Skills for Life: Home Management and Maintenance
Home management and maintenance is a Pearson Skills for Life unit in which learners plan household routines on a floor plan, wire a plug and choose the right fuse, choose and fit a light bulb, sort waste for recycling and sort laundry using care labels, linking choices to energy and water use. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. Literacy sits in annotating the floor plan, reading care labels and bulb boxes, and explaining recycling and laundry choices. Numeracy sits in reading fuse ratings, lumens and wash temperatures, which are assessed, and in budgeting, which is taught content.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- Medium
- 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, outline or identify household routines and demonstrate basic, simple or most steps in practical tasks. The essential information for assessment decisions names the tasks: noting cleaning, safety and security routines for each room on a floor plan or equivalent, fitting a fuse or wiring a plug, fitting a bulb, sorting waste and recycling, and sorting laundry using labels. Centres choose the type of evidence and set and mark the assessment, adapting Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief or devising their own, internally verified and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 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) the main skills and activities in household routines, safety and sustainability, and complete practical tasks, competently at Level 2: an annotated floor plan, wiring an old style plug and choosing the correct fuse for a heating appliance, choosing and fitting a bulb, sorting all waste items, and choosing wash cycles from laundry labels with links to energy and water use. Centres choose the type of evidence and set and mark the assessment, internally verified and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Strategic competence
-
Choosing the correct fuse rating
Learners select and fit the correct fuse to a modern plug, with support at Entry 1 and Entry 2, and at Level 1 and Level 2 choose the correct fuse for a heating appliance such as a kettle when wiring an old style plug, with Level 2 learners understanding the role of fuses. This means reading amp ratings and matching them to an appliance. This is required by the essential information for assessment decisions.
Numeracy: Strategic competence, Communicating with symbols
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils sort a set of 3A, 5A and 13A fuses by reading the number and unit printed on each and say which is the largest.
- Year 8
- Pupils read the power rating on the labels of five classroom appliances, use a simple chart to choose a 3A or 13A fuse for each, and record the unit correctly.
- Year 9
- Pupils compare the ratings of a lamp, a laptop charger and a kettle, use a fuse chart to pick the correct fuse for each and explain why a kettle needs the highest rating.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 16, Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 1 and Entry 2, page 78, Level 1 and Level 2, page 79
“select and fit the correct fuse for a heating appliance, such as a kettle”
Progression step 3
I can identify, measure or obtain required information to complete the task.
I can use appropriate notation, symbols and units of measurement.
Progression step 4
I can identify, measure or obtain required information to complete the task.
I can use appropriate notation, symbols and units of measurement, including compound measures.
-
Comparing bulbs using lumens and box information
Entry 2 learners give a simple reason for choosing a bulb for a room, Entry 3 learners choose a bright bulb for the kitchen by comparing lumens, and Level 2 learners use two pieces of information from the bulb box to back up their choice of bulb for a kitchen fitting. This is required by the essential information for assessment decisions.
Numeracy: Strategic competence, Logical reasoning
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils order four bulb boxes from dimmest to brightest by reading the lumens figure on each.
- Year 8
- Pupils compare the lumens and watts printed on an old style bulb and an LED bulb of the same brightness and say which uses less power.
- Year 9
- Pupils choose a bulb for a kitchen from five boxes, using the lumens and the wattage to justify their choice with numbers.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 16, Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 2, page 78, Entry 3, page 79, Level 2, page 79
“It needs to be bright, so I have chosen the one with the highest lumens”
Progression step 3
I can identify what further information might be required and select what information is most appropriate.
I can justify my procedures and predictions.
Progression step 4
I can identify what further information might be required and select what information is most appropriate.
I can justify my procedures, predictions and conjectures.
Good to know
- The unit is listed as "SfL 16 Home management and maintenance" with a Unit GLH of 20 (Unit summary, page 5), the same size as the WJEC unit of the same name.
- A unit counts only once: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6, and Assessment of units, page 9), so schools should decide which level each learner is working towards.
- Written work can be brief: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 78), and Entry 2 learners may comment "often using short phrases supported by teacher prompting" (Entry 2, page 78).
- Level 2 reading of product information is specific: learners "can use two pieces of information from the bulb box to back up their choice" (Level 2, page 79), so real bulb packaging is needed.
- Budgeting is not in the assessment criteria, although the supervision guidance says Level 1 learners take "some responsibility for budgeting" (Levels of supervision and support, page 80) and Annexe C lists budgeting sheets as unit content (page 163).
- Learners "can be assessed in Welsh or English" (Language of assessment, page 8), and AI may be used only if "the final submission must be in the learner's own words" and it is acknowledged (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 80).
- In Annexe C the Numeracy and Literacy columns for SfL 16 appear to be swapped: the Numeracy column lists "reading/ interpreting labels (laundry symbols)" and the Literacy column lists "budgeting sheets (surplus/deficit)" (Annexe C, page 163).
Links with other qualifications
Reading product information, following safe practical procedures and explaining sustainable choices are shared with WJEC GCSE Design and Technology and the WJEC VCSE in Built Environment, which the WJEC unit also names as links. Comparing ratings, lumens and wash temperatures is everyday number work that supports WJEC GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy, and the budgeting in the unit content is covered in more depth by the WJEC Skills Suite unit Financial Literacy, while Sustainability in Action shares the recycling and energy saving explanations. Compared with the WJEC Home management and maintenance unit, also 20 hours, whose numeracy centres on planning routines over a week or month, the Pearson unit's assessed numeracy is reading fuse ratings, bulb information and wash temperatures in set practical tasks, and its literacy centres on an annotated floor plan and labels rather than reviewing routines in writing.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 16: Home management and maintenance.