Skills for Work: Exploring Career Pathways
Exploring career pathways is a Skills for Work unit in which learners research job roles and longer career pathways, compare their own skills, behaviours, attitudes, knowledge and experience with what employers need, and plan their route into a chosen job. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2, and it is assessed internally by the centre. Digital demand is medium: from Entry 3 the criteria require research from several sources, with the internet named as an example, and Pearson maps the unit to digital search and presentation. Learners must reference sources and acknowledge any AI used.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Medium
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): One assessment criterion at each Entry level: learners state simple information about a job they may be interested in (Entry 1), outline information about a chosen job role or career pathway (Entry 2), or identify information from different sources about an occupational pathway and a career pathway (Entry 3), and give the steps or a basic plan for entry to a chosen job role. Evidence is assessed internally by the centre through a centre-devised assignment, which can be based on Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief, and is quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each level: learners describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) information from a range of sources about different occupational and career pathways, compare their own skills with the entry requirements, and produce a structured plan (Level 1) or a detailed and realistic plan with strategies for progression (Level 2) for entry to a chosen job role. Evidence is assessed internally by the centre and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Data and information literacy
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Organising and comparing career information in digital tables
Entry 3 learners compare their own skills, behaviours, attitudes, knowledge and experience with the requirements they have found, and Level 1 and Level 2 learners describe or explain how these compare for each pathway. The comparison is required, but organising it in a digital table or document is only one way of doing it; the centre chooses the evidence format.
DCF: Data and information literacy, Creating digital content, Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils make a two column table in a word processor listing what a chosen job needs and which of those things they already have.
- Year 8
- Pupils build a comparison table in a spreadsheet for two jobs, with rows for qualifications, skills, hours and starting pay.
- Year 9
- Pupils create a structured digital document comparing two occupational pathways and one career pathway against their own skills audit, with headings and a summary table.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 4, Purpose and Aim, page 26; Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 3 to Level 2, pages 27 to 28
“locate, organise, evaluate and present information when considering the range of opportunities available”
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 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.
Progression step 4
I can explore and develop a range of formal text document structures for different audiences and purposes.
I can select and effectively use a variety of planning techniques.
Good to know
- The unit is listed as "SfW 4 Exploring career pathways 20", so it is 20 guided learning hours (Unit summary, page 5); the Level 1 Skills for Work Award, for example, is qualification "C00/5473/9" (Qualification titles, page 4).
- A unit can be passed only once: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- The number of sources rises with the level: Level 1 learners use "at least three sources about at least two occupational pathways" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 28), so schools need access to careers websites, job descriptions or local publications.
- Evidence is flexible: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 27), and the teaching content is in the separate "Teaching and Learning Support document" (Unit content, page 27).
- AI may be used but must be acknowledged: "A learner will have committed malpractice if they use AI tools without acknowledging them" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 29).
- The Skills for Work specification still refers to the other pathway in places: "Every unit in our Skills for Life qualifications includes an Authorised Assessment Brief" (Authorised Assignment Briefs, page 8), which appears to be a copying error, and the Entry 3 guidance contains the slip "e.g. they requirements" (page 27).
- Pearson separates an occupational pathway (one specific job) from a career pathway (a long term plan across different jobs), and from Entry 3 learners must research one of each (Essential information for assessment decisions, pages 27 to 28).
Links with other qualifications
The research and planning in this unit link to the WJEC Skills Suite units Personal development planning, Jobs of the future and Applying for jobs, and the work related focus links to GCSE Business and to any WJEC VCSE or Foundation that looks at job roles and progression in a sector, such as Retail and Customer Service. Compared with the WJEC Exploring career pathways unit, which is also 20 guided learning hours and has four learning outcomes ending in presenting information about a chosen career, the Pearson unit has one criterion per level and goes further on planning: Level 1 learners set short and medium term goals and identify progression routes, and Level 2 learners also identify barriers to entry and strategies to overcome them. Neither the WJEC nor the Pearson unit requires a particular digital product.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Work Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfW 4: Exploring career pathways.