Skills for Life: Community Participation
Community participation is a Skills for Life unit in which learners find out about local services, learn about active citizenship and sustainability, and plan, take part in and evaluate a community activity or project. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Skills for Life or Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma. Digital demand is low because no assessment criterion requires digital work. Digital skills sit in researching local services online, making posters, leaflets or digital content to promote an initiative, planning the activity, and exploring online platforms for community change such as FixMyStreet.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): Three learning outcomes (knowing the community and local services, active citizenship and sustainability, and taking part in a simple community activity or project), each with assessment criteria at Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3. Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: Four learning outcomes (understanding the community and local services, the impact of active citizenship and sustainability, planning and taking part in a community activity or project, and evaluating it), each with assessment criteria at Level 1 and Level 2. Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Health and well-being
-
Exploring online platforms for community change
The pack lists FixMyStreet and change.org as digital platforms where learners can explore how individuals contribute to community improvement or change campaigns. This supports the Level 1 and Level 2 work on the benefits of active citizenship, but it is a suggested resource only and is not assessed. Learners should think about what they share online when reporting problems or signing petitions.
DCF: Health and well-being, Online behaviour and online bullying
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils look at the FixMyStreet map for their area as a class and talk about which reported problems affect young people.
- Year 8
- Pupils read two online petitions about local issues and discuss what personal details each one asks for and who can see them.
- Year 9
- Pupils draft, but do not publish, a report about a local problem in the style of FixMyStreet, deciding which photo and details are safe and useful to share.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Resources available to support delivery, page 11; Amplification, learning outcome 2, page 8
“contribute to community improvement or change campaigns”
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 understand the implications of online actions, including my digital footprint and the legal implications of sharing inappropriate material.
I can act appropriately online, keeping myself safe and behaving in a responsible manner.
Good to know
- The unit codes are S604E1, S604E2, S604E3, S604L1 and S604L2, and the unit is 20 guided learning hours (Unit overview, page 3).
- No special equipment is needed: "Assessment of this unit should not require any specific resources" (Resources required for assessment, page 11).
- Evidence can be digital or spoken. Possible sources include "Photographs of learners taking part in community-based tasks or activities" and "Short learner reflections (written, audio, video, or scribed)" (Sources of evidence, page 9), and "extended written work is not required unless appropriate" (page 9).
- Suggested assessment tasks "are not mandatory" and teachers may adapt them or write their own (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.1, page 18).
- AI rules apply to the portfolio: misuse includes "Failing to acknowledge use of AI tools when they have been used as a source of information" (specification, section 4.6, page 21).
- The pack notes that planned UK limits on social media for under 16s "may impact some of our qualifications" (page 2), which matters for any online campaign work.
- Appendix A maps the unit to Digital competence, along with Numeracy, Critical thinking and problem solving and Personal effectiveness (specification, Appendix A, page 28).
Links with other qualifications
The pack names GCSE Social Studies and VCSE Public Services as related WJEC qualifications, and Democracy in action, Equality, diversity and inclusion, Ethical choices, Everyday law, Faith and belief in the community, Sustainability in action, Teamwork, Values for life and Sustainable economic development as closely related Skills Suite units. Researching local services and sustainability issues also links with GCSE Geography, and making promotional posters and leaflets links with GCSE Digital Technology.
Source: WJEC Community participation unit delivery and assessment pack, read with the WJEC Entry 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life and Skills for Work specification, approved by Qualifications Wales, teaching from September 2027 (© WJEC CBAC Ltd 2026).