Skills for Life: Financial Literacy
Financial literacy is a 20 hour Skills for Life unit, one of the units learners combine into a Skills for Life or Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma. Learners learn to manage money responsibly, save and invest, make sensible spending and borrowing choices, and plan a personal budget. Numeracy is central: income, expenses and balance from Entry 1, checking spending against a budget at Entry 3, and at Level 2 monitoring and analysing a detailed budget with realistic data and comparing products by risk and return. Literacy sits in explaining and evaluating money decisions, reading financial information and giving sensible spending and borrowing advice.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- High
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 goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: Four learning outcomes with assessment criteria at Level 1 and Level 2. Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Understanding, response and analysis
-
Reading and interpreting financial information
The unit overview says learners use literacy to interpret financial information, and the pack suggests case studies, account statements, payslips and guides from MoneyHelper and Citizens Advice. Reading these supports the Level 2 comparisons of saving and borrowing products, but reading skills are not named in the assessment criteria.
Literacy: Reading strategies, Understanding, response and analysis
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils scan a sample bank statement to find the opening balance, one payment in and the largest payment out.
- Year 8
- Pupils read a savings account leaflet and pick out the interest rate, any limits on withdrawals and the small print.
- Year 9
- Pupils read a payday loan advert and a Citizens Advice page on borrowing, then explain what the advert leaves out and which source is more reliable.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit overview, integral and cross-curricular skills, page 4; Sources of evidence, pages 10 and 11; Experiences, page 11
“literacy to interpret financial information and communicate ideas clearly”
Progression step 3
I can use a range of strategies for finding information, e.g. skimming for gist, scanning for detail.
I can use inference and deduction to understand the text, and can consider the reliability of what I read.
Progression step 4
I can use inference and deduction to understand more complex texts, and can consider the reliability and impact of what I read.
I can evaluate the usefulness and reliability of texts.
Good to know
- The unit codes are S612E1, S612E2, S612E3, S612L1 and S612L2, and the unit is 20 guided learning hours (Unit overview, page 3).
- A plural in a criterion means at least two: "If not specified, then a plural reference within assessment criterion refers to a minimum of two." (pages 5 and 6).
- No special resources are needed: "Assessment of this unit should not require any specific resources." (page 13). Evidence can include completed budget worksheets, price comparison charts and "banking or financial account statements (real or simulated)" (Sources of evidence, pages 10 and 11).
- Suggested assessment tasks are optional: "These tasks are not mandatory." Teachers may adapt them or devise their own (Specification section 4.1, page 18).
- AI misuse includes "Using AI to complete parts of the assessment so that the work does not reflect the learner's own work, analysis, evaluation or calculations." (Specification section 4.6, page 21), so budget calculations must be the learner's own.
- Several Level 1 and 2 suggested activities on page 10, such as "research and present examples of emerging jobs or industries", are about careers rather than money and look carried over from another unit, so plan finance activities instead.
Links with other qualifications
The pack names GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy and GCSE Business as linked WJEC qualifications. GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy covers personal finance in more depth, including budgeting, bills, compound interest and borrowing, so this unit gives learners practical, everyday practice of the same skills. GCSE Business looks at money from a business point of view. The pack names Home management and maintenance, Online safety, Personal development planning and Business finance as Skills Suite units to deliver alongside it, and the pack says they help learners apply budgeting and money management in home, online, personal and business contexts.
Source: WJEC Financial literacy 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).