Skills for Life: Practical Gardening
Practical gardening is Pearson Skills for Life Unit SfL 22, in which learners learn about plants, flowers, vegetables and gardening tools and safely plant, grow and care for them, indoors or outdoors, with sustainability in mind. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life or Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, achieved once at a single level from Entry 1 to Level 2. Digital demand is low because the assessment is hands on: no criterion requires technology. Digital work sits only in using online gardening resources for research, which Pearson names in its annex mapping, and in any photo or video evidence a centre chooses to collect.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- 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 (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): One assessment criterion at each of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3: learners list, outline or identify types and uses of gardening tools and plants and safely take part in practical gardening activities, from at least two activities at Entry 1 to at least four at Entry 3. There are no mandatory evidence requirements; the centre sets its own assignment (Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief is optional), assesses it internally, and Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. Graded Pass or Fail. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each level: Level 1 learners describe the use of a range of plants and gardening tools and safely carry out at least four gardening activities, and Level 2 learners explain why plants and tools are used and independently carry out at least five activities, adapting their skills where required. Evidence type is chosen by the centre, internally assessed by the centre and quality assured by Pearson through standards verification. Graded Pass or Fail. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Creating digital content
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Evidencing practical gardening work
Learners must provide evidence of the practical activities at every level, and Pearson lists observation records, witness testimony and products of learners' work as forms of evidence. Photographs or short videos of learners planting and caring for plants are a convenient way to do this, but the specification does not require digital evidence, so it is a centre choice rather than an assessed skill.
DCF: Creating digital content, Storing and sharing
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils take before and after photos of a seed tray they have sown and add a caption to each in a shared slide.
- Year 8
- Pupils film a short clip of a partner potting on a seedling, trim it, and save it in a named folder with the date.
- Year 9
- Pupils build a short digital record of four gardening activities with photos, captions naming the tools used and a note on how they worked safely.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Section 4, Assessment requirements, Authorised Assignment Briefs, page 9; Unit SfL 22, Essential information for assessment decisions, page 104
“Examples of forms of evidence include observation records, witness testimony, and products of learners' work”
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 manage files and folders locally or online, e.g. move files to a folder.
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 is "SfL 22" with "20" guided learning hours in the unit summary table (Section 3, page 5); the specification gives no separate unit code per level, unlike the WJEC unit.
- A unit counts once: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6, and Assessment of units, page 9).
- The number of practical activities is fixed by level, from "at least two practical gardening activities" at Entry 1 to "at least five different gardening activities" at Level 2 (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 104), so centres need growing space, plants and tools.
- Centres choose the evidence: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (page 104), but "achievement cannot be inferred from performance" (Section 4, page 9), so practical work needs a record such as an observation record or photographs.
- Entry 3 learners must "use appropriate PPE where required" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 104).
- 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 105).
Links with other qualifications
WJEC also offers a Practical gardening Skills for Life unit, also 20 guided learning hours. The WJEC unit has four learning outcomes, including sustainable gardening and monitoring and recording plant growth, which gives it room for digital growth logs and photos. The Pearson unit has one assessment criterion per level, covering knowledge of plants and tools and a set number of practical gardening activities; sustainability appears in its aim and annex mapping, and recording growth is not required. GCSE The Sciences and GCSE Integrated Science share living things and what plants need, matching the Science and Technology statement the unit maps to. Within the Skills Suite, Sustainability in action and Skills in the natural environment share outdoor and environmental work.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 22: Practical gardening.