Association of Teachers and Lecturers general secretary Dr Mary Bousted has told of her hopes that a consultation on reforming Functional Skills exams will boost their “credibility and value”.

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) unveiled its timetable for a “multi-stage” consultation on Thursday (January 14).

A spokesperson told FE Week that it would be running “many different activities until late June” geared towards collecting views on how the qualifications should be reformed by 2018.

The first consultation set to launch shortly and close on April 7 would, he said, focus on “employers and technical experts”. A second consultation with providers and other sector experts is expected to run from mid-May until late June.

Dr Bousted (pictured above) said: “As a member of the Functional Skills Reform Programme Expert Advisory Group, ATL supports the review of maths and English Functional Skills qualifications.

“The review is timely as it is over five years since the qualifications were launched.”

She added: “Functional Skills are the most popular qualifications after GCSEs, with one million awarded every year. So it is clear their relevance is already acknowledged by industry, practitioners and learners, but their credibility and value needs to be recognised by government ministers.”

Visit www.etfoundation.co.uk/functionalskillsreform or www.pyetait.com/fsreform to find out more about the consultation.

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