Functional skills standards and criteria
The functional skills pilot began in September 2007. During its three years, over 3000 schools were involved in evaluating the pilot qualifications.
At the start of the pilot, we produced a set of draft functional skills standards for awarding organisations involved with developing qualifications for the pilot.
The standards defined and differentiated the skills required for pilot qualifications in English, mathematics and ICT.
The purpose of the pilot was to test the appropriateness and validity of the draft functional skills standards via the pilot qualifications to inform future qualification development.
Since the pilot finished in August 2010, the standards have been withdrawn. During the final year of the pilot, QCDA developed the draft functional skills standards to form regulatory criteria. Awarding organisations use regulatory criteria when developing specifications for functional skills qualifications. The criteria must be met by the specifications in order to be accredited by Ofqual.
More awarding organisations are now offering a wide range of new functional skills qualifications – these can be found on the National Database of Accredited Qualifications (NDAQ) website. NDAQ will be replaced by Ofqual's Register of Regulated Qualifications (the Register) towards the end of October 2010. Further information is available from the home page of NDAQ's website.
If you're from an awarding organisation you may find it useful to read our guidance on preparing functional skills qualifications.
Last modified: 08 Sep 2010
