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 Health and well-being
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Taking part in community life online
Pearson's Annexe E says the unit includes online participation and digital citizenship, and the Level 2 examples of active citizenship include lobbying the local council and making conscious consumer choices, which learners could do through council websites, email or online petitions. No assessment criterion mentions online participation, so this is taught, not assessed.
DCF: Health and well-being, Online behaviour and online bullying
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils look at how a local community group uses its website or social media to ask for volunteers and discuss whether it reaches young people.
- Year 8
- Pupils report a real local issue, such as a broken streetlight, through the council's online form with their teacher and record what happens next.
- Year 9
- Pupils draft a polite email to a local councillor about a community issue, check it is respectful and safe to send, and discuss the effect online campaigns can have.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Annexe E, page 171; Unit SfL 4, Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 2, page 28
“includes online participation and digital citizenship”
Progression step 3
I can identify the wider positive and negative influences of technology, e.g. on my life, on society, on the environment.
I can demonstrate appropriate online behaviour and apply a range of strategies to protect myself and others from possible online dangers, bullying and inappropriate behaviour, e.g. turn off comments on digital media, reporting, block users.
Progression step 4
I can act appropriately online, keeping myself safe and behaving in a responsible manner.
I can understand the implications of online actions, including my digital footprint and the legal implications of sharing inappropriate material.
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.