Foundation Design and Technology
Foundation Design and Technology is a two year Entry Level and Level 1 course for learners aged 14 to 16, taken in one of three pathways: Engineering Design, Fashion and Textiles or Product Design. Its digital content is modest and mostly named as examples. Every pathway examines the advantages and disadvantages of CAD/CAM in the Unit 1 topic tests, which centres can run on screen, and Engineering Design adds systems, flowcharts and circuit modelling. In the Unit 2 design project, learners may use CAD, CAM, audio and visual recordings and computer-based tools such as AI to record and develop ideas, alongside hand drawing and modelling. The most useful thing KS3 can build is confident, purposeful use of simple CAD and CAM, with pupils recording their research, plans and decisions digitally.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level and Level 1
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Medium
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this qualification is assessed
- Unit 1: Design and Technology in the 21st Century: Three topic tests of 20 minutes each (1 hour in total): a Core Knowledge and Understanding test on health and safety (16 marks) and two pathway tests on Materials and Components and on Tools, Techniques and Processes (12 marks each), 40 marks, 30%, set and marked by WJEC, digital or paper format within a four week window
- Unit 2: Design Project: Non-examination assessment, a sustained design and make task of approximately 40 hours based on a contextual challenge set by the centre, 60 marks, 70%, set and marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
Skills that use Health and well-being
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Describing the advantages and disadvantages of CAD and CAM
In every pathway, learners describe the advantages and disadvantages of CAD/CAM in making a product or component, and this is tested in the Unit 1 pathway topic tests. Product Design learners also learn the laser cutter and 3D printing as industrial processes for plastics, and Fashion and Textiles learners identify computerised embroidery machines as specialist equipment.
DCF: Health and well-being, Evaluating and improving digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils cut the same simple shape by hand with a coping saw and on the laser cutter, then record in a table which was quicker, more accurate and less wasteful.
- Year 8
- Pupils compare a hand drawing and a CAD drawing of the same product and explain two advantages and one disadvantage of CAD, such as the cost of software or the training needed.
- Year 9
- Pupils watch a short film of CAM in a factory, such as computerised embroidery or CNC routing, and write a balanced answer on the advantages and disadvantages for the company, the workers and the product.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 1, Sections 1.1.3, 1.1.5 and 1.1.7, pages 15, 16 and 18
“describe the advantages and disadvantages of CAD/CAM in the production of a product and/or component”
Progression step 3
I can identify the wider positive and negative influences of technology, e.g. on my life, on society, on the environment.
Progression step 4
I can justify the reasons for choices and explain the advantages and disadvantages of the different digital outputs I create.
Good to know
- Centres choose how Unit 1 is sat: "Centres can select from digital and paper formats within a four-week assessment window." (Summary of assessment, page 5), with separate "Topic tests (On-screen)" and "Topic tests (Paper)" entry codes (Section 5.1, page 29).
- Digital tools in the project are examples, not requirements: learners "communicate and record their ideas using appropriate techniques, for example:" CAD, CAM, audio and visual recordings and AI, alongside hand drawing and modelling (Unit 2, Section 2.1.3, page 21).
- CAD/CAM knowledge is compulsory in every pathway: learners "describe the advantages and disadvantages of CAD/CAM in the production of a product and/or component." (Unit 1, pages 15, 16 and 18).
- Equipment named in the pathways includes the "laser cutter" and "3D printing" for Product Design (page 18) and "computerised embroidery machines" for Fashion and Textiles (page 16).
- AI is named as an example tool, "computer-based tools, for example, AI." (page 21), but the specification gives no separate AI rules. Work must be authenticated: "Authentication sheets must be signed by both the teacher and the learner." (Section 3.3, page 26).
- The specification does not say how Unit 2 evidence is submitted. It states "Written evidence must be annotated to show how it meets the marking criteria." and performance evidence such as presentations "must be documented using observation records" (Section 3.3, page 26).
- Appendix A (page 33) ticks Digital Competence Interacting and Collaborating and Data and Computational Thinking for Unit 2 only; Citizenship and Producing are not ticked for either unit.
Links with other qualifications
The specification says the qualification "provides a broad basis for progression onto GCSE Design and Technology" (page 8). The Foundation shares the GCSE's three pathways, its 40 hour design project and its knowledge of CAD and CAM, but asks learners only to describe the advantages and disadvantages of CAD/CAM and lists CAD, CAM and AI as optional examples. GCSE Design and Technology steps this up with an on-screen examination with typed extended answers, 2D and 3D CAD modelling and preparing files for CAM, programmable microcontrollers in Engineering Design, and the impact of emerging technologies.
Source: WJEC Entry Level/Level 1 Foundation Design and Technology specification, approved by Qualifications Wales, teaching from September 2027, for award from 2029 (© WJEC CBAC Ltd 2026).