Reformed Functional Skills update

Following consultation with Ofqual, we are pleased to announce that with immediate effect, we have extended the duration from the point of booking Functional Skills controlled assessments to sitting them from 2 weeks to 6 weeks. This will give you more time to download, print and prepare the relevant assessments, where required contextualise, then disseminate as appropriate to staff or satellite centres before the assessment takes place.

To reflect this change, we have updated the following documents, available on QualHub:

• Assessor instructions (found in ‘assessment materials’ tab on the individual qualification page)
• Guidance to booking controlled assessments (found in ‘support materials’ tab on the individual qualification page)
• Regulations for the Conduct of Controlled Assessments – Functional Skills.

The following are important reminders of key issues:

• The Designated Person should book and have access to the password
• Track bookings on the assessment tracking document
• Assessments must be sat within the window
• Cancel any unused bookings in the portal
• Book re-sits on a different paper
• Do not book assessments whilst EQA activity is taking place (until report submitted), This impacts the minimum sample size and will potentially impact on DCS achievement