Functional Skills Pass Rates 2020/21
Hello and welcome to app’s Functional Skills blog for August 2021. As ittheend of the academic year, we will be looking at the pass rates for Functional Skills 2020-21.
A YearOfDisruptions
2020-21 was another year of disruption for tutors and learners alike. Testing was able to continue in various formats throughout the year, usinga number ofadaptations such as , employer invigilation and a much greater use of online tools such as Teams and Zoom forSpeaking, Listening and Communicating. The disruption, however, didhave aneffectonthe number of assessments taken and on the pass rates for those assessments.
How app Works Out Pass Rates
apppresentsits pass rates a little differently to how a provider may do it. For us the pass rate is a simple number of passes as a percentage of the number of tests taken. For many providers it is the number of passes as a percentage of the number of learners. These are not necessarily the same thing, especially whenresitsare factored in. As an example, albeit an extreme, impossible one, if a learner takes 100 tests and passes on test 100, the pass rate appwill provideis 1%and the pass rate the providerhasis100%. Please bear this in mind when looking at pass rates.
Entry Level Assessmentsand Speaking, Listening and Communicating
app does notreportpass rates for Entry Levellearners as these are all internally assessed. For these learners we only see the claims for success and not the other attempts a learner might have had.
Pass RateByAssessment Type
app offers its Level 1 and 2maths, reading and writing assessments both onscreen and paper based.One question I am commonly asked is whether one assessment type has a higher pass rate.In reality, thepass rates for onscreen andpaper-basedassessments are very similarwith no clear trend as to whether any assessment type has a higher pass rate.Weshould alsotake into account, when looking at the results,the learner types (age, gender andtype of learning provision) which take theseassessments. Learnersin work-based learning are more likely to take an onscreen assessmentthan a paper-based one and this couldhave an effect onthe pass rates.
app’s Pass Rates
Below are app’s overall pass rates.These are for all learners and are not filtered for age, gender or provider type.
| Assessment | First Time Pass Rate | Overall Pass Rate |
| Maths Level 1 | 40% | 24.1% |
| Maths Level 2 | 42.2% | 29.3% |
| Reading Level 1 | 83.5% | 56.50% |
| Reading Level 2 | 72.4% | 53.20% |
| Writing Level 1 | 66.5% | 44.30% |
| Writing Level 2 | 68% | 49.00% |
What is striking about these figures is two things: the vast difference between first time pass rates and overall pass rates; and thedifference between pass rates formathsand English.
First Time vs Overall Pass Rates
The key thing to understand is that many learners are taking assessments more than once or twiceandarenotnecessarilysuccessful. This links back to the section on how apppresentsour pass rates. TakingmathsLevel 1 as an example, 40% of all the learners taking a test pass first time. The overall pass rate is less because the learners who failfirsttime(according to the data), tend to fail again,secondtime.I do recommend spending time with learners who have failed looking at the coverage and range points they had less success onprior to anyresit. This information can be found on.
IfResultsPlusshows that a learner achievedless than 30% on their assessment, I do recommend spending more time with these learners, wherever possible to facilitate their success.
English vsMathsPass Rates
The key difference between English andmathsis the knowledge needed to be successful in the assessment. In a reading testfor example, for all intents and purposes, all the answers are there, on the page, the learners just need to find them.Withmaths, however, the learners need to know more.For example, ifthere is a Level 1 question on area of a rectangle and the learner does not know how to work that out, there is nothing on the paper that will help them. This “knowledge gap” has been exacerbated by thereformwhich has introducedmore contentintoLevel1and 2maths, outlined in this document: .
This difference between English andmathsresults is also seen in post 16GCSEresitstoo.
Pass Rates by Provider Type
Below is a graph showing the pass rates by provider type:
Here we can see that work-based learning providers outperform both schools and FE college. There area number ofreasons behind this:
- Age of the learners: learners in the 24+ demographic have a far higher success rate with Functional Skills. Partly this is due to the style of the assessment, but more oftenit is about the motivation of the learners. Interestingly, in FE colleges the pass rate for Level 1mathsis over 40% for 24+ learners too.
- A large number of16 yearoldshave had very little experience of live assessments, many will not have taken an assessment since theirSATsand this could well have had a contributing effect on outcomes. The majority of 16 yearoldstaking Functional Skills are in FE.
- Motivation of the learners: For learners on an apprenticeshipprogramme, Functional Skills is a mandatory part of the trainingprogramme(where necessary) as it is withinFE. However, the key difference is that learners cannot complete their apprenticeshipwithoutpassing their English andmathsand this helps drive the learners towards success.
- Funding: There is no condition of funding for work-based learninglearners,so providers are free to choose the most suitablemathsand English course for their learners.This means there are more learners with grade 3 GCSEmathsand English undertaking Level 2 Functional Skills qualifications.
- There has been a loss in learning for learners during lockdown, particularly those in the 16-18 age bracket.For these learners,providers arealsoreporting a considerable lack of engagement with remote learningwhich could well haveexacerbatedthesituation.The decision to leave assessments in place was a policy decision by the DfEbecauseFunctional Skillsjudgeproficiency/functional competence. More information on this can be found here:
FE Pass Rates
| Assessment | First Time Pass Rate | Overall Pass Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Maths Level 1 | 34.40% | 20.0% |
| Maths Level 2 | 33.60% | 22.4% |
| Reading Level 1 | 82.00% | 52.8% |
| Reading Level 2 | 68.40% | 47.9% |
| Writing Level 1 | 63.90% | 40.8% |
| Writing Level 2 | 62.40% | 42.8% |
WBL Pass Rates
| Assessment | First Time Pass Rate | Overall Pass Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Maths Level 1 | 65.60% | 49.3% |
| Maths Level 2 | 58.80% | 45.2% |
| Reading Level 1 | 90.40% | 72.3% |
| Reading Level 2 | 81.50% | 65.8% |
| Writing Level 1 | 80.80% | 64.2% |
| Writing Level 2 | 80.60% | 64.8% |
ICT Pass Rates
Assessment |
First Time Pass Rate |
Pass Rate |
|---|---|---|
ICT Level 1 |
55.0% |
43.4% |
ICT Level 2 |
53.4% |
43.2% |
Chris Briggs, Sector Manager Post-16 English and Maths