In this month’s Skills for Life and Employability news:

• On-demand paper national tests – some further changes
• Employability qualification launch events
• ESOL for work and life events
• ESOL Skills for Life Entry level assessment CDs
• Correct qualification numbers for NVQ Language Units

Skills for Life and Employability 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 and Employability strategies 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. A full archive of previous issues is also available.

On-demand paper national tests – some further changes

As we indicated last month, the new On-demand system for accessing paper-based adult numeracy/literacy national tests (3792) has not been able to issue separate test papers and stationery where more than one test sitting is arranged in close succession.

We’re pleased to announce that this particular problem has now been fixed. When placing your order using the On-demand screen on the Walled Garden, you now need to select one of the following:

• Add the order to an existing ‘Delivery Group’ – in other words add more candidates to a test sitting that has already been scheduled. This option should be chosen where all candidates will be taking the test at the same time in the same place.
• Create a new Delivery Group – in other words request a separate set of documents (including a different version of the test). This option must be chosen where you have more than one group of candidates taking the test at different times and/or venues.

Where orders are placed using the paper BB form, or as an emailed EDI file, we will now treat each order we receive as a separate Delivery Group and issue separate documents accordingly.

Please keep all documents relating to a particular sitting together!
Where more than one Delivery Group is set up, it is imperative that the correct Invigilation Certificate (IC) and Multiple-choice Answer sheets (MAs) are used for each sitting. Mixing these up is likely to result in candidates’ responses being scanned against the wrong set of correct answers and at the very least will delay results processing.

All ICs and MAs are coded with Delivery Group and Centre Cohort reference numbers so please check that these are consistent and match the version number on the test paper that candidates have completed.

We are still intending to introduce a similar On-demand system for ESOL Skills for Life (3692) candidates taking the national test as their Level 1-2 Reading assessment. We’ll keep you posted about timescales for this.

Employability qualification launch events

As we indicated last month, we’re holding a series of launch events for our new Award and Certificate in Employability and Personal Development (7546).

This event is aimed at those managing or co-ordinating employability or NEET programmes,  eg curriculum managers, programme managers, 14-16 or 14-19 co-ordinators and tutors. The event will introduce you to the new qualification, which is due to be available from next month is intended to eventually replace the Certificate in Preparing for Employment (3797).

Purpose/overview

• Find out about City & Guilds’ new employability qualification
• Consider how you can use this qualification to engage a wide range of learners
• Explore how to integrate delivery of this qualification with Literacy, Language and Numeracy
• Network and share experiences with colleagues and the City & Guilds team.

The list of dates has now been confirmed:

• London – 16 June
• Cardiff – 17 June
• Glasgow – 24 June
• Birmingham – 27 June
• Newcastle – 8 October
• London – 13 October
• Warrington – 14 October.

To attend any of these events, please email customer.events@cityandguilds.com.

We’re also organising a separate briefing day for centres in Northern Ireland on Thursday 28 August; this will take place at our brand new office on Belfast (we’ll be moving from Marlborough House in July). For more information, contact belfast@cityandguilds.com.

ESOL for work and life events

We’re also running a series of workshops next month aimed at ESOL practitioners and coordinators with a particular focus on work related provision.

Purpose/overview

• Introducing City & Guilds’ ESOL for Work qualification (3694), including key purpose and audience structure, scope and assessment model
• ESOL policy update (from QCA/DIUS), including  the community cohesion and integration agenda possible changes to ESOL Skills for Life
• Exploring strategies for engaging employers and accessing funding
• A chance to network and share experiences.

The dates

• London – 6 June
• Warrington – 11 June
• Birmingham – 18 June

To attend any of these events, please email customer.events@cityandguilds.com.

ESOL Skills for Life Entry level assessment CDs

Just a quick reminder that the Entry level ESOL Skills for Life (3692) assignments are still, for the time being, issued to centres on CD-ROM. Please contact your local regional/national City & Guilds office if you are the centre’s designated ESOL Skills for Life co-ordinator and are missing any of the following:

We are currently updating all nine assignment titles; once this has been completed the revised versions will in be available from our website as password-protected files (similar to the new arrangements for 3792 and 3694). We’ll provide more information about this nearer the time.

Please note we no longer provide the Level 1-2 Speaking and Listening assessment packs or Writing assessment packs. These can instead be downloaded from the basic-skills.org.uk site.

Using the assignments
A choice of nine assignment titles are available, each at Entry 1, 2 and 3 and each presented in both integrated and ‘single mode’ format. The full range of assignments is intended to ensure all candidates are presented with subject matter relevant to their life experiences and/or likely to engage their interest, and we would emphasise the need to choose an appropriate assignment for each candidate.

The full range of assignment titles are:
(Version 1.0 CDs)         (Version 2.0 CDs)
Getting a job                Running a home
Going on a journey      Eat to be healthy
Using the library           You and your phone
You and your health    The Silver Screen
Driving

Please note that it is not acceptable to use only one assignment title with all of your candidates; assignments must be chosen on an individual or at least a per-cohort basis. Moreover, if a candidate is unsuccessful and needs to re-sit part or all of the assessment a different assignment title must be used.

Although candidates should be familiar with the contexts and scenarios contained within an assignment they will be attempting, the assignment itself must always be presented unseen and there can be no ‘teaching to the test’. All assessment materials must be held securely within the centre until no longer required for verification purposes and then destroyed.

Correct qualification numbers for NVQ Language Units

Finally, we are aware that there is some confusion about the correct National Database of Accredited Qualifications (NDAQ) and Learning Aims Database (LAD) numbers for our NVQ Language Unit qualifications (3377) in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Welsh.

This is a legacy of our original plan to offer these units as full NVQs. Although the full NVQs have never actually been available, we understand that they were inadvertently listed on NDAQ and the LAD. We’re currently liaising with Ofqual and LSC to have them removed, and for the record the correct titles and NDAQ/LAD numbers are as follows: