Functional Skills are new qualifications for ENGLISH, MATHS and ICT vital for young people and adults to participate in life, learning and work.

The qualifications across ENGLISH, MATHS and ICT are being piloted until September 2010, after which they will become mandatory for national assessment.

Functional Skills will underpin all educational and training choices and will be included in the Diploma, GCSE and Foundation Learning Tier, as well as being stand-alone qualifications in their own right.

The development of functional skills is seen by the Government as essential to address employers' concerns that young people and adults are not achieving a firm enough grounding in the basics.

Functional Skills will strengthen and bring consistency to learning routes for young people and adults and will replace basic and key skills over time.

Functional skills-ready assessments in ENGLISH, MATHS and ICT are available now from ForSkills.