In this month’s Skills for Life news:

• Important changes to adult numeracy/literacy (3792) ‘weekly’ tests from January 2008
• ESOL for Work – ‘expand your English skills’ campaign
• Entry level 3792 – more about the new arrangements for accessing assessment materials
• 3792-02 or 3792-90 – what’s the difference?
• Using 3792 with pre-16 learners
• Numberwise and Wordwise – useful formative tools

Skills for Life news is published every month and contains all the latest information and updates about City & Guilds’ learner qualifications designed to support the Skills for Life strategy in England, Essential Skills for Living strategy in Northern Ireland and National Basic Skills Strategy for Wales.

A downloadable (PDF) version of the newsletter (for printing and/or circulating to colleagues) is available below. full archive of back issues is available from here.

Important changes to adult numeracy/literacy (3792) ‘weekly’ tests from January 2008

As you may already be aware, City & Guilds is introducing major changes to its processing systems and Walled Garden during this autumn. One immediate advantage of the new platform is that we’re able to simplify the administrative procedures for accessing the paper based 3792 ‘weekly’ tests.

Details are as follows:

1. From January 2008, you will no longer need to quote separate component numbers for each test, each week; instead there will be just one component number per test:

• 3792-300 – Adult Numeracy level 1
• 3792-400 – Adult Literacy level 1
• 3792-500 – Adult Numeracy level 2
• 3792-600 – Adult Literacy level 2

2. The procedure for making candidate entries will also change: instead of being ‘Dated Entries’, the weekly tests will now be ordered through the Walled Garden’s new ‘On Demand’ screen. Instead of entering for the Monday of a given week, you’ll be asked when making an entry for details of when you want the test to take place.

These new arrangements are similar to those that currently operate for our Single-Subject (former Pitman) examinations. They are also more like the ‘scheduling’ system used for GOLA tests.

3. We will also be changing where these tests are located. When the new arrangements come into effect, all paper-based tests will be accessed through the following Qualification (Complex) numbers:

• 3792-11 – Level 1 Certificate in Adult Numeracy
• 3792-12 – Level 2 Certificate in Adult Numeracy
• 3792-13 – Level 1 Certificate in Adult Literacy
• 3792-14 – Level 2 Certificate in Adult Literacy

4. The separate weekly test Qualification numbers (3792-40, 3792-41, 3792-42 and 3792-43) will be withdrawn after the week beginning 24 December 2007. Separate numbers for these was only ever intended to be an interim measure.*

However, there will continue to be separate Qualification numbers (3792-21, 3792-22, 3792-23 and 3792-24) for the online tests accessed through GOLA.

5. We also plan to withdraw the fixed-date 3792 tests (3792-220, -221, -230 and -231) in due course. As it stands, dates for these have been published up until September 2008, although given that the new on-demand system enables all centres to access the tests whenever they want, we may bring forward the withdrawal date. We’ll keep you posted about this.

Please note these new arrangements do not come into force until 1 January 2008. In the meantime, in the meantime please continue to use the list of weekly test component numbers (available from the National Tests Resource Centre) when entering candidates.

Please also be aware that these arrangements only affect 3792. For the time being, all paper-based ESOL Skills for Life level 1-2 Reading tests (and key skills tests) will continue to be available only on fixed dates.

ESOL for Work – ‘expand your English skills’ campaign

Following on from last month, we’re pleased to report that our ESOL for Work (3694) qualification handbook is now available to download (note the new more user-friendly web address: www.cityandguilds.com/esolforwork).

Our UK-based ESOL qualifications (ESOL for Work and ESOL Skills for Life) are the subject of a major campaign this autumn. Called ‘expand your English skills’, we’re aiming to highlight how these two qualifications complement each other and provide a choice to suit the varying needs of different ESOL learners.

Page 19 of our ESOL for Work handbook contains a table summarising the key differences between the two qualifications. The ‘eight burning questions’ about ESOL for Work that we featured in last month’s Skills for Life news (see Issues 11-20 archive document) are also a useful point of reference.

One piece of good news for centres in Northern Ireland: the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) has confirmed that it will fund programmes leading to our ESOL for Work qualification.

Note existing City & Guilds ESOL Skills for Life (3692) centres wishing to offer ESOL for Work are eligible for fast-track approval. The form can either be e-mailed to skillsforlife@cityandguilds.com or sent to your local regional/national City & Guilds office.

We are still on the look-out for more topics to add to the bank of live ESOL for Work assignments. We’re keen to work with any centres or employers with particular themes or ideas relevant to their ESOL learners. If you have any flashes of inspiration, please get in touch via skillsforlife@cityandguilds.com.

