Functional skills are the everyday skills we use in literacy, numeracy and ICT. These could include reading bus timetables to help us travel, work out prices in supermarkets and talking or texting people on the phone.
In order to embed elements of functional skills in my specialist area, I encouraged my students to answer questions on what I have gone through with them in the classroom, and to join in group discussions or maybe have a fun quiz to get their mind going on what I’ve went through with them in the classroom without them really thinking about it. This encourages my students to think for themselves by recalling information from their own minds.
Out in the workshop after I have demonstrated what I have gone through with them in the classroom, I encourage the students to put their knowledge which they have learnt in the classroom and demonstration into practice. This demonstrates good communication skills.
When finished the task in hand, with feedback from me, I encourage the students to inspect and assess their own work, giving them the chance to go over what they have done and see for themselves what they have achieved and what they may have done differently, showing that they understand the task set out. I include functional skills in my area of teaching by getting the students to find the amount of water in a length of pipe, measuring the height needed to set the bath panel on the