Maths, English and Digital Skills
Maths and English Support
Maths and English are important areas that apprentices are required to be able to demonstrate as good levels of maths and English are required for most, if not all, jobs.
It is a funding rule that we must assess an apprentice's maths and English at the start of their apprenticeship even though they already have the maths and English qualifications required to join the programme. This is because it may have been 20 years since they did their maths GCSE and they may not have retained a level of competence that will help them through their programme (this can be true for someone who only did their qualification a year ago too). Without this background ability, apprentices may struggle with the requirements of their programme, so we have designed a tailored support package for them.
We use a system called BKSB to assess apprentice's current competency in maths and English and apprentices complete these assessments before they come on to the programme. Once they get their result, this is what we recommend:
| Result | Job specific action | Additional action |
|---|---|---|
| Level 2 | Develop maths and English related to their specific programme of study. | Access the additional online resources via BKSB. |
| Level 1 | Develop maths and English related to your specific programme of study. | Recommended that apprentice's access additional online resources via BKSB (see apprentice specific programme maths and English guide). |
| Entry Level (1, 2 or 3) | Develop maths and English related to your specific programme of study. | We strongly encourage apprentices to access additional resources including specialist support (see apprentice specific programme maths and English guide). |
For each programme we have tailored the support package for both maths and English depending on the requirements of an apprentice's programme and the Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours. Tailored support will help focus an apprentice's learning to enable them to successfully progress on their programme. For example, Nursing apprentices need to understand complex drug calculations which do not require them to understand angles, so the additional support is tailored to fractions and percentages rather than angles.
Please note ALL BKSB and University of Salford resources are available for all apprentices so if you choose to access more of the resources you can do.