Skills for Life: Food Planning and Preparation
Food Planning and Preparation is an Open Awards Skills for Life unit offered at five levels, each worth 2 credits and 20 guided learning hours, on nutrition, a balanced diet, food hygiene, budgeting, food waste and preparing and cooking a meal. It is assessed through centre-designed tasks, including assessor observation of the practical, with portfolio evidence. Digital demand is low: the spec names Digital as a cross-curricular skill, but the only digital content is optional examples such as comparing prices online and exploring budgeting tools or apps, and no criterion requires a device.
- Awarding body
- Open Awards
- 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 1 (CBM081): Nine assessment criteria: identify food sources and fruit and vegetables, identify a benefit of healthy eating and how healthy and poor diets make them feel, identify foods for a balanced meal, state why eating different foods matters, state one way to stop food waste and identify basic food hygiene. Suggested tasks are picture selection, pointing, short verbal responses and simple reflection. Provider-designed tasks, portfolio evidence, 2 credits, 20 guided learning hours.
- Entry Level 2 (CBM082): Ten assessment criteria (two are both numbered 2.2): state food groups and ways food helps the body, recognise a food that is unhealthy in excess, identify food types and kitchen equipment, prepare ingredients safely, contribute to preparing a balanced meal from a recipe, state how much the ingredients cost, state a way to reduce waste and identify basic hygiene. Provider-designed tasks, portfolio evidence, 2 credits, 20 guided learning hours.
- Entry Level 3 (CBM083): Sixteen assessment criteria across five outcomes: name food groups and examples, explain why a varied diet matters and how a poor diet makes someone unwell, give how cost affects choices and a way to reduce waste, plan a meal with its ingredients, dietary benefits and a low cost idea, use equipment safely, wash hands, prepare and cook the planned meal safely, and say what went well and how to make it cheaper or less wasteful. Assessor observation of the practical is suggested. Provider-designed tasks, portfolio evidence, 2 credits, 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 (CBM084): Fourteen assessment criteria: identify food groups and their roles, describe short and long term effects of poor diet, identify dietary needs of children, adolescents and elderly people, give how cost affects choices and ways to reduce waste, plan a nutritious meal of at least 3 food groups and describe its benefits and how to keep it affordable, select equipment, prepare and cook the meal safely and hygienically, and outline a strength and one improvement for cost or waste. Provider-designed tasks with assessor observation, portfolio evidence, 2 credits, 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 2 (CBM085): Seventeen assessment criteria: explain a balanced diet, analyse short and long term effects of poor diet, explain the needs of children, adolescents and elderly people, analyse how budget shapes meal planning, evaluate how reducing waste improves sustainability and affordability, plan a nutritious hot meal and a cold meal of at least 4 food groups with nutritional benefits and budgeting, select equipment, prepare and cook safely and hygienically, evaluate own food preparation and identify one improvement for cost and one for waste. Provider-designed tasks with assessor observation, portfolio evidence, 2 credits, 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Data and information literacy
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Using online budgeting tools and food apps
Level 1 learners identify ways to keep a planned meal affordable and may explore online budgeting tools or apps, and may look at community initiatives such as surplus food apps when suggesting improvements. Level 2 learners analyse how budget affects meal planning and could explore online tools or apps for budgeting. These are suggestions in the indicative content, not requirements.
DCF: Data and information literacy, Health and well-being
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils enter the cost of each ingredient for a simple meal into a ready-made table and see the total update.
- Year 8
- Pupils use a meal budgeting template to plan three lunches within a set budget and adjust one ingredient when they go over.
- Year 9
- Pupils explore a surplus food app or website and discuss in groups how technology can reduce food waste and cost in their area.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Level 1 AC 3.3 and 5.2 (page 22); Level 2 AC 2.1 (page 26)
“Learners may explore online budgeting tools or apps.”
Progression step 3
I can construct, refine and interrogate data sets within tables, charts, spreadsheets and databases to test or support an investigation.
I can identify the wider positive and negative influences of technology, e.g. on my life, on society, on the environment.
Progression step 4
I can perform analysis on simple data sets including grouping data as appropriate.
