Level 1 English Functional Skills

With your Functional Skills English Level 1, you will be ready to move onto your Level 2 Functional Skills English Qualification.

Having your Functional Skills English (or GCSE equivalent) qualification is vital for many careers and could help you to progress into the career you want, as many careers require a basic level of maths and English.

Your Functional Skills qualification will also enable you to continue your education as it is a requirement for many further education courses, especially at degree level.

• Identify relevant information and lines of argument in explanations or presentations
• Make requests and ask relevant questions to obtain specific information in different contexts
• Respond effectively to detailed questions
• Communicate information, ideas and opinions clearly and accurately on a range of topics
• Express opinions and arguments and support them with evidence
• Follow and understand discussions and make contributions relevant to the situation and the subject
• Use appropriate phrases, registers and adapt contributions to take account of audience, purpose and medium
• Respect the turn-taking rights of others during discussions, using appropriate language for interjection

• Identify and understand the main points, ideas and details in texts
• Compare information, ideas and opinions in different texts
• Identify meanings in texts
• Distinguish between fact and opinion
• Recognise how language and other textual features have been varied to suit audience and purpose
• (Use reference materials and) appropriate strategies for a range of purposes, including to find the meaning of words
• Understand organisational and structural features and use them to locate relevant information (in a range of straightforward texts)
• Infer meanings from images (not explicit in accompanying text)
• Recognise vocabulary typically associated with specific types and purposes
• Read and understand a range of specialist words in context
• Use knowledge of punctuation to aid understanding of straightforward texts

• Communicate information, ideas and opinions clearly, coherently and accurately
• Write text of an appropriate level of detail and of appropriate length (including where this is specified) to meet the needs of purpose and audience
• Use format, structure and language appropriate for audience and purpose
• Write consistently and accurately in complex sentences, using paragraphs where appropriate

• Use a range of punctuation correctly (eg full stops, question marks, exclamation marks,
  commas, possessive apostrophes)
• Use correct grammar (eg subject-verb agreement, consistent use of tenses, definite and
  indefinite articles)
• Spell words used most often in work, study and daily life, including specialist words