In December 2010, John Hayes, Minister of State for Further Education Skills and Lifelong Learning confirmed the decision to extend the use of Key Skills qualifications from April 2011 to the end of September 2012. Following this awarding organisations amended the operational and certification end dates for these qualifications in the Regulatory IT System (RITS).
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has confirmed that the national test bank for Key Skills only contains sufficient material for the extended period and will, therefore, be exhausted for first teaching by September 2012. As a result, it will not be possible for awarding organisations offering Key Skills to continue to meet the regulatory criteria requirements for use of 'the agreed national tests' and, therefore, the status of the Key Skills qualifications on the Register cannot be further amended. This has a related impact not only upon Key Skills; but also Apprenticeships, Adults Basic Skills and ESOL provision.
A letter was sent from BIS on 24th March 2011 about the future role and operation of the Key Skills test bank and enclosing an implementation document, outlining the status of all related qualifications. This also covered Adult Basic Skills qualifications at Levels 1 and 2, which should not take any new enrolments after August 2012, and the Key Skills qualifications which will not take any beyond September 2012. As the literacy tests are also used within some Level 1 and 2 Skills for Life ESOL (English for Speakers of other Languages) qualifications, all such provision will also have a current operational end date of August 2012.
Ahead of the removal of Key Skills from the English Apprenticeship frameworks in September 2012, the IMI is directly working with the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and the Association of Colleges (AoC) to look at ways in which the assessment of Functional Skills could be changed to better suit Apprenticeships.