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 Vocabulary, spelling, grammar
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Describing and explaining household routines on a floor plan
Learners note cleaning routines, safety measures and security points for each room on a floor plan or equivalent, from listing one or two at Entry 1 and short phrases at Entry 2, to brief annotations at Entry 3, clear comments on why rooms need different routines at Level 1, and detailed annotations explaining why each matters at Level 2. This is required by the assessment criteria.
Literacy: Vocabulary, spelling, grammar, Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils label a printed plan of a bathroom with three cleaning jobs and one safety point, such as wiping up water to stop slips.
- Year 8
- Pupils annotate a floor plan of a flat with one cleaning, one safety and one security point for each room, using words such as hazard and secure.
- Year 9
- Pupils write detailed annotations for each room of a house plan explaining why its routines matter, for example why a room with an outside door needs a key check.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 16, assessment criteria, page 77; Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 1 to Entry 3, pages 78 to 79, Level 1 and Level 2, page 79
“explain how cleaning routines, safety measures, and security actions are important for each room”
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 write a comprehensive account of a topic, theme or viewpoint.
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 summary, discussion of issues, detailed explanations and logic when covering a topic.
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.