Making an environmental impact with NCFE qualifications

27 May 2021

Functional Skills UK, a training provider in Brighton, has long focused on delivering Functional Skills qualifications, as well as short courses in topics which are high on the national agenda, including mental health first aid and counselling skills. They deliver these courses to a range of learners, in particular leisure industry apprentices, and those working in the NHS and the police force.

More recently, the organisation who is ‘very committed to doing what they can to mitigate the effects of global warming’ has started to deliver NCFE’s Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Climate Change and Environmental Awareness to help educate individuals on the importance of looking after our environment.

Paul Smith, Managing Director at Functional Skills UK, explained: “We recognise that we can use NCFE’s Climate Change and Environmental Awareness qualification to educate society. We see it as a tool to give the basic information that we believe should now form the central curriculum of every school and college.”

“We are determined that as many people as possible take it.”

Learners at Functional Skills UK come from all walks of life, including apprentices, staff working for local companies and leisure organisations, young people on traineeship programmes, and college learners.

Supporting learning and progression for all

Describing their learners, Paul said: “They are all keen to learn and they see the NCFE qualifications we offer as a stepping stone within a pathway to progression. You can certainly see this with Functional Skills, where we have many learners from the NHS with English as a secondary language who want to improve and get recognition of their existing skills.”

Many of their learners then progress to higher positions within the leisure industry, the police and the NHS, as well as further learning and higher qualifications.

Speaking specifically about the new Climate Change and Environmental Awareness qualification, Paul continued: “We want to see every young person taking the qualification and we already have one employer who is making it mandatory for all of its staff in Brighton – that’s 50 people – to undertake.”

Dynamic delivery – making the course interactive

Functional Skills UK has been working hard to teach the course in a dynamic way, using animations and graphics so learners can interactively find out about climate change and look at what can be done to combat it.

Paul explained: “It has to be presented in an exciting and engaging manner if we want young people to learn. We feel very passionate about this and we recently presented our case on this to our local enterprise partnership and they have agreed to co-fund the project.

“We have since contracted one of the UK’s best animators to work alongside our environmental science content writer to put together a fantastic learning experience. Furthermore, we’re now looking at embedding Functional Skills into the course too.”

Working with NCFE

Speaking of working with NCFE, Paul shared: “They are great and so easy to work with – I recommend NCFE qualifications all the time. They are always there if you have a problem and will fix it promptly, keeping you informed regularly. NCFE is a big company but still so personable.”

Find out more

NCFE’s Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Climate Change and Environmental Awareness is designed to allow learners to become familiar with the basics of the environment and climate change, understand environmental protection and how workplaces and individuals can take action to combat their impact on the environment.

Help make an impact with NCFE and help your learners to become environmentally aware for the future. Find out more about this qualification on our QualHub webpage.