More people nearly turn down an apprenticeship over this than over anything else on the site. So here is the current position, the actual rules, and what support looks like. Spoiler: the rules are kinder than school was.
The rules changed in 2025. Adult apprentices can now complete their apprenticeship and pass the final assessment without sitting functional skills exams first. You will still build the maths and English your actual job needs, inside the training, where it makes sense.
If you want the qualifications anyway, we will teach you for free. Plenty of our learners choose to, on their own terms, without an exam date hanging over their first months.
Younger apprentices still work towards maths and English qualifications as part of the programme. The level depends on your apprenticeship and where you are now, and we map that out with you personally in your first weeks.
The teaching fits the job, and it fits you. Kitchen maths taught through costing a menu sticks better than a worksheet ever did. That is how we do it.
Most of the people we train did not enjoy classrooms, and quite a few left them early. Here is what changes this time round.
The skills check finds your actual level, without judgement, and the teaching starts there. Nobody hands you a GCSE paper on day one.
Portion costs, medication charts, rotas, temperatures. The maths and English live inside tasks you already care about, which is where they finally start making sense.
Tell us, or let our ten minute learning tool spot the patterns for you. Extra time, different formats and one-to-one help all exist, including in the final assessment.
Struggling with maths at school tells us about the school. It tells us almost nothing about you.
Our starting assumption
Ten minutes with our learning tool turns how you actually learn into instructions for your trainer. Anonymous until you choose otherwise.
