Successive governments since 1988 have attempted to address the relevance of education for both our young people and employers. Today, it is the holistic approach to education and learning that Ofsted is encouraging, not just specific subject knowledge. That means more focus on vocational courses needs to be evidenced.

Nowhere is this more relevant than in further education, where providers manage and deliver apprenticeship programmes and functional skills to a wide spectrum of students who have been - for whatever reason - unable to attain GCSE English or maths at school.

However, after almost two years since Ofsted’s common inspection framework was published, functional skills level 2 is still an anomaly sitting, it seems, uncomfortably with both employers and universities. The problem is that they are still uncertain of its value. Is functional skills level 2 inferior to, or on par with, GCSE English and maths? If so, why isn’t the government allowing FE providers to offer functional skills as an enticing alternative to GCSE? To this end, it is the job of the government to ensure that not only is functional skills offered to students as a pathway, but that the qualification has the credibility and prestige in the job market.

Despite the fact that the course contains material and skills that are more “functional” than GCSE, as well as being more relevant and applicable to the world of work, functional skills is still viewed with the same prejudice that greeted the introduction of NVQs in the early 1980s. Back then, it was not clear what BTEC/NVQ equivalence was in relation to A levels. It took a few years for such uncertainty and unfettered prejudice to dissipate.

Today, the fact is that not only the government but also some providers do not value functional skills courses or prioritise them as much as they should. More often than not, staff with the most expertise, qualifications and experience end up teaching higher-level, crème-de-la-crème courses, while new or inexperienced staff are compelled or coerced into teaching functional skills. Of course, this is academic snobbery: a sense among the teaching staff that functional skills is beneath them. In some institutions, this attitude also extends to management.

For this reason, Ofsted inspectors are keen to see how versed individual managers are with the actual delivery of functional skills. Do they understand the ethos of these courses and the underlying principles they embody? Are they taking these courses seriously or are they merely paying lip service to policy and guidelines in order to secure government capital for their establishment? Do they really value functional skills students? Are they taking sufficient care of them and providing them with all the necessary support and encouragement? And, more importantly, are the providers giving knowledge and skills that would be useful in the outside world?

A problem of marketing

The fact that these questions have to be asked in the first place partly explains why the Education and Training Foundation is reforming functional skills. The new version is due to be published in the 2019-20 academic year.

But even in the existing form, functional skills level 2 contains skills descriptors that are more relevant to the world of work than GCSE English and maths. This is partly because students are given real-life scenarios that they are likely to use: writing reports; calculating expenditure; working out compound interest and VAT; filling in an application form; commenting on a situation; writing a complaint to customer services or organising a holiday.

However, if we want to change the way employers and universities think about functional skills, schools and providers will have to address the way they are marketing and presenting these courses. Pupils should know how they differ from GCSEs. And apart from the conventional route, students need to be made aware of alternative pathways to success.

Functional skills offer students an opportunity to acquire transferable employability skills in a meaningful way, bringing benefits beyond the confines of education and training. But unless the government and management treat these courses as viable and effective alternatives to GCSE, they will remain undermined by snobbery.

Dr Roshan Doug is head of functional skills at Halesowen College and an education consultant. He tweets @dougroshan