Skills for Work: Work Experience
Work Experience is a Pearson Skills for Work unit in which learners find out about types of work experience and their benefits, learn what they and employers expect, plan their route, transport and first day, and then take part safely in a placement or work-related activities. 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, assessed internally by the centre. Digital demand is low: no criterion names a digital tool. Digital work sits in finding sources of information about placements, planning journeys, producing planning documents, and the optional digital or IT work-related activities listed in Annexe C.
- 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, covering types, activities and expectations of work experience and preparing for and taking part in at least two (Entry 1 and Entry 2) or three (Entry 3) work-related activities or a placement. There are no mandatory evidence requirements. Internally assessed by the centre through a centre-devised assignment or Pearson's adaptable Authorised Assignment Brief, subject to Pearson standards verification, graded Pass or Fail. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) types, activities, benefits and expectations of work experience, and plan, prepare for and take part in a work experience placement or a range of work-related activities. There are no mandatory evidence requirements. Internally assessed by the centre through a centre-devised assignment or Pearson's adaptable Authorised Assignment Brief, subject to Pearson standards verification, graded Pass or Fail. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Digital rights, licensing and ownership
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Acknowledging sources and AI use
At every level learners must certify that their evidence is their own and reference any sources and any AI they used, and final work must be in their own words. Using AI without acknowledging it is malpractice, which matters for planning documents learners might draft with AI.
DCF: Digital rights, licensing and ownership, Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils add the names of the websites they used to the bottom of a careers poster.
- Year 8
- Pupils discuss why copying a job description word for word is not their own work, then rewrite it in their own words and reference it.
- Year 9
- Pupils keep a source log for a placement plan, noting any AI tool they used, what it did and how they checked and rewrote its output.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 76
“If learners use AI tools, they must acknowledge them clearly”
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 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 "SfW 14" with 20 guided learning hours (Unit summary, page 5), the same size as the WJEC Work experience unit. Skills for Work qualification numbers run from "C00/5473/0" for the Entry Level 1 Award to "C00/5474/4" for the Level 2 Diploma (Qualification titles, pages 3 and 4).
- A unit is passed at one level only: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- A placement is not essential at any level: Entry 3 learners prepare for "a work placement or at least three work-related activities" (Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 3, page 74), and Level 1 learners "take part in a work placement or work-related activities" (page 74).
- Safe working is required, not optional: Entry 1 learners "must show that they can work safely when using equipment and materials" (page 73), and Level 1 learners "consistently follow health and safety procedures" (page 74).
- Evidence of taking part must be recorded: "achievement cannot be inferred from performance", and evidence forms include "observation records, witness testimony, and products of learners' work" (Assessment requirements, page 9). The unit itself has "no mandatory evidence requirements" (page 73).
- Teaching content sits in Pearson's separate Teaching and Learning Support document, not the specification (Unit content, page 73), and "AABs are not mandatory" (How to use this document, page 1).
- AI may be used only if acknowledged: "A learner will have committed malpractice if they use AI tools without acknowledging them" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 76).
- The Skills for Work specification has an editing slip on page 8: "Every unit in our Skills for Life qualifications includes an Authorised Assessment Brief", although this is the Skills for Work specification and the heading reads Authorised Assignment Briefs.
Links with other qualifications
Pearson's Annexe E names Welsh work experience sources such as Transport for Wales and NHS Wales (page 129), which link to VCSE Travel and Tourism, VCSE Public Services and GCSE Health and Social Care, and Childcare. Customer-facing work-related activities link with VCSE Retail and Customer Service and VCSE Hospitality and Catering, and workplace expectations and employability link with GCSE Business. Within the WJEC Skills Suite, Applying for jobs, Interview and confidence techniques and Exploring career pathways prepare learners for the same kind of placement. Compared with the WJEC Work experience unit, the Pearson unit has the same 20 hours but one criterion per level rather than four learning outcomes, makes travel planning and a first-day checklist central, and does not require a CV, application form or a separate review of performance.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Work Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications Specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfW 14: Work experience.