Good to know
- Each level is a separate unit with its own code (CBM081, CBM082, CBM083, CBM084, CBM085). Every level carries the same size: "Credit Value: Two (2)" and "Guided Learning Hours: 20" (Unit Content tables, pages 11 to 24), so the Level 2 unit is no bigger than the Entry Level 1 unit.
- Only one level counts in a qualification: "with the exception of British Sign Language (BSL), units with the same title at different levels are barred for completion within the same qualification" (Level 1 Qualification Guide, Qualification Units, page 17). It sits in the Skills for Life group, and qualifications need 60 (Award), 120 (Certificate) or 240 (Diploma) guided learning hours (Rules of Combination, page 15).
- Units from Pearson, WJEC or Agored Cymru with the same title cannot be swapped in: "Units certificated by other Awarding Organisations, or units taken from other Open Awards qualifications, cannot contribute to the achievement of this qualification." (Units from Other Awarding Organisations, page 3).
- The centre writes the tasks: the unit is "designed to be assessed through assessment tasks and activities designed by the provider", with pre-course verification of the tasks (Assessment Approach, page 8), and "providers must have an approved Delivery and Assessment Plan" before delivery (Delivery Requirements, page 5).
- There is no partial credit: "All assessment criteria must be met in full for the learner to be awarded a 'pass'." Results are internally quality assured by the centre and externally quality assured by Open Awards (Assessment Approach, page 8).
- Evidence goes in a portfolio, paper or digital: "Learners are required to collate evidence in a portfolio of evidence." and "Wherever possible, e-portfolios are encouraged." (Assessment Approach, page 8).
- The unit specification says nothing about AI tools, plagiarism or referencing. It "must be read and applied alongside the relevant Qualification Guide (level-specific) and the Open Awards Provider Handbook" (Qualification Documentation, page 3), so those documents set the rules.
- No prior learning is needed, but "the provider must complete robust initial assessments" to place each learner at the right level (Entry Requirements, page 7).
- A teaching kitchen is needed from Entry Level 2, and Level 1 and Level 2 list knives, hobs, ovens, "Measuring scales" and "Food thermometers (for checking safe cooking)" (Physical Resources, page 7). Staff "must hold a basic food hygiene qualification" and learners need "access to a qualified First Aider (on-site)" (Staffing and Safety Resources, page 5).
- Digital tools are optional extras: the only digital references are examples such as "comparing prices online" (Entry Level 3, page 18), "online budgeting tools or apps" (Level 1, page 22) and "online price comparison" (Level 2, page 26). The spec lists "Literacy and Digital" as cross-curricular skills (page 11).
- The practical must be watched: suggested tasks include "Assessor observation of planning, preparing and making a meal, including following hygiene principles" (Level 1 and Level 2, page 10), and at Entry Level 3 "Learners must be seen checking food is cooked and turning off equipment safely" (page 18).
- There are drafting slips: Entry Level 2 has two criteria numbered 2.2 (page 13); the Entry Level 3 outcome reads "Be able to plan and a balanced meal" (page 16); Level 1 AC 5.2 says "reduce cost or waste" but its guidance says "reduce cost and waste" (pages 20 and 22); and Level 2 AC 4.3, under the cold meal outcome, still says "when planning the hot meal" (page 25).
Links with other qualifications
The Pearson Skills for Life unit Food Planning and Preparation is also 20 guided learning hours; the Open Awards unit spreads more criteria across five outcomes and at Level 2 asks for both a hot and a cold meal of at least 4 food groups, with written analysis of poor diet and of how budget and waste reduction affect meal choices. Nutrition, the Eatwell Guide, food hygiene, cooking methods and costing link most closely with GCSE Food and Nutrition, the WJEC VCSE in Hospitality and Catering and the WJEC Foundation in Hospitality and Catering, and the diet and wellbeing content links with GCSE Health and Social Care, and Childcare. Food waste and sustainability connect with GCSE Geography and the Skills Challenge Certificate global citizenship challenge. Within the Open Awards suite the unit pairs with Healthy Lifestyle and Basic First Aid, and the online price comparison and budgeting apps it mentions build on Using IT in the Workplace.
Source: Open Awards Skills for Life Unit Specification, Food Planning and Preparation, Entry Level 1 to Level 2.