Skills for Life: Basic First Aid
Basic First Aid is a set of 5 Open Awards Skills for Life units, Entry 1 to Level 2, each 10 guided learning hours and 1 credit, for 14 to 16 year olds in Wales. Learners recognise injuries, keep safe, call for help and practise first aid, from acting out a call for help at Entry 1 to CPR on a manikin, choking, bleeding and shock at Level 2. The provider designs and marks the tasks, the learner builds a portfolio and Open Awards quality assures it. Digital demand is low: the unit lists only Literacy as a cross-curricular skill, so the digital links are keeping evidence in an e-portfolio, following DR-ABC as a fixed sequence and checking guidance from trusted first aid bodies.
- Awarding body
- Open Awards
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 10
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level 1 (CBM026), Entry Level 2 (CBM027) and Entry Level 3 (CBM028): Each Entry level is a separate 1 credit, 10 guided learning hour unit. Entry 1 has 4 learning outcomes: spotting when someone is hurt or unwell, stating what first aid means, identifying 2 ways to get help and acting out getting help, and staying safe and calm. Entry 2 adds identifying minor injuries, treating a small cut and a minor burn with support, hygiene and safety, choosing first aid kit items and simulating a 999 or 112 call. Entry 3 adds identifying first aid kit contents, cleaning and covering a cut, cooling a burn and outlining the information to give the emergency services. The provider designs the tasks (matching, picture selection, sorting, supported demonstrations, short spoken or written responses), the learner collects a portfolio of evidence, and every criterion must be met for a Pass.
- Level 1 (CBM029) and Level 2 (CBM030): Each level is a separate 1 credit, 10 guided learning hour unit. Level 1 has 5 learning outcomes: what first aid is and who can help, recognising when someone needs help and checking breathing, keeping safe, calling 999 and what to say, and demonstrating care for a graze, a minor burn, someone feeling faint and the recovery position with support. Level 2 has 7 learning outcomes: the first aider's role and DR-ABC, managing an unresponsive casualty who is breathing, CPR on a manikin, choking (modelled, not applied to a peer), bleeding, cuts and burns, shock, and summoning help, the information to give and the actions after an emergency. Tasks include structured descriptions, demonstrations, hazard identification, skill sequencing, scenario analysis and reflective evaluation, assessed by the provider and quality assured by Open Awards.
The digital skills in this qualification
-
Keeping first aid evidence in an e-portfolio
At every level learners collect their evidence in a portfolio, and Open Awards encourages an e-portfolio wherever possible. Practical work such as the recovery position, cleaning a graze or CPR on a manikin can be captured with audio-visual equipment, so learners save, name and upload photos, clips and short written answers where the assessor can find them. The portfolio is required; using a digital one is encouraged rather than compulsory.
DCF: Storing and sharing
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils take a photo of a partner showing a safe hand-washing step and save it in a class folder with a clear file name.
- Year 8
- Pupils record a 30 second clip explaining how to cool a burn, upload it to the school's online learning platform and check it plays.
- Year 9
- Pupils organise photos, a clip and a written note from a first aid practical into dated folders in an e-portfolio, then share the link with the teacher.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Assessment Approach, page 7; Delivery Requirements, Physical Resources, page 6
“Learners are required to collate evidence in a portfolio of evidence. This can be presented digitally (e.g., through an e-portfolio system) or as paper-based as appropriate to the individual learner.”
Progression step 3
I can manage files and folders locally or online, e.g. move files to a folder.
I can upload files from a local drive to online storage.
Progression step 4
I can use appropriate advanced file management techniques, e.g. version history, restore previous version, tagging, compression.
-
Following DR-ABC and first aid steps as an ordered sequence
Level 2 learners use the DR-ABC approach to assess an incident (Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing, Circulation), and Level 1 tasks include sequencing the steps of treating a minor injury. A first aid routine works like an algorithm: each step is checked before the next, and swapping steps, such as opening the airway before checking for danger, changes the outcome. Describing how to assess an incident is a Level 2 criterion, so this is assessed.
DCF: Problem-solving and modelling
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils put cards for the steps of treating a graze in order and explain what would go wrong if two steps were swapped.
- Year 8
- Pupils draw a flowchart for checking a casualty, with a yes or no decision for "Are they responding?" and "Are they breathing?".
