Evaluate_a_Range_of_Ways_to_Embed_Elements_of_Functional_Skills_in_Your_Specialist_Area

“Explain ways to embed elements of functional Skills in your specialist area.” What are the functional skills' Functional skills are essential skills in English, mathematics and ICT that enable everyone to deal with the practical problems and challenges of life – at home, in education and at work. They are essential to all our lives. For example, they help us : • To recognise good value deals when making purchases, • in writing an effective application letter, • or when using the internet to access local services or online banking. They are about using English, mathematics and ICT in everyday situations. Functional skills are a key to success. They open doors to learning, to life and to work. These skills are valued by employers and further education and are a platform on which to build other employability skills. Better functional skills can mean a better future – as learners or as employees. A key characteristic of functional skills is that they are based on a problem solving approach. Learners who are ‘functionally skilled’ are able to use and apply the English/mathematics/ICT they know to tackle problems that arise in their life and work. [pic] Teaching functional skills in Maths lesson can be achieved by representing the students with problem solving question may look like: Calculate the area of a rectangle with slides of 4m and 6 m. To embed more functional skills we could change this to “real life problem” which could be interpreted such as: Your school has some funds available to replace the carpet in your classroom with wooden laminate flooring. Create a report with calculations for the school administration to show how much laminate will be required and use website www. screwfix.co.uk to calculate the cost of this flooring. This example promotes all three functional skills. Literacy skills are required for writing grammatically correct report. ICT will be used to make a research of companies offering a good price of good quality, to use website to calculate the cost of materials. Numeracy is used to apply the necessary mathematical formulas and calculate how much flooring will be required and the relevant cost. An other mathematical and for some student is struggling topic are: graphs and charts. The teacher’s liability is to help to interpret the graphs and charts in to real life situations. Where it can be used in everyday life situations' For example, the chart might represent sales of certain items in a retail setting, or the types of treatments requested in a beauty therapy salon. Charts and graphs are regularly used in many other curriculum areas, for example history, geography, physical education and science. Learners could be asked to interpret the graph or chart in the context of one of their other curriculum subjects. As we see that any subject we study through our life can be easily understood by interpreting the examples of real life situations. That’s why the students will be more confident and more interested in maths sessions if all calculations, all formulas, graphs and others very boring for some students topics will be applied in their life. Bibliography: http://www.edexcel.com/quals/func-skills/about/Pages/default.aspx http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/14-19/index.cfm'go=site.home&sid=3&pid=225&ctype=none&ptype=contents