English Skills

Functional Skills courses and qualifications focus on the English skills you need to carry out tasks for life and work, e.g. letter writing, giving a short talk or understanding and comparing information from different pieces of writing.

Qualifications are available across five levels: Entry 1, 2, 3 and Level 1 and 2. To pass a Functional Skills qualification you will have an assessment in Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening.

Functional Skills level 2 is often taken as an equivalent qualification to GCSE.

Course costs

Functional Skills maths courses are free, as long as you meet the grant eligibility criteria.

Course location

Throughout the pandemic, our online courses were very popular: we will be continuing to offer online courses across the week using Microsoft Teams.

There will be face-to-face classes in the following venues:

• Adult Education Centre, Telfer Road
• Bell Green Library
• Broad Street Centre
• Cheylesmore Community Centre
• Foleshill Women’s Training Centre
• Muslim Resource Centre
• Salvation Army
• Southfields Old School
• Stoke Aldermoor Adult Learning
• Tile Hill Library
• Willenhall Education Employment and Training Centre
• Job Shop

Sign up for a course

You can book a place on an enrolment session. This will ask you to choose the venue where you would like your appointment and then ask you to choose the day and time that suits you.

If you don’t feel able to apply online, please ring our Learner Services team on 024 7697 5200.

ID needed to enrol

You will need to prove your identity and that you meet the grant eligibility criteria. To do this we need to see some ID

• If you were born in the UK please bring your birth certificate, driving licence or passport.
• If you are an EU citizen please bring your passport/ID card and a share code generated within the last 90 days.
• Otherwise, please bring your resident's permit, passport with visa or whatever documentation you have that shows your resident status.
• We will also need your National Insurance Number.

About the assessment

Online and Face-to-Face: You should allow up to two hours in order to complete a full assessment and receive advice and guidance on the best course for you.

At the assessment, we will answer any questions you might have, find out what level of English you are starting from and then find a class that meets your needs.

Course dates

We run classes during the school term times.

Classes are one session per week at the following times (no evening classes on Friday):

• Morning classes are from 9.15am until 11.45am
• Afternoon classes are from 12:30pm until 3pm
• Evening classes are from 6:30pm until 9pm (6pm - 8.30pm or 6.15pm – 8.45pm in some venues)

Entry requirements

If you struggle with spelling or reading and writing, we can help you. We welcome absolute beginners up to pre-GCSE level

If English is not your first language, we can help you gain a qualification but you will need to show that you have basic English reading and writing skills. There are no other formal entry requirements.

Qualifications

Qualifications are available across five levels: Entry 1, 2, 3 and Level 1 and 2. To pass a Functional Skills qualification you will have an assessment in Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening.

Functional Skills level 2 is often taken as an equivalent qualification to GCSE.

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

The Language Skills Team offer ESOL classes - which are courses for people who speak little or no English. Please see their webpage for more information or phone on 024 7683 2100 or email esolclasses@coventry.gov.uk.