Skills for Work: Building a Growth Mindset
Building a growth mindset covers overcoming setbacks and building resilience, managing stress in the moment, the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset, and building helpful long term habits. 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. No assessment criterion needs digital tools, and the specification maps no Digital Competence to it. Digital work is optional: a habit tracker that can be paper or digital, reflecting on phone habits, and using trusted mental health websites such as NHS Every Mind Matters.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
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.
The digital skills in this qualification
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Keeping a simple habit tracker
A suggested Entry Level activity is to create a simple tracker, on paper or digitally, for one habit such as revising for ten minutes a day and use it for a week, and Level 1 and Level 2 learners can track a habit and reflect on progress. The criteria themselves only ask learners to give, demonstrate and reflect on a helpful habit, so a digital tracker is taught, not assessed.
DCF: Data and information literacy
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils make a table in Word with the days of the week and tick each day they read for ten minutes, then count the ticks at the end of the week.
- Year 8
- Pupils keep a spreadsheet of the minutes they spend practising a skill each day for two weeks and use a SUM formula to find their weekly totals.
- Year 9
- Pupils set up a spreadsheet tracker for a revision habit with a drop down list for done or missed, a chart of minutes per day and a line of comment on what helped them keep going.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Suggested activities, pages 13 and 14; Entry Level, learning outcome 4, assessment criteria 4.1 and 4.2, page 6; Level 1 and Level 2, learning outcome 4, page 8
“create a simple tracker (paper or digital) for one habit”
Progression step 3
I can construct, refine and interrogate data sets within tables, charts, spreadsheets and databases to test or support an investigation.
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.
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Reflecting on phone and screen habits
The amplification for learning outcome 4 gives checking our phone as an example of a habit, and the criteria ask learners to name their daily habits and explain how habits support learning and wellbeing. Thinking about whether phone use is a helpful habit is a natural discussion point, but the pack does not require it, so it is taught, not assessed.
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils list the things they do on a phone or tablet in a normal day and sort them into helpful and unhelpful habits with a partner.
- Year 8
- Pupils check their phone's screen time report or keep a one week log, then write two sentences on how screen time affects their sleep or homework.
- Year 9
- Pupils choose one screen habit to change, such as no phone for the first hour of homework, track it for a week and reflect on whether it helped their focus.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Amplification of LO4, page 12; Level 1 and Level 2, learning outcome 4, assessment criteria 4.2 and 4.3, page 8
“Give two examples of your daily habits.”
Progression step 3
I can understand the importance of balancing game and screen time with other parts of my life, e.g. explore the reasons why I might be tempted to spend more time playing games or find it difficult to stop playing and the effect this has on my well-being.
Progression step 4
I can reflect on the role of digital media in my life and habits.
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Using trusted websites about stress and resilience
At Level 1 and Level 2 learners begin to use different sources of information, and a source log of resources and research notes is a possible piece of evidence. The pack lists websites such as Mind, YoungMinds, NHS Every Mind Matters and BBC Bitesize for learning about stress and resilience, but no criterion requires online research, so this is taught, not assessed.
DCF: Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils watch a BBC Bitesize clip on resilience and write down the web address and two tips they learned.
- Year 8
- Pupils find one tip for managing exam stress on the NHS Every Mind Matters site and one on a social media post, and explain which source they trust more.
- Year 9
- Pupils keep a source log of three websites about stress, noting who runs each site, the date and why it is reliable, and use the best tips in a short leaflet.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit overview, Curriculum for Wales, page 4; sources of evidence, page 14; resources available to support delivery, pages 15 to 18
“source log of resources and research notes”
Progression step 3
I can begin to reference sources used in my work, and consider if content is reliable.
Progression step 4
I can evaluate the reliability of sources of information, justify my opinions and reasons for choices, and reference using appropriate methods.
Good to know
- Unit codes are S652E1, S652E2, S652E3, S652L1 and S652L2, 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 18).
- Appendix A of the specification ticks only Literacy among the cross-curricular and integral skills for this unit (page 29), so there is no Digital Competence mapping.
- Evidence can be recorded: possible evidence includes "recording of practical demonstrations of evidence, such as role plays or discussions" and "annotated photographic evidence of matching or sorting activity" (Sources of evidence, page 14).
- 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" (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.6, page 21). Most criteria ask learners to describe or reflect on their own experience, which AI cannot do for them.
- The topic is personal. The pack asks learners to describe their own setbacks and stress, so centres may want to let learners use someone they know or a case study, which several Level 2 criteria allow, for example "a time when you or someone you know faced a setback" (page 7).
Links with other qualifications
The pack names Fairness and inclusion in the workplace, Wellbeing and work, Personal development planning, Interview and confidence techniques and Overcoming barriers as Skills Suite units to deliver alongside it, and the Skills for Life unit Mental health and wellbeing covers stress and coping in more depth. The work on stress, wellbeing and healthy habits links with the Health and well-being Area of Learning and Experience and so with GCSE Physical Education and Health. There is little digital overlap with other qualifications on this page, because the unit has no required digital work.
Source: WJEC Building a growth mindset 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).