Frustration has been building across the sector over the dramatic increase in GCSE English and maths entries caused by the government’s controversial resits policy. As a result, calls have been getting louder for functional skills to be made available as an alternative.

The qualifications were introduced in 2007 to provide non-GCSE flexible study programmes for adults and young people wanting to return to education. In 2015, former skills minister Nick Boles announced that the qualifications were to be overhauled because “learners and employers must have faith in them”, with the Education and Training Foundation tasked with reforming them. The new versions are set to be introduced in 2019.

This month, the new English and maths content was unveiled by the Department for Education for consultation. Phonics has been added to English, which has a “greater focus on oral communication, and the requirements for spelling, punctuation and grammar have been strengthened”, according to the consultation document. In maths, the reformed content has “a strong focus on contextualising knowledge and skills to improve the relevance for students - eg, calculating percentages based on VAT or calculating simple compound interest” (anyone wishing to take part in the consultation can visit bit.ly/ReformCons).

But what do experts in the FE sector think about the proposed changes?