We’ve improved our Functional Skills qualifications

Following your valuable feedback and a thorough review of our English and maths qualifications, we’ve made improvements to our assessments, resources and practice papers.

We're excited to announce that our new papers will be available to sit from Friday 17 October 2025. More details on new paper introductions and results release can be found on our key dates information webpage.

The last opportunity for learners to sit an old-style onscreen and paper-based assessment will be up to and including 16 October 2025.

We’ve focused on three key areas:

Accessibility – we’ve made our assessments more accessible for learners to complete and demonstrate their knowledge.

Clarity – we’ve improved our approach to make assessments clearer for learners:

• Our maths assessments now require less reading, and we’ve removed the context from underpinning skills questions.
• Our English Reading assessments now assess more of the main points of a text, with more variety in the question types. At Level 1, we’ve made big changes to the way we assess learners’ comparison skills, and at Level 2, to their comparison and analysis skills.
• Our English Writing assessments at Entry Level now include our new approach to the spelling test. There are also new discrete punctuation tasks. At Level 1 and 2, learners will have longer to complete the assessments. Please note that due to the duration of these assessments being increased by 10 minutes, the cost of remote invigilation will increase from £34.00 to £40.50, in line with our fees and pricing guide.
• We have new mark schemes that will support learning and teaching activities.

Support – we’ll have a range of new materials and support available:

• Our Provider Development team will offer new training and events for delivery staff. Find out more at Functional Skills events | NCFE.
• We have new sample assessment materials at each level, with practice papers to come soon. Onscreen sample assessment materials can be booked and accessed through Surpass. In-browser versions can be accessed on our Functional Skills online sample assessments English and maths webpage. Paper-based versions can be accessed on the individual qualification webpages under ‘Assessment Materials’.
• Our External Quality Assurance team is here to support with any queries you may have.

We're launching new learning and teaching resources to support the delivery of the improved qualifications

• The resources cover all levels, and each will feature a detailed scheme of work covering all 55 guided learning hours of the curriculum.
• Comprehensive PowerPoint documents will be available to allow you to run 2-hour sessions with class activities and embedded videos, some with AI-powered presenters.
• Entry Level learners will have access to workbooks supporting learning for sessions, and new end-of-topic project workbooks to consolidate it.
• At Levels 1 and 2, comprehensive learner workbooks cover the whole curriculum.

Find out more

Attend our free onboarding webinar for a full overview of NCFE Functional Skills qualifications and the opportunity to ask questions about the changes.

3:30 – 5pm September 15^th 2025

Register here