Skills for Life: Online Safety
Online Safety is a Skills for Life unit in which learners find out what online safety means, recognise risks such as scams, phishing, fake profiles and cyberbullying, protect personal information with passwords and privacy settings, and learn how and where to report unsafe activity. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Skills for Life or Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. Digital demand is high because almost every assessment criterion is digital citizenship: learners show safe practices, use privacy settings and recognise suspicious activity, often evidenced with annotated screenshots or screen recordings.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- High
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): Four learning outcomes covering what online safety means, online risks and unsafe behaviour, staying safe online, and getting help and reporting. 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 covering online safety in different contexts including the Children's Code, recognising online risks, demonstrating safe online practices and explaining why they matter, and getting help and reporting. Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Creating digital content
-
Presenting online safety evidence digitally
The pack suggests learners show their understanding through digital posters, slide decks, infographics, annotated screenshots and narrated screen recordings, for example a presentation on safe practices in different contexts. This is a suggested way to evidence the criteria, not a requirement, so the digital production itself is not assessed.
DCF: Creating digital content, Evaluating and improving digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils make a one page online safety poster in Adobe Express with a title, three tips and an image.
- Year 8
- Pupils build a short slide deck on password safety and add annotated screenshots of a strong password being set.
- Year 9
- Pupils record a narrated Sway or PowerPoint presentation explaining safe practices in two online contexts and check it suits a Year 7 audience.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Suggested activities, pages 12 to 13; Sources of evidence, page 13
“Screen recording of a narrated presentation (e.g. PowerPoint or Sway)”
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.
Good to know
- The unit codes are S620E1, S620E2, S620E3, S620L1 and S620L2, and the overview lists "GLH 20" (Unit overview, page 3).
- No special equipment is needed: "Assessment of this unit should not require any specific resources" (Resources required for assessment, page 15), although learners do need internet access to demonstrate privacy settings and safe practices.
- Evidence can be digital, including "Annotated screenshots showing safe responses" and "Voice-over video or screen-recorded explanations" (Sources of evidence, page 13). The portfolio "is not limited to paper-based materials" (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.1, page 18).
- Suggested assessment tasks "are not mandatory", and teachers may adapt them or devise their own (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.1, page 18).
- AI tools may be used only if acknowledged: "Failing to acknowledge use of AI tools when they have been used as a source of information" counts as malpractice (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.6, page 21).
- WJEC flags that "The UK Government has announced plans to restrict social media use by children under 16", which may affect this unit (Contents, page 2), so check for updates before planning social media tasks.
Links with other qualifications
Online Safety sits closest to GCSE Digital Technology and GCSE Computer Science, which both teach data protection, cyber security threats such as phishing and malware, and responsible use of technology; the pack also names the General Foundation Qualification in Digital Technology. The reporting, cyberbullying and wellbeing content links to GCSE Physical Education and Health and to GCSE Health and Social Care and Childcare, and misinformation and bias link to GCSE Social Studies. Within the Skills Suite the pack names Science and technology in everyday life, Digital film and media, Mental health and wellbeing, Personal safety, and Using IT in the workplace as closely related units.
Source: WJEC Online safety 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).