There are no formal entry qualifications, but you will take an assessment at the interview to make sure this is the right qualification for you.

Functional Skills English will take you a total of 17 weeks to complete. You will attend college at our Spalding Campus.

For most people, the course is free although there could be a charge depending on your funding eligibility, which might depend on visas and residency.

You will be assessed through externally set examinations for Reading and Writing, as well as two Speaking and Listening tasks that are marked internally.

The benefit of Functional Skills exams is that you will mostly receive your results within three weeks of taking an exam, and that re-sits are available on demand if you don’t pass first time.

Each part of the qualification is assessed separately, so once you have passed one part of the qualification, you don’t have to do that exam again even if you don’t pass the other exams straight away.

Functional Skills English is often an entry requirement for other college and university courses and is part of most apprenticeship frameworks. It is a suitable qualification for many career paths such as administrative roles, retail, hospitality, trades and manufacturing roles.