Over the last ten years or so, we have talked about Skills for Life; Key Skills; Essential Skills; Basic Skills; literacy and numeracy skills; English and maths skills and now we are discussing functional skills.

Good literacy and numeracy skills are vital for our everyday lives whether at work, study or at home. For years now, trade unions have done an excellent and very effective job in supporting adult learners in improving their English and maths skills through their learning centre and union learning rep (ULR) networks.

A lot of the discussion presently revolves around the GCSEs and functional skills. The GCSEs are the academic qualification young people take age 14-16. Functional skills, on the other hand, are English and maths skills that are contextualised and can be applied to everyday life and work. Both qualifications are set to Level 2, which, in GCSE terms, mean C-A* grades. This is generally a good ambition for anyone.

Good literacy and numeracy skills help people do their jobs better, manage personal finances, help with children's school work and be active citizens, to name a few of the positive effects.

The previous skills minister Matthew Hancock saw GCSEs as a qualification for all learners, adults and children, to aim for. Functional skills were seen as a secondary option or a stepping stone for more important GCSEs. The current minister Nick Boles has a bit more sympathy for functional skills, which has been a very welcome approach from union point of view.

Some of the recent discussion suggests that functional skills having an image problem that could be rectified with a rebranding exercise. It is difficult to see how renaming functional skills would make much difference. What is important is developing ideas and approaches that truly encourage adult learners to enjoy learning and achieving goals that are relevant to them.

Without a doubt, the quality of qualifications and learning are hugely important and should be addressed. Constant changes with names and aims, however, do not make it easier to engage learners or employers. Functional skills have been proven to attract adults back to learning. Even employers have given good feedback on value of functional skills. This is a good place to start building a long-term strategy for supporting adult learners.

This is why unionlearn and unions are taking active part in responding to the Making Maths and English Work for All review that is being carried out by the Education and Training Foundation and are encouraging others to do so.