- Year 9
- Pupils find and correct the error in a teacher-made DR-ABC flowchart where the danger check has been placed after the airway step.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Level 2, AC 1.3, page 25; Assessment Approach, Level 1 and Level 2 tasks, page 9
“Learners should use the DR-ABC approach”
Progression step 3
I can understand the importance of the order of statements within algorithms.
I can create and refine algorithms and flowcharts to solve problems, making use of features such as loops, Boolean values and formulae.
Progression step 4
I can identify the different parts of an algorithm to determine their purpose.
I can create a simple model or self-contained algorithm.
-
Checking first aid guidance from trusted organisations
The specification points providers to free teaching resources from the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance, and the Level 2 content sets precise figures, such as CPR at 100 to 120 compressions a minute, that learners should check against current guidance. Learners at every level benefit from knowing which sources are trustworthy and how to tell a reliable first aid website from an unreliable one. No criterion asks learners to search online, so this is taught, not assessed.
DCF: Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils compare a British Red Cross first aid page with an unknown blog on the same injury and say which they trust and why.
- Year 8
- Pupils search for how to treat a nosebleed, check the author and date of 3 results, and bookmark the most reliable.
- Year 9
- Pupils check a classmate's CPR poster against current St John Ambulance guidance online and add the source and date they checked it.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Delivery Requirements, Physical Resources, page 6; Level 2, AC 3.2, page 26
“The British Red Cross or St John Ambulance provide free teaching resources.”
Progression step 3
I can begin to reference sources used in my work, and consider if content is reliable.
I can adjust keywords and search techniques to find relevant information.
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
- Each level is its own unit with its own code and size: "Unit Reference Number: CBM026", "Credit Value: One (1)" and "Guided Learning Hours: 10" at Entry 1, running to CBM030 at Level 2, each 10 hours (Unit Content, pages 10, 13, 16, 19 and 23).
- Only one level can count in a qualification: "units with the same title at different levels are barred for completion within the same qualification" (Level 1 Qualification Guide, Qualification Units, page 17).
- The provider writes the assessment: "This suite of units has been designed to be assessed through assessment tasks and activities designed by the provider", with pre-course verification of the tasks, internal quality assurance and external quality assurance by Open Awards (Assessment Approach, page 7).
- There is no partial credit: "All assessment criteria must be met in full for the learner to be awarded a 'pass'" (Assessment Approach, page 7).
- Evidence goes in a portfolio, paper or digital: "Wherever possible, e-portfolios are encouraged." (Assessment Approach, page 7).
- Teachers need a first aid qualification: teachers must hold "a recognised teaching qualification" and "a recognised first aid qualification" (Staffing Resources, page 6).
- Practical equipment is required, including a "CPR Manikin - Adult manikin ideally with feedback devices for compression depth and rate", first aid kits and consumables and a mat for the recovery position, and "audio-visual recording equipment could be used to support capture of evidence" (Physical Resources, page 6).
- Some practical work must be simulated: choking first aid is "modelled, not applied to a peer" (Level 2 tasks, page 9), and CPR "must only be carried out on a first aid manikin" (Level 2, AC 3.2, page 27).
- The unit specification does not mention AI tools; the Open Awards Provider Handbook, which must be read alongside it, sets wider rules.
- The text looks unfinished in places: the Level 2 unit closes with a creative arts Progression Step 5 statement ("I can explore and experiment with my own creative ideas", page 29) that does not match its opening statement, and there are slips such as "demonstrate select of appropriate items" (Entry 2, page 14) and "basis hygiene" (Entry 3, page 17). Many unit texts also carry a stray first line, "Faith and Belief in the Community", from a template.
Links with other qualifications
Basic First Aid sits well beside GCSE Health and Social Care, and Childcare, the VCSEs and Foundations in Health and Social Care, Public Services and Sport and Leisure, and the Open Awards Personal Safety, Mental Health and Wellbeing and Exercise For All units. Its digital work is light compared with GCSE Digital Technology. Compared with the Pearson Basic first aid unit (20 hours, one criterion per level, with AED use) and the Agored Cymru unit (20 hours with prescribed video or photo evidence), the Open Awards version is half the size, has many short criteria at each level, makes no mention of an AED, and leaves the form of evidence to the provider.
Source: Open Awards Skills for Life Unit Specification, Basic First Aid, Entry Level 1 to Level 2.