Personal Project
The WJEC Entry Level Personal Project is a stand-alone 60 hour qualification, graded Entry 1, Entry 2 or Entry 3, in which learners choose a topic that interests them and carry out a simple project. They submit a project plan and a final project, which can be written, oral, digital, an artefact, a performance or an event. It is assessed against the four Integral Skills: planning and organising, critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, and personal effectiveness. Digital demand is low. Digital work sits in planning, finding information on websites, saying where it came from, including AI tools, and presenting, and none of it has to be digital.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level
- Guided learning hours
- 60
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this qualification is assessed
- Planning and organising (learning outcomes 1 to 3): Assessment grid with seven criteria (plan a simple project, say what they want to achieve, use resources and time), each awarded 1, 2 or 3 points for Entry 1, Entry 2 or Entry 3, 21 points, 30% weighting. Internally assessed by the centre and externally moderated by WJEC.
- Critical thinking and problem solving (learning outcomes 4 and 5): Assessment grid with six criteria (find and use simple information, notice and talk about problems), each awarded 1, 2 or 3 points, 18 points, 20% weighting. Internally assessed by the centre and externally moderated by WJEC.
- Creativity and innovation (learning outcome 6): Assessment grid with three criteria (try out ideas, select colours, materials or designs, present their work), each awarded 2, 4 or 6 points, 18 points, 20% weighting. Internally assessed by the centre and externally moderated by WJEC.
- Personal effectiveness (learning outcomes 7 and 8): Assessment grid with seven criteria (share and talk about ideas, think about what they have learned), each awarded 1, 2 or 3 points, 21 points, 30% weighting. Internally assessed by the centre and externally moderated by WJEC. All four grids are applied to one two-part final entry: the project plan and the final project.
Skills that use Digital rights, licensing and ownership
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Saying where information came from, including AI tools
Every learner says or shows where their information came from, and at Entry 3 states it. The specification says candidates must say where information came from if they use books, websites or AI tools, and must not copy other people's work. Spoken projects can name the source aloud.
DCF: Digital rights, licensing and ownership, Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils add a picture from a website to a slide and type the website name underneath it.
- Year 8
- Pupils keep a list of the websites and books they used for a topic, and learn that copying without saying where it came from is cheating.
- Year 9
- Pupils write a short source list for a project, including a line saying when and how they used an AI chatbot.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Critical thinking and problem solving, learning outcome 4, assessment criterion 4.2, page 12; section 4.2, pages 16 and 17; section 4.4, page 19
“if they use information from books, websites (including AI tools) or other sources, they must say where it came from”
Progression step 3
I can understand that copying the work of others and presenting it as my own is plagiarism.
I can cite sources when researching and explain the importance of this, e.g. create simple lists for the referencing of digital and offline sources.
Progression step 4
I can evaluate the reliability of sources of information, justify my opinions and reasons for choices, and reference using appropriate methods.
Good to know
- The qualification has its own codes: "WJEC Qualification Code 9000Q0", with 9000C0 for Welsh medium entries (pages 2 and 21), and is worth 60 guided learning hours.
- There are two required pieces: "Learners should submit their project plan and their final project" (section 2.5, page 9).
- The project form is open: it may be "written, oral, digital, artefact, performance and/or event" (section 2.5, page 9).
- Evidence can be visual: "Evidence types can include photographs, short video clips, annotated work, teacher observation notes and learner comments" (section 3.2, page 10), and at Entry 1 and Entry 2 "Candidates are not required to produce extended written work" (section 4.2, page 16).
- Resources are open: "the use of resources, including the internet, is not tightly prescribed" (section 4.2, page 17).
- The topic is the learner's: teachers must not "specify the context for the project, it must be the candidate's own decision" (section 4.2, page 16).
- AI tools may be used "When properly referenced", but misuse includes "failing to acknowledge use of AI tools when they have been used as a source of information" (section 4.4, page 19).
- There are no set tasks in the specification; suggested activities are in a separate document, the "Personal Project Guidance for Teaching and Assessment" (section 2, page 7).
Links with other qualifications
The Entry Level Personal Project leads on to the WJEC Personal Project Level 1 and Level 2, which assesses the same four Integral Skills with more independence. Because the topic is the learner's own choice, a project can grow out of any GCSE, VCSE or Foundation subject the learner enjoys, but no subject content is assessed. The planning, teamwork and reflection criteria overlap with Skills Suite units such as Teamwork and Personal development planning, which can be taken alongside it at Entry Level.
Source: WJEC Entry Level Personal Project specification, approved by Qualifications Wales, teaching from September 2027, for award from 2029 (© WJEC CBAC Ltd 2026).