Foundation Digital Technology
Foundation Digital Technology is a two year Entry Level and Level 1 qualification for learners aged 14 to 16, leading on to GCSE Digital Technology. Literacy sits mainly in the Unit 1 topic tests, where learners read multiple choice, objective and short answer questions and use technical terms such as CPU, RAM, MFA and phishing, and in the NEA units, where they write goals, success criteria and annotations, write text and narration for their product and reflect on their work. Numeracy sits in Unit 2: learners collect audience data, enter it in a spreadsheet, total and filter it and present it in pictograms, bar, pie and line charts. Coordinates, scores, timings and time plans add smaller numeracy demands in the games, quizzes and videos.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level and Level 1
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- Medium
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this qualification is assessed
- Unit 1: The Digital World: Three digital topic tests of 20 minutes each (1 hour in total), 30%, 60 marks, set and marked by WJEC, taken in digital or paper format within a four week window under invigilated conditions
- Unit 2: Designing Digital Solutions: Non-examination assessment, suggested timing of approximately 16 hours, 35%, 70 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC, assignment brief available via the WJEC Portal
- Unit 3: Creating and Communicating with Digital Media: Non-examination assessment, suggested timing of approximately 14 hours, 35%, 70 marks, set by WJEC, marked by the centre and moderated by WJEC, assignment brief available via the WJEC Portal
Skills that use Vocabulary, spelling, grammar
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Using technical vocabulary for digital systems and online safety
Unit 1 is full of technical terms and abbreviations, such as CPU, GPU, RAM, NIC, firmware, PII, MFA, VPN and phishing. Learners must know and spell them and use them correctly in short answers.
Literacy: Vocabulary, spelling, grammar
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils match ten abbreviations such as CPU and RAM to their full names and purposes, then learn the spellings in a weekly word check.
- Year 8
- Pupils build a glossary in OneNote of online safety terms such as phishing, MFA and VPN, each with their own definition and an example.
- Year 9
- Pupils explain the difference between pairs of terms that are often confused, such as cloud computing and cloud storage, in two or three sentences each.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 1, Sections 1.1.2, 1.2.1 and 1.2.2, pages 13 to 15
“Personal Identifiable Information (PII)”
Progression step 3
I can use varied, appropriate and precise vocabulary including area of learning and experience/discipline-specific words for different purposes.
I can use strategies to correctly spell polysyllabic, complex and irregular words in the context of each area of learning and experience.
Progression step 4
I have experienced a range of area of learning and experience/discipline-specific and general academic vocabulary, and can use them in my own communication.
I can use a variety of strategies and resources to spell familiar and unfamiliar vocabulary and area of learning and experience/discipline-specific words correctly.
Good to know
- Unit 1 questions are mostly short: the tests use "multiple choice questions (MCQ), objective test questions (OTQ) and short answer questions" (Section 3.2, page 28), each lasting 20 minutes.
- No marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar are mentioned. All marks sit under AO1 to AO4 (Section 3.1, page 27), and "The Assessment Pack will include all detailed information relating to assessment." (page 27).
- Spreadsheet number work is assessed by level of skill: learners use "suitable spreadsheet skills (data analysis) from each level of complexity" (Unit 2, Section 2.1.3, page 20), and Appendix A lists "Using formulas (COUNT, SUM)" as More advanced (page 37).
- Presentations and other spoken work need teacher records: "performance evidence (e.g. presentations) must be documented using observation records" (Section 3.3, page 30).
- Appendix C (pages 41 and 42) maps Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing to every section of all three units, and maps Developing Mathematical Proficiency, number, geometry and measurement, and statistics to Units 2 and 3 only, with nothing for Unit 1.
Links with other qualifications
The qualification leads on to GCSE Digital Technology, where the same survey, spreadsheet and chart work grows into cleaning and analysing a larger WJEC data set with formulas and pivot tables, and the written planning and evaluation become longer. Survey design, frequency totals and bar, pie and line charts support the statistics work in Mathematics and Numeracy, and reading and writing about online safety links with English and Personal and Social Education.
Source: WJEC Entry Level/Level 1 Foundation Digital Technology specification, approved by Qualifications Wales, teaching from September 2027, for award from 2029 (© WJEC CBAC Ltd 2026).