Apprenticeships, English and maths

Do we really need functional skills anyway?

In truth, the value of numeracy and literacy has fallen now that you can learn practical skills from online videos

In truth, the value of numeracy and literacy has fallen now that you can learn practical skills from online videos

24 Feb 2025, 5:30

Being able to read fluently is a wonderful, life-enhancing skill. No academic skill is more important. Numeracy is pretty useful, too. 

And yet for all that, I am delighted that education secretary Bridget Phillipson has scrapped the requirement for adult apprentices to take functional skills in literacy and numeracy. Delighted.

Only apprentices who began their apprenticeship training when aged 16 to 18 will continue to be subject to the mandatory requirement to study towards and achieve English and maths. 

We require children to attend school, whether they like it or not. Almost all children do so, almost all of the time. So in school we can make them listen to teachers – whose aim is to teach them to read and write, to add up and take away – whether they like it or not. Most people manage to learn these skills, and most are pleased that they have done so. 

But not all children manage. And bluntly, if after more than 12 years in education someone cannot pass functional skills in literacy and numeracy, we have to face up to two realities. First, the system has failed that person. After more than 10,000 hours of tuition, we, the sector, have failed to teach them the most basic academic skills. My god, my god, why have we forsaken them? We all need to examine our consciences, and – perhaps more usefully – our professional practices. 

We also need to accept that if someone has spent 10,000 hours in school, and still can’t pass literacy and numeracy at functional skills level, they are likely to believe that they just can’t do it. I was rubbish at music at school, and have absolutely no confidence that I could ever learn to hold a tune. You don’t learn much if you think you can’t learn much. Now most people are wrong to believe that they cannot learn to read, but so what? What matters is what they think. 

If people think that they cannot master these skills, they probably won’t master them. Which means they will either fail their apprenticeship, or more likely won’t start it at all. Having that requirement means that we, the literate, are denying others the right to gain other, also valuable, skills that can transform their lives, and those of their families. That denial compounds our failure to teach them basic skills the first time. Doing so is simply unacceptable.

We should also accept that it is getting easier to learn vocational skills – and to survive in life more generally – without literacy and numeracy. It hurts me to write those words, but I think they are true. Back in the day, Treloar’s plumbing was the standard text for plumbers. And it is certainly useful to be able to read a plumbing book as a trainee plumber. But in truth many people learn practical skills from videos these days. I have repaired my microwave, my car and my dishwasher thanks to online videos. Similarly, knowing your times tables is still useful, but the value of numeracy has fallen now that we all carry mobiles, and they all have calculators on them. 

The right to be literate and numerate is real. Everyone should have the right to acquire these skills – as and when they want to. The lifelong learning entitlement to these skills should be real, generous and everlasting. But that does not mean forcing people who do not believe that these skills are both useful and within their grasp to study them as part of an adult apprenticeship. 

Employers and students have both welcomed the government’s decision. It is a good decision. But let’s leave the champagne on ice for a bit longer – until every child leaves our schools literate and numerate and this discussion is unnecessary.

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5 Comments

  1. Snake Oil

    No surprise that someone who actively promotes the lifelong learning entitlement isn’t too bothered about literacy and numeracy.

    How about we call the lifelong learning entitlement what it actually is – a loan underwritten by government.

    Outstanding student loan debt was £236,000,000,000 (£bn) as of last year, but the growth rate is slowing down, as the realisation dawns that leaving Uni with £45k+ plus in debt, for only a marginal wage premium is possibly not a good investment.

    So where next to keep the bubble inflated? Level 3 loans / 24+ loans and now LLE all seek to tread the same path by offloading the cost of education directly onto the individual and not the state. This effectively hardcodes wealth inequality into society as those with no other option but to take a loan have a 6-9% interest premium to contend with. Loans are enablers of social mobility, one ball and chain at a time!

    Education is moving further away from being a meritocracy, where the ability to pay conquers all. Degree grade inflation is at saturation point (you can’t charge tens of thousands for a high proportion of thirds after all…).

    What better way to flog the next round of loans than to those with a low level of numeracy.

    To recap the article, it starts by stating that literacy and numeracy are not as relevant as they used to be and it’s good they’ve been scrapped from apprenticeships. By the end of the article it hopes for a world where all school leavers have good literacy and numeracy. So they are inexplicably irrelevant and relevant at the same, based on how old you are.

  2. Sarah Bradshaw

    I agree that functional skills qualifications are far from perfect, but neither are GCSEs.

    Furthermore, there are numerous reasons why students fail to achieve a grade 4 at school. Many of these learners can and do go on to achieve success in FS English however (less so with maths) in an FE setting.

    As a teacher of FS maths and both GCSE and FS English, I am certain that FS English is a far more useful qualification for the majority of my learners than GCSE Language. Students on vocational courses benefit from knowing how to write effective emails, reports, blogs etc which will give them a real advantage in the workplace, far more so than analysing 19th Century literature.

    The majority of learners in our setting report increased confidence in their ability to communicate effectively and many of them achieve at Level 2.

    Where FS fails is largely as a maths qualification. Students generally struggle to pass at L1 and L2 because the questions are too convoluted and heavily worded.

    Functional skills qualifications may need reform but to say they do not have value is not borne out by the experiences of either our full-time learners or our apprentices.

  3. Alun Francis

    Tim, this has to be one of your worst contributions ever! If education was ever planned around learner’s beliefs about their capability, it would never achieve anything. A huge part of learning is about helping people to see that they can do more than they thought they could. At colleges like mine, for example, we have hundreds of graduates who never expected they would complete a degree. There are legions of adult learners who do pass English and maths, but did not start off believing it was possible. And every school and college in the country has examples of people who exceeded their own expectations.
    Literacy and numeracy are not trivial skills, and while the internet is very useful, it is not an adequate substitute for rigorous technical knowledge, developed – just like your knowledge of economics – by a combination of reading, understanding threshold concepts and applying in real settings. The ongoing implications of low literacy and numeracy for any adult, and their families, is very serious – and hugely limits opportunity and income, inlcuding across generations. The answer isn’t to take it away, its to fund it properly, and take it more seriously – not less.

    • David Russell

      Tim’s take is interesting and thought-provoking; it’s good to look at policy issues from a new angle and question our assumptions, and Prof Leunig is excellent at this. Thank you for making me think!

      Alun Francis is right, though.