Functional skills qualifications: What are they? (Updated for 2025)

Functional skills qualifications give you knowledge and skills in maths and English which you can apply to real-life situations in work, study and your personal life. You can also do functional skills in ICT.

If you’re thinking about doing an apprenticeship and don’t have grade 4 in English and maths GCSE, you may need one or more functional skills qualifications to get onto your scheme. However the Government relaxed the rules in February, so the requirements are now less strict – read on to find out more.

Here, we explain what functional skills qualifications are and how you can get them.

What are functional skills?

Functional skills qualifications are available in English and maths.

They are designed to teach you three things in each of these subjects:

• Knowledge
• Understanding
• Skills

Functional skills qualifications are designed to give you practical knowledge, which means you can take what you learn and apply it directly to your work and study – and even your personal life.

They are available at three levels:

• Entry levels 1, 2 and 3: These are mainly for people re-entering learning after a break, hence “entry level”.
• Level 1: The same as getting a GCSE grade 1-3 in that subject.
• Level 2: Like getting a GCSE grade 9-4.

Functional skills replaced a set of older qualifications called “key skills”.

Do I need functional skills?

Functional skills are designed to give you the basic knowledge you need to do well work – and life in general! Just as importantly, they help you develop the ability to apply this knowledge in real-life situations. If you have a GCSE at grade 4 or higher in English and maths, you have functional skills, as this is the standard method of testing for functional skills. If you don’t get 4+ in English or maths GCSE, you could choose to do a functional skills qualification instead of resitting your GCSEs.

In 2025, the government changed the rules around functional skills for apprenticeships. Apprentices aged 16, 17 and 18 when they start their apprenticeship must work towards functional skills in maths and English. However, those aged 19 and over when their apprenticeships begins will no longer need to have functional skills – it's up to the employer and the apprentice whether they pursue a qualification.

Lots of apprenticeship providers let apprentices study for their functional skills while they work towards their apprenticeship, which means if you're aged 16, 17 or 18 and don't have your GCSEs, you don’t have to wait before applying for an apprenticeship.

Because functional skills focus on the practical application of the subjects, you might find it easier to apply what you learn to real life.

What will I learn?

Remember, functional skills are meant to be practical – they teach you stuff you can apply to your life, work and learning. This means that in maths, you’ll learn to do things like rounding, recognising patterns and using fractions, but the focus will be on how you can use these skills in real life.

For your level 2 functional skills in English, you’ll learn to:

• Contribute to discussions.
• Present information.
• Understand pieces of writing, compare them and use them to form opinions and make arguments.
• Create pieces of writing to get ideas across clearly and persuasively.

In maths, you’ll learn to:

• Learn to understand and solve simple problems.
• Use maths to check information.
• Interpret numbers in real-life situations.

Do I have to sit a test?

Yes.

The level 2 test is a bit like sitting a GCSE exam (sorry!). It’s set and marked by an external body like AQA, OCR or Edexcel, names you might recognise from school or college. The details will depend on the exam board, but you’ll be given around 90 minutes to two hours for each exam paper.

The difference is, all the questions will ask you to think about a real-life situation, and the tasks you’ll be asked to complete will have a realistic purpose.

Just like in real life, you’ll often be given some background information which you can use to help you answer the questions.

For example, this is the sort of question you might encounter in the functional skills level 2 maths paper, complete with background information:

Background information

Use this formula to convert degrees Celsius (C) to degrees Fahrenheit (F): F = 1.8 x C + 32.

F is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. C is the temperature in degrees Celsius.

Question

The temperature in a dance class should be at least 65F. Sue reads the temperature one morning. It reads 19C.

Show that the temperature is above 65F.

Are you on this page because you’re thinking about applying for an apprenticeship? Take a look at our complete guide to apprenticeships to read about the different types, and the entry requirements for each.