Skills for Work: Customer Service
Customer service is a Pearson Skills for Work unit about good customer service in different work contexts such as retail, hospitality and public services, and the communication skills to put it into practice and deal with problems. Learners list, outline or explain customer service skills and principles and take part in a role play or real customer service activity. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, achieved at one level from Entry 1 to Level 2. Digital demand is low: no criterion needs digital work, and digital skills sit only in researching contexts online, presenting findings and referencing sources and AI.
- 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: list familiar examples, outline basic skills, or identify simple skills and their purpose, and take part in a customer service activity, from a simple supported activity at Entry 1 to contributing to a role play or real activity at Entry 3. There are no mandatory evidence requirements; the centre sets and marks the assessment and Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: describe the importance of customer service in at least two work contexts and demonstrate at least three appropriate skills in practical situations (Level 1), or explain its principles across at least three contexts and deliver effective customer service, adapting to different situations and customer needs (Level 2). The centre sets and marks the assessment and Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Digital rights, licensing and ownership
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Acknowledging sources and AI in evidence
Learners must certify that their evidence is their own and reference any sources and any artificial intelligence they used, and using AI tools without acknowledging them is malpractice. This applies at every level and is a requirement of the assessment, not unit content. It matters when learners take examples of customer service policies from company websites.
DCF: Digital rights, licensing and ownership, Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils copy a shop's customer promise into their notes and write the web address underneath it.
- Year 8
- Pupils rewrite a company's customer service policy in their own words and add a reference to the page they used.
- Year 9
- Pupils use an AI chatbot to suggest role play scenarios, keep the ones they adapt, and write an acknowledgement saying what the AI produced and what they changed.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 12, Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 65
“they have clearly referenced any sources and any artificial intelligence used”
Progression step 3
I can understand that copying the work of others and presenting it as my own is plagiarism.
I can cite sources when researching and explain the importance of this, e.g. create simple lists for the referencing of digital and offline sources.
Progression step 4
I can act responsibly as creator and user of creative work, e.g. exploring decisions that creators make when exercising their creative rights and responsibilities, giving consideration to ethical, real-life issues.
I can evaluate the reliability of sources of information, justify my opinions and reasons for choices, and reference using appropriate methods.
Good to know
- The unit is Unit SfW 12 in the "Exploring opportunities" group and the unit summary lists it at 20 GLH (Unit summary, page 5), the same size as the WJEC Customer service unit.
- A unit counts once: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- Learners must take part in an activity, not only write about it, and "achievement cannot be inferred from performance" (Assessment requirements, page 9), so a role play needs an observation record or other evidence the verifier can see.
- Evidence format is open: "no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 64), and "No resources are explicitly prohibited for the assessment of this unit" (page 65).
- 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 65).
- The unit content, which the specification says is compulsory, is not printed in it: it "can be found in the Teaching and Learning Support document for this unit" (Unit content, page 64).
- Pearson's own mapping lists a numeracy link of "income, profit" (Annexe C, page 120), but no assessment criterion asks for any calculation.
- The document has slips: the Level 1 guidance reads "in least two different contexts" (page 64), section 5 says "please refer to Section 6 Glossary" (page 11) though the glossary is section 7, and this Skills for Work specification refers to "our Skills for Life qualifications" when describing assignment briefs (page 8).
Links with other qualifications
Compared with the WJEC Customer service unit, which is also 20 GLH, Pearson's version has one assessment criterion per level rather than three learning outcomes, and it has no separate criteria on teamwork or on handling complaints; instead Level 1 and Level 2 learners must cover customer service across two or three work contexts and adapt to different customers and situations. Digital demand is low in both. The unit sits closest to the WJEC VCSE and Foundation in Retail and Customer Service, and Pearson's examples of retail, hospitality and public services link it to the WJEC VCSE in Hospitality and Catering and the VCSE in Public Services. GCSE Business covers why customer service matters to a business, and the WJEC Skills Suite unit Enterprise Venture also involves serving customers.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Work Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfW 12: Customer service.