Skills for Life: International Language: Communicating Personal Information (Spoken)
International language (spoken): communicating personal information is a 10 hour Skills for Life unit, from Entry 1 to Level 2, offered in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish. It is one unit that learners combine with others into a Skills for Life, or Skills for Life and Work, Award, Certificate or Diploma. Literacy is the whole unit: learners listen for personal details and speak about themselves, from single words at Entry 1 to a short conversation with open questions at Level 2, often translating into English or Cymraeg. Numeracy is light, limited to saying numbers, dates and times.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 10
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- High
- Amount of numeracy work
- Low
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): Two learning outcomes (understand basic spoken personal information, give basic personal information orally), with separate 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. 10 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: Two learning outcomes (understand spoken personal information, engage in a conversation relating to personal information), with separate assessment criteria at Level 1 and Level 2. Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 10 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Measurement
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Saying numbers, dates and times
Learners use numbers to at least 16 at all levels, numbers over 16 from Entry 2, a mobile number in single digits at Entry 3, and the 12 and 24 hour clock, days and months at Levels 1 and 2. The number work is language for giving age, phone numbers and times rather than calculation, so numeracy demand is low and it is not assessed as numeracy.
Numeracy: Measurement, Conceptual understanding
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils count to 20 in the language around the class and say their age and the date of their birthday.
- Year 8
- Pupils read times from analogue and digital clock pictures aloud in the language, using the 12 hour clock.
- Year 9
- Pupils give a partner a mobile number digit by digit and the times of their school day in the 24 hour clock, and the partner writes them down to check.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Amplification, learning outcomes 1 and 2, pages 8 to 10; Suggested activities, Recall Activities, page 13
“reinforce numbers and time, and encourage speaking in full sentences”
Progression step 3
I can read and use analogue and digital clocks.
I can represent a concept in different ways, flowing between different representations including verbal, concrete, visual, digital and abstract.
Progression step 4
I can represent a concept in different ways, flowing between different representations including verbal, concrete, visual, digital and abstract.
Good to know
- There is one unit for each language. The title is "available in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish", and for unit codes the pack says "Please refer to the Skills for Life and Work qualifications specification." (Unit overview, page 3), where every code is still listed as TBC (section 3.1, page 13).
- Literacy is the integral skill named for the unit: "Learners will have opportunities to develop their literacy skills, with an emphasis on speaking and listening." (Unit overview, page 4). Appendix A of the specification has no row for this unit.
- Spoken work can be evidenced without writing: sources include "audio recording of candidate", "video recording of role-play" and "teacher observation notes", and "extended written work is not required unless appropriate" (Sources of evidence, page 14).
- Judgements are on the criteria, not accuracy of writing: "Assessor judgements should focus on meeting the standard, not spelling or presentation unless specifically assessed." (Sources of evidence, page 14).
- Suggested assessment tasks are optional: "These tasks are not mandatory." (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.1, page 18).
- AI use must be acknowledged. Properly referenced AI use "can be acceptable", but "Failing to acknowledge use of AI tools when they have been used as a source of information" is malpractice (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.6, page 21).
- The unit starts from scratch: the units "assume that learners have no previous experience of the language being learnt" (Planning courses, page 7), with Entry Level pitched at CEFR pre-A1 to A1 and Levels 1 and 2 at A2 to B1 (page 8). Staff should have "subject-specific expertise in language teaching" (page 14).
Links with other qualifications
The pack names VCSE Travel and Tourism and GCSE Business as qualifications the international language units can complement, and greetings, nationality, travel and talk about where people live and work fit both. Learners already taking GCSE French, GCSE German or GCSE Spanish are pointed towards a new language rather than the same one. Within the Skills Suite the unit pairs with International language (written): communicating personal information, the Social activities units and the Skills for Work Education and employment units, which share vocabulary for school, work and hobbies. Translating answers into English or Cymraeg draws on GCSE English Language and Literature, GCSE Cymraeg Language and Literature and GCSE Core Cymraeg, and the Level 2 questions about skills and future jobs echo the Interview and confidence techniques unit.
Source: WJEC International language (spoken) - communicating personal information 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).