrote: »

Yes, SEMPTA, the Engineering Sector Skills have already switched to Functional Skills. DS has started a pre apprenticeship programme this year and I have been doing a bit of research (I work in adult education). and am having a bit of a battle as the IT qualification that he came out of school (that was a compulsory subject) with does not map across to the new standards but did map to Key Skills. English and Maths were no problem as they were GCSEs so he is exempted from doing those sections.

Let me guess, OCR National?

prem0132

Hi

Just thought I'd say thanks as I found out today I got the job!

All your advice helped, I :jstart next week so may be back on here again if I'm struggling xx