Functional Skills Courses //

Why would we recommend Functional Skills?

Functional Skills is the basic skills you will achieve to enable you move onto other qualifications, such as A Levels, IGCSE’s or vocational courses. Functional skills will allow you to learn the skills you need and use in your daily life. You will learn basic Maths allowing you to make decisions with numbers, analyse data and perform numerical tasks like budgeting. Functional Skills English allows you to read documents thoroughly, communicate efficiently, send work emails, read instructions, and perform tasks that involve reading. Basic ICT skills has now become a requirement for most jobs, with more and more becoming digital, we need to keep up to date and learn basic computer skills. This will allow you to communicate through emails, plot data and perform basic tasks on the computer.

What is the best way to improve my functional skills?

We recommend using your new skills in daily life alongside your course and you can improve these skills within a work environment or in your home environment. You may decide to begin reading books that challenge yourself, this will also help your writing skills and spelling. If you enjoy baking now is a great time to use your maths skills by weighing ingredients, adding or dividing. Planning a trip? Why not use your new spreadsheet skills to plan yourself a budget or itinerary? Being able to use all these skills everyday will improve your ability to carry out simple tasks and encourage you to progress with the course. This in turn, will improve your career prospects, your education and your daily life. With all our courses, we allow flexibility, enabling you to work round any commitments you already have. This means you can work around a job or childcare to start improving your prospects right away. You will be provided with logins on completion of your enrolment and will be able to start your course, beginning your journey of self-improvement.

Our Functional Skills Online Courses

Functional Skills courses are designed to enable students to develop the confidence, practical skills and fluency in English, Mathematics and ICT. International Home Study offers Functional Skills qualifications that are designed to help you improve your skills and boost your confidence in these areas. They are also great if you are looking for more flexibility than a conventional college; as exam-based courses have more frequent dates available for sitting your exams, meaning you can complete the course much quicker.

Many employers and higher-level qualification providers look for at least Functional Skills Level 2 qualifications in English and Maths, and for most students who do not currently have the required GCSE grades, then Functional Skills is the perfect course to allow them to gain this qualification; enabling them to progress onto employment or further education.

We offer not only City and Guilds Functional Skills but also Edexcel and NCFE too. This gives you more flexibility with exam centres near to where you live or alternatively you can opt for the online examinations option.

All of our Functional Skills courses are provided via an interactive online portal, which allows you to work at your own pace. Once you have completed your initial assessment, you will work through your skills plan with the help of your Tutor. As soon as you are ready, your Tutor can go through some practice exam papers with you and the Examinations team will help you book your exams. There is no coursework involved in our courses and the exams are structured as follows depending on the awarding body:

Typically for the Functional Skills English Level 2 exams – there are three exams consisting of reading, writing and speaking & listening paper. For the Functional Skills Maths Level 2 exams – there will be one paper with two sections (a calculator and non-calculator section).

The Functional Skills qualification is one of the most popular and flexible of qualifications, being accepted by many universities and colleges. Functional Skills will allow you to gain a level 2 qualification much quicker than if you were to take IGCSES. The exams are available monthly and can either be sat at a local exam centre or with us online. The course fees on our website include access to our online student portal where you will work alongside a specialised Functional Skills Tutor who will help you as you progress through the study materials and assessments. You will be able to ask your Tutor questions throughout your course and if you need further resources, your Tutor will often send you further materials. As you get more confident, your Tutor will set a series of practise exam papers, so you’ll know what to expect in the exams helping you to feel more confident when you are in a real-life situation.

Support

The course will be delivered online via our online portal, including Tutor Support for 12 months. All assignments are marked by one of our professional Functional Skills Tutors who will offer regular feedback and guide you through your course.

Throughout your course, you'll have the support of a Tutor to guide you. Additionally, you can reach out to the Student Support Team for help with any other questions you may have. You can be assured that you will receive unlimited support for your home study course, so there is no need to struggle or feel isolated during your studies.

Assessment

You must successfully complete a series of assignments. Once all assignments and activities have been completed satisfactorily, you will then be ready to take your final exam. The final exam can either be sat online, via us, or through one of our many approved examination centres available nationally.

Please Note: Students will be required to arrange and pay for their examinations either online with us, or at an approved centre. We can provide an extensive list of these centres for you.