Skills for Life: Financial Literacy
Financial literacy is a Pearson Skills for Life unit in which learners describe where money comes from and what it is spent on, separate needs from wants, compare ways of saving, meet a simple investment and its risk, and find out where to get financial help. It is one 10 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2, internally assessed and graded Pass or Fail. Digital demand is low: no criterion needs a digital tool. Digital work sits in researching saving options and sources of help online, understanding digital payments and banking apps, 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: list, outline or identify forms of income and spending, a place to save money or a saving method (Entry 2 and 3), and where to get financial help. Evidence is from centre devised assignments (Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief can be used or adapted), internally assessed by the centre and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. Graded Pass or Fail. 10 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) sources of income and spending, methods of saving and investment, and sources of financial help. Evidence is from centre devised assignments, internally assessed by the centre and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. Graded Pass or Fail. 10 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Digital rights, licensing and ownership
-
Referencing sources and acknowledging AI
Every learner must certify that the evidence is their own, reference any sources used and acknowledge any AI tool, and Level 2 research must be in learners' own words. Using AI without acknowledging it counts as malpractice. This applies at every level.
DCF: Digital rights, licensing and ownership, Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils add the web address of each page they used to the bottom of a poster about saving.
- Year 8
- Pupils turn a paragraph from a bank website about ISAs into their own words and add a reference to it.
- Year 9
- Pupils ask an AI tool to explain shares, check its answer against MoneyHelper, then write their own explanation with a note on how the AI was used.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 12, Essential information, Level 2, page 61; Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 62
“they have clearly referenced any sources and any artificial intelligence used”
Progression step 3
I can understand that copying the work of others and presenting it as my own is plagiarism.
I can cite sources when researching and explain the importance of this, e.g. create simple lists for the referencing of digital and offline sources.
Progression step 4
I can act responsibly as creator and user of creative work, e.g. exploring decisions that creators make when exercising their creative rights and responsibilities, giving consideration to ethical, real-life issues.
I can evaluate the reliability of sources of information, justify my opinions and reasons for choices, and reference using appropriate methods.
Good to know
- The unit is Unit SfL 12 with "10" guided learning hours in the unit summary (Section 3, page 5), half the 20 hours of the WJEC Financial literacy unit.
- A Pearson unit is achieved at one level only: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- The teaching content is not in the specification: "This can be found in the Teaching and Learning Support document for this unit" (Unit content, page 60).
- There is no fixed evidence format: "For this unit there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 60), and Entry 1 learners may use alternatives such as "circling pictures to identify what they spend their money on" (page 60).
- No criterion asks learners to draw up or keep a budget; Annexe C lists "budgeting calculations" only as a numeracy link (page 162). A school expecting the WJEC unit's budget task should note this.
- Level 2 research must be rewritten: "Evidence may come from research, but must be in learners' own words" (Essential information, Level 2, page 61).
- 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 62).
- There is a missing word in the Entry 2 support guidance, which reads "can recognise when they sufficient/insufficient money" (Levels of supervision and support, page 62).
- Annexe E moves straight from SfL 5 to SfL 18 (page 172), so this unit has no Annexe E evidence row despite the unit text pointing to it (page 63).
Links with other qualifications
The unit links with WJEC GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy, which covers saving, interest and budgeting at a higher level, and with WJEC GCSE Business, which looks at income, saving and finance from a business point of view; the Pearson 'What matters' mapping is to Mathematics and Numeracy (page 63), which also links it to WJEC Foundation Mathematics and Numeracy. Compared with the WJEC Financial literacy unit (20 hours, four learning outcomes including planning and managing a budget and borrowing), the Pearson unit is half the size, has one criterion per level and asks for descriptions of income, spending, saving, investment and help, with no budget to keep. Neither version needs a digital tool in its criteria. The WJEC Skills Suite units Business finance and Online safety share the money and safe online banking themes.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 12: Financial literacy.