Skills for Life: Home Management and Maintenance
Home Management and Maintenance is an Open Awards Skills for Life unit offered at 5 levels, Entry Level 1 to Level 2, each a separate 10 guided learning hour unit. Learners deal with home safety and security, cleaning, waste and resource use, and simple maintenance, moving from identifying hazards and tools to planning routines and evaluating tasks. Most evidence is practical and observed, collected in a portfolio that may be an e-portfolio. Digital demand is low: the only digital examples are reporting a fault by email or another digital method at Level 1 and the savings calculations suggested at Level 2.
- Awarding body
- Open Awards
- 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 1 (CBM096): Four learning outcomes: identify at least 2 household hazards and someone who can help, demonstrate cleaning a simple surface and identify 2 cleaning items, sort items for disposal or recycling and identify 2 recyclable items, and identify 2 tools and carry out a simple check such as whether a light works. Evidence may be pointing, naming, selecting images or assessor observation. 10 guided learning hours, 1 credit.
- Entry Level 2 (CBM097): Four learning outcomes: identify 2 hazards and state how to respond, select cleaning products and carry out a simple cleaning task, identify recyclable and non-recyclable items and sort waste, and identify 2 tools and their uses and carry out a basic maintenance check or task with support. 10 guided learning hours, 1 credit.
- Entry Level 3 (CBM098): Four learning outcomes: identify risks and explain how to keep a home secure, select and use cleaning equipment and follow instructions on cleaning products, sort waste and identify ways to save energy or water, and identify when a repair is needed and use simple tools to complete it. 10 guided learning hours, 1 credit.
- Level 1 (CBM099): Four learning outcomes: explain at least 3 household risks and their prevention and 3 ways to maintain security, select and organise cleaning equipment and prepare a realistic cleaning routine, describe local recycling and explain the benefits of reducing resource use, and report a maintenance issue by the most appropriate method and use tools safely to complete a task. 10 guided learning hours, 1 credit.
- Level 2 (CBM100): Four learning outcomes and 9 criteria: assess hazards and justify responses to emergencies, plan a cleaning routine and evaluate cleaning methods or products, explain ways to reduce energy or resource use and compare waste disposal methods, and select tools, carry out a maintenance task independently and evaluate how effective it was. 10 guided learning hours, 1 credit.
Skills that use Creating digital content
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Reporting a maintenance issue by email or digital form
At Level 1 learners must report a maintenance issue, describing the problem clearly and using the most appropriate method. Sending an email to a landlord or caretaker and completing a fault reporting form are named examples, and the task list allows a written, verbal or digital report, so a learner can meet the criterion without a device.
DCF: Communication, Creating digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils write a short email to the site team about a broken classroom blind, with a clear subject line and a photo attached.
- Year 8
- Pupils compare reporting a dripping tap by phone, email and an online form and say which suits an urgent leak and which suits a slow drip.
- Year 9
- Pupils fill in an online fault report for a simulated flat, describing a damp patch precisely and choosing the right category and priority.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Level 1 (CBM099), AC 4.1 indicative content, page 20; Assessment Approach, page 9
“sending an email to a landlord/caretaker about a broken light switch”
Progression step 3
I can exchange online communications, making use of a growing range of available features, e.g. add attachments or hyperlinks, change formatting.
I can show an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of communication and when it is appropriate to use each, e.g. explain when video conferencing may be more appropriate than e-mail, and vice versa; explain the pros and cons of using instant messaging in social contexts; talk about purpose and audience.
Progression step 4
I can select and use different online communication tools for specific purposes with higher levels of competence, e.g. set up and manage an address book, organise contacts, use advanced features of e-mail provider (signature, auto reply, read receipt, widgets).
I can explore and develop a range of formal text document structures for different audiences and purposes.
Good to know
- Each level is a separate 1 credit, 10 guided learning hour unit, CBM096 to CBM100: "Guided Learning Hours: 10" (Unit Content, pages 11 to 21; Qualification Guide, Qualification Units, pages 18 to 19). It is half the size of most units in the suite.
- Only one level counts in a qualification: "units with the same title at different levels are barred for completion within the same qualification" (Qualification Guide, Qualification Units, page 17).
- The provider writes the tasks and every criterion must be met: "No partial award can be made if any assessment criteria is not met" (Assessment Approach, page 7). Unlike most units in the suite, this one has no paragraph on pre-course verification.
- Evidence goes in a portfolio, digital or paper: "Wherever possible, e-portfolios are encouraged." Work is checked by internal quality assurance and then by Open Awards (Assessment Approach, page 7).
- Delivery is practical and needs safety planning: providers must ensure "risk assessments are in place for practical activities" and learners are supervised with tools and cleaning products (Physical Resources, page 6).
- Most evidence is practical, with assessor observation suggested at every level, for example "Assessor observation of independent working and safe practice" at Level 1 (Assessment Approach, page 9).
- A digital report is allowed but not required: the Level 1 task is to "Report a maintenance issue (e.g., written, verbal or digital)" (Assessment Approach, page 9).
- All resources are low cost and non-digital, such as cloths, basic cleaning products, bins and "simple tools such as screwdrivers, batteries" (Physical Resources, page 6).
- Level 1 learning outcome 4 repeats the title of outcome 3, "Know how to manage resources sustainably", although its criteria are about reporting maintenance issues and using tools (Level 1, page 18).
- The Principles of Progression come from Health and Well-being and are about "physical and emotional changes", which do not match the household content, and Entry Level 1 writes "Progression 1" rather than Progression Step 1 (page 11).
- The specification says nothing about the use of AI or about referencing sources. The text opens with the stray heading "Faith and Belief in the Community".
Links with other qualifications
Pearson and WJEC both have a Home management and maintenance unit; Pearson's is also 10 hours, while the Open Awards unit adds home security and, at Level 2, savings calculations and comparing disposal schemes. The practical, safety and sustainability work links with GCSE Design and Technology and the WJEC VCSE in Built Environment, and the energy savings work links with GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy. Within the Open Awards suite it pairs with Basic First Aid for emergencies and with Skills in the Natural Environment for recycling and resource use.
Source: Open Awards Skills for Life Unit Specification, Home Management and Maintenance, Entry Level 1 to Level 2 (units CBM096 to CBM100).