Whilst the practice assignment ‘Ready for work’ is already available on our website, the first live assignments will be uploaded within the next month. These will be password protected documents (similar to our new arrangements for 3792 – see below); approved 3694 centres will receive the access password once the documents are ready.

Entry level 3792 – more about the new arrangements for accessing assessment materials

We announced in last month’s Skills for Life news that all of the Entry level adult numeracy/literacy assignments and short tasks are now available as password-protected PDF documents from our website.

Unfortunately a few of these documents were initially uploaded without the correct title page, and whilst this now been corrected we apologise for any confusion this might have caused!

A letter confirming the new arrangements and passwords was sent to the adult numeracy/literacy co-ordinator at every active Entry level 3792 centre in early September.

If, for any reason, your centre did not receive the letter, a copy can be obtained by e-mailing us at skillsforlife@cityandguilds.com. However, for security reasons, we will only disclose the passwords if:

• you confirm that you are the designated Adult Numeracy/Literacy Co-ordinator (or Quality Assurance Co-ordinator) at your centre
• you include your centre number and full address
• the request is sent from a centre-based e-mail account (rather than a personal hotmail or similar address).
  
  

The passwords (w******** for literacy, n********** for numeracy) can be found on page 2 of the letter. Please ensure they are entered in lower-case. Given that some of the assignments have been updated, we would strongly urge you to use the new downloadable assessment materials. The ‘Group A’ and ‘Group B’ 3792 CDs should now be discarded.

Format of the assessments
There has been no change to the nature of these assessments as a result of the new distribution arrangements. As before, when the assignments and short tasks were supplied on CD-ROM, all of these documents are provided as PDFs. Each assignment or short tasks set comprises a candidate’s paper and assessment pack; both documents must be downloaded and printed prior to use.

Please also be aware that we do not provide tapes for the adult literacy assignment listening activities. These should be recorded locally using the transcript contained in the assessment pack.

These arrangements only apply to 3792 (and 3694) – for now!
Whilst we are hoping to introduce similar arrangements for our Entry level ESOL Skills for Life (3692) assignments, for the time being these continue to be supplied to centres on four CD-ROMs (CD-01-3692, CD-02-3692, CD-90-3692 and CD-91-3692). If you do not have any of these CDs, please contact your local City & Guilds regional/national office.

Also, centres in Northern Ireland offering Certificates in Essential Skills (3800) should continue to order the Entry level tasks from our Northern Ireland office during the designated ordering periods.

However, assignments for the new Certificate in ESOL for Work (3694) will be supplied as password protected downloadable files.

3792-02 or 3792-90 – what’s the difference?

We’ve received a few queries recently about the difference between our two Entry level adult literacy registration routes (3792-02 and 3792-90).

Whereas 3792-02 is designed for candidates completing the whole adult literacy qualification (reading, writing, and speaking and listening), 3792-90 is intended for candidates planning to complete only one or two units. Registration fees for 3792-90 are weighted to reflect this, although it is still possible to achieve a full qualification using the 3792-90 route.

Using 3792 with pre-16 learners

Just as a quick reminder, the Certificates in Adult Numeracy and Adult Literacy are included on the DCSF Section 96 list of qualifications approved in England for use with learners under the age of 16. The Welsh Assembly Government has likewise approved their use with pre-16 learners in Wales.

In England, QCA has assigned the following Points Scores to these qualifications for use in School Achievement and Attainment performance tables:

Attainment at Entry 1 = 2.5 points
Attainment at Entry 2 = 3.0 points
Attainment at Entry 3 = 3.5 points
Attainment at Level 1 = 12.5 points (contributes 10% towards level 1 threshold)
Attainment at Level 2 = 23.0 points (contributes 10% towards level 1 or level 2 threshold).

Numberwise and Wordwise – useful formative tools

Finally, with 3792 grabbing much of the limelight it is easy to forget that we also offer Numberwise (3798) and Wordwise (3799).

Numberwise and Wordwise are mapped to the adult numeracy and adult literacy national standards and are designed to be used with the core curricula. Originally developed in conjunction with learndirect, each contains six bite-sized units that can be used for formative assessment and to help candidates gain confidence.

It is important to appreciate that these qualifications are not on the National Qualifications Framework, and so are not eligible for output-related funding. However they can be used to help candidates prepare for the Certificates in Adult Numeracy and Adult Literacy and in certain circumstances (at Entry level) they may attract Other Provision funding.

More information about both qualifications, including handbooks and logbooks, is available from here.

* Any centres approved for 3792-40, -41, -42 and -43 should also have been given approval for 3792-11,  -12, -13 and -14. Check with your local regional/national City & Guilds office if unsure