Foundation Humanities
WJEC Entry Level/Level 1 Foundation Humanities is a two year, 120 hour course for learners aged 14 to 16, assessed entirely by portfolio. Learners take two of five subject units (Business, Geography, History, Religious Studies and Social Studies) and the mandatory Unit 6, which links the subjects through sustainability in Wales. Digital work is light and mostly optional: the aims mention enquiry using digital technology where appropriate, and the content touches digital advertising and websites in Business, online rights, digital exclusion and social media campaigns in Social Studies, and climate data in Geography. Online research, judging sources and working honestly are the digital skills most learners will use, whichever units they take.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level and Level 1
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this qualification is assessed
- Unit 1: Business (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 2: Geography (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 3: History (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 4: Religious Studies (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 5: Social Studies (optional): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 8 hours, 35%, 60 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC
- Unit 6: Creating sustainable communities in Wales (mandatory): Portfolio of six tasks (non-examination assessment), suggested timing approximately 7 hours, 30%, 50 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC. Learners take two of Units 1 to 5 plus Unit 6, ideally in the final year
Skills that use Identity, image and reputation
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Applying rights and responsibilities to online life
In Unit 5 learners understand rights paired with responsibilities, including the responsibility not to use harmful, hateful or derogatory language and the responsibility not to access or make public private information. The specification states these generally rather than online, but privacy and freedom of expression are where learners most often meet them, on social media and messaging apps.
DCF: Online behaviour and online bullying, Identity, image and reputation
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils sort example comments from a class chat into kind, unkind and hateful, and say what to do when they see each kind.
- Year 8
- Pupils decide whether scenarios such as sharing a friend's photo or screenshotting a private message respect the right to privacy, and explain the responsibility involved.
- Year 9
- Pupils write a short guide for Year 7 on freedom of expression and privacy online, explaining how a post becomes part of a digital footprint and when it breaks someone's rights.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 5, Section 5.1.2, page 21
“Right to privacy: Responsibility not to access or make”
Progression step 3
I can recognise language that could be deemed to be offensive (including racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic language) in online activities.
I can identify the benefits and risks of giving personal information and device access to different software.
Progression step 4
I can understand the implications of online actions, including my digital footprint and the legal implications of sharing inappropriate material.
I can understand that I have a digital footprint and that this information can be searched, copied and passed on.
Good to know
- Digital technology is encouraged but not required. The aims say learners develop enquiry skills "using digital technology where appropriate" (Section 1.1, page 8), and the learning experiences, including to "make appropriate use of digital technology when completing the qualification", "will not be directly assessed" (page 26).
- Every unit is a portfolio: "Each learner's portfolio will include six completed tasks." The tasks are set by WJEC for the lifetime of the qualification, with "opportunities to use local or other self-selected examples" (Section 3.2, page 28).
- No software, equipment or digital submission format is named. "Any specific resource requirements will be outlined in the assessment pack." (Section 3.4, page 28).
- Work is supervised and teachers "must not provide feedback on the evidence being produced" (Section 3.4, page 28). All NEA follows JCQ's "Instructions for Conducting Non-Examination Assessments (Vocational and Technical Qualifications)" (page 28); the specification itself has no separate rule on AI.
- Collaborative digital work is limited: "Group work is permitted only where specified." (Section 3.4, page 29).
- Social media content may change. The cover notes that plans to restrict social media use by children under 16 "may impact some of our qualifications" (page 1), which matters for the social media campaign methods in Unit 5.
- Appendix A (pages 35 to 37) maps Digital Competence Citizenship, Interacting and Collaborating and Producing to all six units, and Data and Computational Thinking to Units 2 to 6 but not Unit 1 Business.
Links with other qualifications
The specification describes the qualification as "a broad basis for progression onto GCSEs in the Humanities area" (page 9), and each optional unit leads towards the matching GCSE: Business, Geography, History, Religious Studies or Social Studies. The digital skills here are the starting point for those courses. GCSE Geography steps the climate data work up to GIS, digital maps and spreadsheet analysis of fieldwork data; GCSE Social Studies and GCSE Business add online questionnaires, spreadsheet statistics and financial modelling; GCSE History and GCSE Religious Studies ask learners to judge online sources and archives more critically. Unit 6 draws on sustainability ideas also met in GCSE Geography and GCSE Religious Studies.
Source: WJEC Entry Level/Level 1 Foundation Humanities specification, approved by Qualifications Wales, teaching from September 2027, for award from 2029 (© WJEC CBAC Ltd 2026).