H4 - Supporting Learners to develop their Functional Skills

There are many was to embed ICT skills into a session, which will allow learners to build on their skills. ICT can be used in most sessions and could include tasks such as typing up work into a Word document, or using Power Point to create a presentation to present to the rest of the group. Getting learners to do a presentation will also embed language skills as well as ICT skills. Another way to embed ICT skills into a session is to get learners to do research on-line on a topic. In some sessions there may be a lack of ICT resources, in which case it may be more difficult to embed skills, however you could make sure that you give a handout containing links to websites relevant to your session. By providing links it will encourage learners to access them in their own time; there you have embedded skills into your session without the ICT resources in the classroom.

Numeracy skills can also be embedded in most sessions; it can be as simple as putting in a graph, bar chart, or pie chart into your presentation, or handout. This will allow your learners to get used to seeing charts and could help them to understand how they work, therefore embedding numeracy skills into your sessions. Also you could use terms such as 50% rather than half, which again will allow your learners to understand numerical terms better. Time keeping skills can also be embedded into a lesson by giving learners timetables to show what time they start their lessons, and also by informing learners that breaks are given every 45 minutes. In our organisation student are reimbursed for their travel costs, such as bus tickets, one way of embedding numeracy skills into a session could be to ask the learners to total up their travel costs rather than us working it out for them.

Literacy skills can be embedded into your sessions in a number of ways; this could include getting your learners to create posters, or handouts. You could also get learners to read out or present their work to the rest of the group, which would embed both language and communication skills into your session. Also providing a print out of your Power Point (if you have one) is another way of embedding literacy and language skills, as learners will be able to follow the Power Point at their own pace, and also gives learners a resource they can take away. Literacy and language skills can also be embedded in lessons by getting learners to take part in role play situations, or discussions on a certain topic. Language skills could be embedded into a session when starting a new topic or subject area by providing learners with a glossary which will provide learners with definitions of new terms.