Skills for Work: Applying for Jobs
Applying for jobs teaches learners to match their own skills to suitable jobs, search for vacancies, read job adverts, complete application forms or CVs and use sources of advice such as Careers Wales. It is one 20 hour Skills for Work unit that learners combine with other units into a Skills for Work, or Skills for Life and Work, Award, Certificate or Diploma. The assessment criteria do not require a computer, but most real job searching happens online, so the digital work sits in searching job websites, keeping a job search log, completing online forms, producing a CV and judging which online advice services are useful.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Medium
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): Four learning outcomes with assessment criteria at Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3. Evidence is compiled into a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours, Skills for Work group.
- Level 1 and Level 2: Four learning outcomes with assessment criteria at Level 1 and Level 2. Evidence is compiled into a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours, Skills for Work group.
Skills that use Data and information literacy
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Recording job leads in a job search log
Learners record details of the jobs they find, such as title, location and hours, and present them; at Level 2 they develop a structured job search plan with targets and deadlines and then review it to improve their results. Recording and presenting the jobs found is required at Level 1 and the plan and review at Level 2, while keeping the log in a spreadsheet is only one way to do it.
DCF: Data and information literacy, Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils make a simple table in Word with columns for job title, location and hours and fill it in for three jobs from a printed set of adverts.
- Year 8
- Pupils set up a spreadsheet log of five jobs with columns for title, employer, pay, hours and closing date, and sort it by closing date.
- Year 9
- Pupils build a job search plan in a spreadsheet with weekly targets, a drop down list for the status of each application and a column of next steps, then review it after two weeks and change one target.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Level 1 and Level 2, learning outcome 2, assessment criteria 2.1 and 2.2, page 6; amplification of LO2, page 8; suggested activities, page 9
“record and organise job opportunities found during the search”
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 independently create and plan work before beginning a digital task.
Progression step 4
I can create a data capture form, capture data, search data and create a database and spreadsheet with appropriate data input method.
I can select and effectively use a variety of planning techniques.
Good to know
- Unit codes are S651E1, S651E2, S651E3, S651L1 and S651L2, and the unit is "GLH 20" in the Skills for Work suite (Unit overview, page 3).
- No special equipment is needed: "Assessment of this unit should not require any specific resources." (Resources required for assessment, page 12).
- Paper or screen both count. Possible evidence includes "completed job application forms (paper or digital)" and "screenshots or printouts from online job searches or applications" (Sources of evidence, page 9).
- Evidence can be photographs, video or audio: the list includes "photographs or videos of practical activities, group work, or presentations" (Sources of evidence, page 10) and the specification lists "video/audio recordings" as an evidence type (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.1, page 18).
- The portfolio need not be paper: the term portfolio "is not limited to paper-based materials" (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.1, page 18).
- Suggested assessment tasks are optional: "These tasks are not mandatory." Teachers may adapt them or write their own (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.1, page 18).
- AI tools must be acknowledged. Misuse includes "Failing to acknowledge use of AI tools when they have been used as a source of information" and using AI so the work no longer reflects "the learner's own work" (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.6, page 21). This matters here because the pack lists a resource on "Using generative AI in job applications" (page 11).
- Spelling and layout are not judged unless a criterion asks: "Assessor judgements should focus on meeting the standard, not spelling or presentation unless specifically assessed." (Sources of evidence, page 9).
- Appendix A of the specification ticks Digital Competence for this unit (page 29), and the pack names "online job searches, completing electronic forms, and using digital tools to create applications and CVs" (Unit overview, page 4).
Links with other qualifications
The pack names VCSE Retail and Customer Service and GCSE Business as related WJEC qualifications, and both cover recruitment and what employers look for. Writing a CV and a formal application builds on the formal writing in GCSE English Language and Literature, and producing a well presented CV in a word processor links with the document skills in GCSE Digital Technology. Within the Skills Suite the pack names Interview and confidence techniques, Exploring career pathways, Personal development planning, Jobs of the future, Work experience, Career creativity and Working in Wales as units to deliver alongside it, and Using IT in the workplace covers the same online forms and documents in more depth.
Source: WJEC Applying for jobs 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).