Skills for Life: Online Safety
Online safety is a Pearson Skills for Life unit in which learners recognise online risks, use safe practices to protect personal information, and follow, and at Level 2 write and adapt, an online safety plan. It is one 10 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life or Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, achieved at one level from Entry 1 to Level 2. The centre sets and marks the assignment. Literacy sits in reading guidelines and suspicious messages, outlining, describing or explaining risks, writing a safety plan for other users and discussing plans with peers. There is no numeracy.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 10
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- Low
- 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, rising from using basic safe online practices by following support cues (Entry 1) to outlining at least three risks and three safe practices (Entry 2) and identifying at least four risks and applying four safe practices by following a basic plan (Entry 3). Assessed internally by the centre through a centre-devised assignment, with Pearson standards verification. 10 guided learning hours, graded Pass or Fail.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each level: Level 1 learners describe a range of common online risks and safe practices and help to identify and implement them through a structured safety plan; Level 2 learners explain a range of online risks and safe practices, create online safety plans tailored to different users and adapt them when required. Assessed internally by the centre through a centre-devised assignment, with Pearson standards verification. 10 guided learning hours, graded Pass or Fail.
Skills that use Understanding, response and analysis
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Reading messages critically to recognise phishing and scams
Learners read emails, messages and websites to decide whether they are genuine, using clues to recognise phishing attempts at Level 1 and advanced online threats at Level 2. Recognising risks is required by the criteria from Entry 2 upwards; phishing is the specification's example.
Literacy: Reading strategies, Understanding, response and analysis
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils read three short text messages and underline the words that make one of them look like a scam, such as an urgent request for a code.
- Year 8
- Pupils read two prize competition adverts, one fake, and note the evidence in the wording and layout that shows which one to trust.
- Year 9
- Pupils judge how reliable a mock email from a bank is and justify their judgement with quotations about tone, links and requests.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 20, assessment criteria Entry 2 to Level 2, page 95; Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 1 and Level 2, page 96
“recognising phishing attempts and fundamental techniques for protecting personal information”
Progression step 3
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.
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Reading and following online safety guidelines
Entry 2 learners follow simple directions, Entry 3 learners apply simple online safety guidelines by following a basic plan, and Level 1 learners apply instructions and guidance from a safety plan with some independence. Pearson's mapping names reading guidelines as the unit's literacy link. This is required by the Entry 2 to Level 1 criteria and guidance.
Literacy: Reading strategies, Understanding, response and analysis
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils read a short school online safety code and turn each rule into a picture and caption for a class display.
- Year 8
- Pupils read a platform's community guidelines for young users and pick out the three rules that matter most for them, in their own words.
- Year 9
- Pupils read two online safety guides for parents and teenagers, compare their main advice, and use them to check a set of settings step by step.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 20, assessment criteria Entry 2 and Entry 3, page 95; Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 3 and Level 1, page 96; Annexe C, page 164
“apply simple online safety guidelines by following a basic plan”
Progression step 3
I can read words and sentences from different texts using a range of strategies to make meaning.
I can show understanding of and use the main ideas and significant details in different texts on the same topic.
Progression step 4
I can read, with concentration, printed and digital texts that are new to me and update, broaden and deepen my understanding of information, ideas and issues.
Good to know
- The unit is SfL 20 and is worth 10 guided learning hours, half the size of the WJEC Online safety unit: the unit summary lists "SfL 20 Online safety 10" (Unit summary, page 5).
- A unit counts once, at one level: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- The command verbs set the literacy level: Entry 2 learners "Outline", Entry 3 learners "Identify", Level 1 learners "Describe" and Level 2 learners "Explain" (assessment criteria, page 95), and the glossary defines Explain as giving "reasons and/or evidence" (Glossary, page 152).
- Centres choose the evidence: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 96), so spoken or recorded evidence is acceptable. Learners may be assessed "in Welsh or English" (page 8).
- Pearson's own mapping gives literacy as "Reading guidelines, writing reflections, reporting incidents" and numeracy as "No direct link" (Annexe C, page 164).
- AI must be acknowledged: "If AI is used, the final submission must be in the learner's own words" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 98).
- Document slips: the units section says to "refer to Section 6 Glossary" (page 11), but the glossary is Section 7 (page 151), and the Entry 3 guidance reads "when a applying safe online practices" (page 96).
Links with other qualifications
Online safety links with GCSE Digital Technology and GCSE Computer Science, which both teach phishing and protecting personal data, and its reading of suspicious messages for reliability supports the critical reading in GCSE English Language and Literature. Within the WJEC Skills Suite, Personal safety shares recognising online risks and planning safety actions, so its written safety plans use the same skills. Compared with the WJEC Online safety unit, the Pearson unit is 10 rather than 20 guided learning hours with one criterion per level, so there is less written work overall; WJEC's four learning outcomes ask learners to explain the Children's Code and reporting routes, while the main Pearson writing task is a structured online safety plan, which Level 2 learners tailor to different users.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications Specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 20: Online safety.