Skills for Life: Everyday Law
Everyday law is one 10 hour Pearson unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life or Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, at any level from Entry 1 to Level 2. Learners learn about human rights, responsibilities, types of law such as criminal and employment law, how laws affect daily life and different people, and what they would do in scenarios to contribute to a just and equitable society. The centre sets and marks the assessment. Digital demand is low: no criterion needs a computer. Digital work sits in researching laws online, using legislation resources that must be current for Wales, optional digital presentations, and acknowledging sources and AI.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- 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 (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): One assessment criterion at each of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3: state, outline or identify basic facts and concepts about everyday laws, rights and responsibilities, with set minimum numbers of rights, responsibilities, laws and ways to contribute to a fair society. There are no mandatory evidence requirements. Evidence is internally assessed by the centre, using the Pearson Authorised Assignment Brief or its own assignment, and quality assured through Pearson standards verification. 10 guided learning hours, graded Pass or Fail.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) how legal concepts affect daily lives and how people can contribute to a just and equitable society, covering at least three rights, responsibilities and types of law, their impact, and decisions in real-life scenarios. There are no mandatory evidence requirements. Evidence is internally assessed by the centre and quality assured through Pearson standards verification. 10 guided learning hours, graded Pass or Fail.
Skills that use Creating digital content
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Presenting legal information digitally
Learners may present what they have found about rights, laws and their impact as a digital presentation. Annexe C lists possible digital presentations, and the criteria accept any form of evidence, so this is a suggested format rather than a requirement.
DCF: Creating digital content, Evaluating and improving digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils make a one page digital poster of three rights and three responsibilities they have at school, with an icon for each.
- Year 8
- Pupils create a short slide deck on one law that affects young people, with a slide on what it says and a slide on its impact.
- Year 9
- Pupils build a presentation on how one law affects different groups, such as young workers and disabled people, and explain their design choices for a Year 11 audience.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 9, Essential information for assessment decisions, page 47; Annexe C, SfL 9 row, page 161
“Device/internet for research; use of legislation resources; possible digital presentations”
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 ensure my output is appropriate for specific purposes.
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 justify the reasons for choices and explain the advantages and disadvantages of the different digital outputs I create.
Good to know
- The unit is Unit SfL 9 and the unit summary lists it at "10" guided learning hours, half the 20 hours of the WJEC unit of the same name (Unit summary, page 5).
- Legal content must be current and Welsh: "Where legislation is included in delivery and assessment, centres must ensure that it is current, up to date and relates to the legislative context of Wales" (Units, page 11).
- The criteria set minimum numbers, for example Level 1 learners describe "a range of at least three rights" and at least three responsibilities (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 48).
- A learner achieves the unit once at one level: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- AI is allowed only if acknowledged: "A learner will have committed malpractice if they use AI tools without acknowledging them" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 49).
- The specification gives no unit content: content "can be found in the Teaching and Learning Support document for this unit" (Unit content, page 47), so schools need that separate document.
- The unit page says its cross-cutting themes evidence "can be found in Annexe E" (page 50), but Annexe E has no row for SfL 9; it lists SfL 1 to 5 and then jumps to SfL 18 (Annexe E, pages 170 to 172).
Links with other qualifications
The WJEC Skills Suite has its own Everyday law unit, twice the size at 20 guided learning hours, built around legal terms such as contract and consent, rights at home, at work, in housing and as a consumer, where to get legal advice and how to judge its reliability; the Pearson unit covers human rights, criminal and employment law and contributing to a just and equitable society, and does not require learners to compare sources of advice. Both link with GCSE Social Studies on rights, responsibilities and fairness, and the criminal law content links with VCSE and Foundation Public Services. Within the WJEC Skills Suite the closest units are Rights and responsibilities in the workplace, Democracy in action and Equality, diversity and inclusion. The legislation research builds general search skills used in 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 9: Everyday law.