Skills for Life: Art and Crafts
Arts and crafts (Unit SfL 1) is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. Learners practise art or craft techniques and materials and produce a 2D or 3D piece on a given topic, building a portfolio of exploratory work from Level 1. Centres set and mark the assessment, Pearson verifies it, and the unit is passed once at one level. Digital demand is low: no criterion requires digital work and Annexe B does not tick the digital column. Digital skills sit in photographing work for a possible digital portfolio, researching artists online and acknowledging sources and AI.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): One practical assessment criterion at each of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3, rising from demonstrating a few basic skills in a given arts or crafts activity, to demonstrating a range of skills and techniques to produce a piece of 2D or 3D artwork or craft on a given topic. The centre chooses the evidence, sets and marks the assessment, and Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. 20 guided learning hours, graded Pass or Fail at the level achieved.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One practical assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: learners develop a portfolio of exploratory skills (Level 1) or of techniques, stylistic approaches and exploratory skills (Level 2) and produce a final piece of 2D or 3D artwork or craft. The centre chooses the evidence, sets and marks the assessment over a number of sessions, and Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. 20 guided learning hours, graded Pass or Fail at the level achieved.
Skills that use Digital rights, licensing and ownership
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Acknowledging sources and AI use in the portfolio
Learners must certify that their evidence is their own and reference any sources and any AI they used, and using AI without acknowledging it is malpractice. This applies at every level, for example to images of other artists' work collected for research or AI generated ideas. It is an assessment rule rather than an assessment criterion.
DCF: Digital rights, licensing and ownership, Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils add the artist's name, artwork title and website under each image they collect for a mood board.
- Year 8
- Pupils discuss when using an artist's style is inspiration and when copying an image is plagiarism, then label their own sketches with the artist that inspired them.
- Year 9
- Pupils keep an acknowledgements page recording each source image and any AI tool used for ideas, and explain how their final piece differs from those sources.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 1, Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 15
“they have clearly referenced any sources and any artificial intelligence used”
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 act responsibly as creator and user of creative work, e.g. exploring decisions that creators make when exercising their creative rights and responsibilities, giving consideration to ethical, real-life issues.
I can evaluate the reliability of sources of information, justify my opinions and reasons for choices, and reference using appropriate methods.
Good to know
- Arts and crafts is Unit SfL 1 (printed "SfL1" in the unit summary) with 20 "Unit GLH" (Unit summary, page 5). The unit's own title is "Arts and crafts", and the qualification numbers run from C00/5443/4 to C00/5445/0 (Qualification titles, pages 3 and 4).
- A unit counts once only: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6), and "Units and qualifications are graded Pass/Fail" (Unit and Qualification Grading, page 7).
- The centre picks the evidence and the resources: "For this unit there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (page 13), and "the centre can decide the resource requirements" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 15).
- The teaching content is not in the specification: "This can be found in the Teaching and Learning Support document for this unit" (Unit content, page 13).
- The assessment is spread out: "The assessment of this unit should be completed over a number of sessions" (Assessment arrangements, page 14).
- AI and sources must be declared: learners certify "they have clearly referenced any sources and any artificial intelligence used", and "A learner will have committed malpractice if they use AI tools without acknowledging them" (page 15).
- The annexes disagree about digital work: Annexe B ticks only Numeracy and Literacy for "SfL 1: Arts and Crafts" (page 157), while Annexe C lists "Digital cameras, possible digital portfolio" as its digital links (page 160).
- The specification refers to "Section 6 Glossary" although the glossary is Section 7 (Units, page 11).
Links with other qualifications
Arts and crafts leads naturally into GCSE Art and Design and links with the Foundation in Expressive Arts, the Foundation in Design and Technology and the VCSE in Creative and Media Production and Technology; Pearson maps it to the Expressive Arts 'What matters' statements on exploring and creating. Photographing and presenting work digitally uses skills also built in GCSE Digital Media and Film. Within the WJEC Skills Suite, Digital Film and Media and Career Creativity are natural partners. Compared with the WJEC Arts and crafts unit, also 20 hours, which has three learning outcomes including knowing what art and craft is and expressing ideas, Pearson's version has one practical criterion per level centred on producing a 2D or 3D piece and, from Level 1, a portfolio, and it does not ask learners to describe or compare art forms.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications Specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 1: Arts and crafts.