Functional skills test at enrollment

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DS (16) has just enrolled on his course but they had to sit a maths and english test. He passed maths and english GCSE

Why would they re-test is there a reason?

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It was enrolment at the sixth form college I work at today. All students did a literacy and numeracy test. For most students it's fairly irrevelant as their results were a good match to what they wanted to do, but for some students the tests highlighted that they need support in literacy and numeracy (despite having 4s in Maths and English usually) or that they didn't have the basic skills for a level 3 course and so needed to enrol on to level 2 instead.

So if a student had a 6 at gcse but a low Mark at the tests would would happen ?

In the enrolments I've done, they'd be flagged for a few support sessions hopefully to raise their literacy and numeracy levels. Not a big deal really - for their own good to help them achieve.

Thank you

It's also a funding issue for FE colleges, who receive money for students who undergo E&M assessments.

I had to do this today even though I passed English GCSE with an A/A and Math with a C over a decade ago

It's just to check if you need extra support. The questions were all quite basic, although I probably failed the maths one. I really struggle with maths. I can work out change and how much peroxide and colour to use on a 2:1 or 1:1 to basis (I'm doing a hairdressing course) but I'm not sure why I need to pass alegbra to be a hairdresser.

I'm expecting to be told I need to attend some kind of maths class to stay on the course.

It's just a standard part of the enrolment process. So many of our students don't have the C or 4 and we need to decide whether to put them in for the GCSE retake or for Functional Skills if we don't think they stand a chance of getting the GCSE. We use a combination of their GCSE grade and the screening test result to make that decision.

When we are enrolling 2000 + students, it's inevitably an impersonal process. It's too complicated to identify the minority of students who won't be doing any English and Maths and put them through a separate enrolment process, so everyone does the whole process.

If your son has achieved Cs or 4s, he won't be required to do any more M&E lessons.

It's a lovely idea that students would be flagged up for extra support lessons, but in truth, we don't have the staff or the budget to adequately support the ones who didn't get the GCSE grades so the chances of those who did get the grades getting any extra support is pretty minimal.

Where I work, teaching apprentices, all learners and apprentices undertake an Initial Assessment in Maths and English on interview followed by a Diagnostic Assessment once they have started their course. The DA identifies areas of weakness, for example a learner might have achieved a C/4 at GCSE in Maths but have problems with, say, ratio - which crops up, sometimes in disguise, in a number of real life and workplace situations.
As Maths and English are supposed to be embedded in learning, the assessors and training coordinators will bring any weaknesses up at reviews and ask learners to work through online resources to improve their understanding and skills. The resources are pretty good and provide feedback to learners and staff.