Skills for Life: Community Participation
Community participation is a Pearson Skills for Life unit in which learners get to know their own or the wider community, its groups, services and roles, and plan and take part in a real community activity such as litter picking, a coffee morning or a community meal, with Level 2 learners explaining the value of active citizenship. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life Award, Certificate or Diploma, achieved at one level from Entry 1 to Level 2. Digital demand is low: no criterion needs digital work, and digital skills sit in online research, making posters, planning the activity and online participation.
- 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 assessment criterion at each of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3: list familiar people or places in the community, outline at least four groups, services or places and their purposes, or identify at least three local roles and activities, and take part in a community activity, contributing to its planning at Entry 3. There are no mandatory evidence requirements; the centre sets and marks the assessment and Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: describe the importance of at least four community groups or services and how they benefit people (Level 1), or explain the value of active citizenship with examples of community participation (Level 2), and at both levels plan and take part in a community activity. The centre sets and marks the assessment and Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Evaluating and improving digital content
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Making posters and materials to promote a community activity
Level 1 guidance gives producing materials to support the activity as an example of planning, such as posters to encourage people to attend. Pearson lists digital materials as a digital link, but posters are an example and need not be digital, so this is taught, not assessed.
DCF: Creating digital content, Evaluating and improving digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils design a poster in Adobe Express for a class litter pick, with the date, time, place and one clear image.
- Year 8
- Pupils make a poster and a matching social media style post for a school coffee morning, adapting the text and layout for each.
- Year 9
- Pupils design a leaflet for a community event, ask a small group of residents or staff for feedback, and improve it before printing.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 4, Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 1, page 27; Annexe C, page 160
“They could make posters to encourage people to attend the event”
Progression step 3
I can use a range of software to select, produce and edit a range of multimedia components for a purpose, such as:
- text and images, e.g. format text (bold, underline, italics, highlight); insert and edit text boxes; columns; use refine tools (spellchecker, find and replace); word wrap; crop; alter size and shape; alter images; add effects; trim and split sound and video clips; transitions; onion skin
- presentation, e.g. page orientation; animations; transitions; remove and alter images; use background; use action buttons to create hyperlink; embed objects.
I can use software tools to enhance the outcomes for specific audiences.
Progression step 4
I can select and use a variety of appropriate software, tools and techniques to create, modify and combine multimedia components for a range of audiences and purposes, such as:
- text and images, e.g. explore and use effectively image manipulation techniques; explore and use appropriately the many aspects of document layout; use animation, video and audio effects such as echo, tempo, envelope, layering, frame rate, key frames
- presentation, e.g. use design tools; adapt themes and colours to suit the purpose; create master templates.
I can suggest and make improvements that are relevant for audience and purpose, based on feedback and self-evaluation of my digital work.
Good to know
- The unit is Unit SfL 4 and the unit summary lists it at 20 GLH (Unit summary, page 5), the same size as the WJEC Community participation unit.
- A unit counts once: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level, with the exception of" British Sign Language (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- Every level needs a real activity: even Entry 2 learners "take part in a supported community activity, while following instructions" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 27), so schools need to arrange events such as litter picking or helping at a food bank.
- Evidence format is open: "no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (page 27), and "No resources are explicitly prohibited for the assessment of this unit" (page 29).
- AI must be acknowledged: "A learner will have committed malpractice if they use AI tools without acknowledging them" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 29).
- The unit content is not printed in the specification; it "can be found in the Teaching and Learning Support document for this unit" (Unit content, page 27).
- Pearson's Annexe E says the unit "includes online participation and digital citizenship" (page 171), but none of the assessment criteria or guidance in the unit mentions online participation.
- Section 5 says "please refer to Section 6 Glossary" (page 11), but the glossary is section 7.
Links with other qualifications
Compared with the WJEC Community participation unit, which is also 20 GLH, Pearson's version has one assessment criterion per level instead of three or four learning outcomes and has no separate criterion for evaluating the activity; Level 2 instead asks learners to explain the value of active citizenship through their own planning and participation. Digital demand is low in both. Active citizenship and social change link with GCSE Social Studies, and Pearson's examples of climate change and sustainable campaigns link with GCSE Geography. Community roles and services link with the WJEC VCSE in Public Services, and the WJEC Skills Suite units Democracy in Action, Sustainability in Action and Teamwork cover related ground. Making posters links with GCSE Digital Technology.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 4: Community participation.