Functional Skills Scenarios for English

Functional Skills is all about identifying and using the appropriate skill in any situation - whether that is a scenario that is familiar or unfamiliar to the learner.

Guroo supports this concept by providing you with a wide variety of resources that practice skills in different settings. We call these situations “Learning Challenges”. The more scenarios your learners use their skills in, the closer they get to that ideal of “mastery” where it no longer matters what the situation is.

The guroo service contains the scenarios listed below specifically designed for functional English - but its important to remember that there are elements of most challenges that are relevant to the Functional Skills standards of other subjects. So, while your colleagues in ICT and Mathematics are working through their subjects’ guroo Learning Challenges, they will also be covering part of functional English!

It’s also worth noting that although you may be working with learners at a particular level, many of the materials at other levels can be used as the basis of valuable practice.

The guroo Functional Skills service currently includes these Learning Challenges for English:

Level 2

Master Chef

You have entered a competition that requires you to submit a recipe for a dish you yourself have created. To have a chance of winning you will need to:
• write your recipe in a logical order
• include details of timings, equipment needed, and ingredients with measures
• include supporting images
• check your recipe for spelling, grammar, punctuation and meaning.

My Idol

You have enrolled on a part-time writing course at the local college. One of the first things your tutor asks you to do is to write a short essay about a famous person that you admire. This will include:
• planning what you need to write
• organising the essay into sections
• checking your work for grammar, punctuation and spelling errors
• writing a final draft.

Is It Safe?

You are the training officer in a small manufacturing company. You have been asked to put together some safety information for the training course they are running for new starters. This will involve:
• obtaining relevant information about safety regulations
• putting together a fact sheet
• read one of the trainee’s outputs and comment on how effectively they conveyed their thoughts.

Going Green

You are a member of a village community group. They have asked you to do some research in to recycling to see if there ways to help the village contribute more effectively to this environmental issue. You will be required to write a short report on your findings which will include:
• planning what you need to write
• organising the text into sections
• checking your work for grammar, punctuation and spelling errors
• writing a final draft.

Home Sweet Home

You want to move house so you have contacted a local Estate Agent and asked them to send details of properties you might be interested in buying. You have also asked them to put your home up for sale. You need to:
• look through the details of the four houses they have sent you and comment how effectively the houses have been portrayed
• look through the same details and identify points of view, implicit meaning and/or bias
• read the Estate Agents report on your house and actively respond to specific items.

Going .. Going .. Gone!

In this challenge you want to sell something and have decided to try and sell it using an online auction website. To increase your chance of selling the item you will need to:
• write your advert in an interesting and informative way
• include details of its size, function, condition, and postage and packaging costs
• include images that show off the ‘best’ features of the item

Through The Keyhole

In this challenge, you have a part time job in an Estate Agent’s office. After a couple of weeks you are given the task of writing an advert for a new house that has come on the market. You have to write two adverts. The first advert is for the Estate Agent’s window with a limit of 150 words. The second one is for the local newspaper with a limit of 50 words.
This task includes:
• planning what you need to write
• choosing an image to use in the advert
• checking your work for grammar, punctuation and spelling errors
• writing a final draft

Have I Got News For You!

In this challenge, you have a part time job at a local hospital radio station. You have been given some news reports to write for the next news bulletin in the morning.
This task includes:
• planning what you need to write
• checking your work for grammar, punctuation and spelling errors for the presenter
• writing a final draft

Level 1

Quiet Please

You want to take up origami as a hobby, so decide to join the library to find out more about it. You will be asked to:
•    complete a library application form
•    find specific books on origami
•    follow instructions to create an origami animal.

Clowning Around

You and a friend are out shopping in town. You will be asked to:
•    identify the facial expressions and gestures of a mime artist
•    recognise the body language of other shoppers
•    enter a word search competition about positive body language.

Pharaoh’s Revenge

You have a weekend job in a local Travel Centre. The Centre is getting ready to host an open day to promote holidays to Egypt. Your duties will include:
•    reviewing an information sheet about Egypt to identify the facts and opinions
•    completing a crossword puzzle that is to be used in a holiday competition
•    selecting appropriate images to be included in a poster
•    selecting appropriate signs to display in the centre to help visitors.

Please Hold!

You buy a new Smartphone. It worked really well for the first couple of months, and you start to have problems with it. You decide to phone your service provider to sort this out.
•    phone your service provider and explain the problems you are having
•    he service provider asks you to draft a letter to confirm the problems in writing
•    spot the spelling, punctuation and grammar errors in the letter they send back to you.

Driving You Mad

In this challenge, you want to apply for a provisional driving licence. You will be asked to:
•    complete a driving licence application form
•    search an index
•    follow directions on a map and write directions to and from a given location

Entry Level 3

Face Off

In this challenge, you and a friend are out shopping. You will be asked to:
•    Look at the expressions on a mime artist’s face
•    Recognise the body language of other shoppers
•    Enter a word search competition about positive body language

New York, New York

In this challenge, you have a weekend job in a local Travel Centre. In an attempt to sell more holidays to New York, the Centre is going to host an open day. You will need to:
•    check an information sheet about New York to make sure the facts are correct
•    work out the answers for a crossword puzzle that is to be used in a holiday competition
•    make up a poster advertising the weekend promotion
•    select  appropriate health and safety signs

Sounds good? Find out how you get access to all these - and more - here.