Alfie Ashford
Apprentice Electrician · Plymouth, Devon
Functional Skills Maths and English – Level 2
“Chris on the phone was brilliant – he walked me through every step of signing up to take my maths and English again. I've dreaded this for years and he made it feel completely doable.”
The Challenge
Alfie had left school at 16 with grade 3 in GCSE Maths and grade 4 in GCSE English – one mark below the grade 4 threshold in Maths that his electrical apprenticeship training provider required. He had been turned down for two apprenticeship programmes because of this gap, and the prospect of resitting a full GCSE felt overwhelming. He had genuinely disliked Maths at school and associated formal assessment with failure. At 19, working as a labourer on construction sites and trying to break into a skilled electrical trade, the Functional Skills Level 2 route was presented to him by an apprenticeship provider as the recognised alternative.
Why learndirect
Alfie called learndirect after finding them through a search for Functional Skills providers. Chris, the enrolment adviser, spent time with him on the phone explaining the difference between the full GCSE and Functional Skills, confirming that the Level 2 qualification was fully accepted by his target apprenticeship provider, and walking him through the online study and exam process step by step. “He didn't rush me or use language I didn't understand. He was just really clear and straightforward,” Alfie said. The tutor-supported online preparation model gave him the ability to work through Maths topics he had genuinely never understood before, at his own pace, without the anxiety of a classroom.
The Outcome
Alfie passed Functional Skills Maths Level 2 on his second sitting and Functional Skills English Level 2 on his first. He was offered a Level 3 Electrical Installation Apprenticeship with a Plymouth-based contractor within three months of completing both qualifications – the exact outcome that the Functional Skills journey had been pointing towards. As a qualified Electrician on completion of his apprenticeship, Alfie can expect to earn £30,000–£45,000 in the South West, with significant upside for self-employment. “I feel like I've finally got past the thing that was holding me back,” he said.