Skills for Work: Business Finance
Business Finance is a Pearson Skills for Work unit in which learners learn how small businesses and other institutions raise money, manage costs, save money and use budgets and financial plans to stay viable, applied to their own setting or an enterprise activity. 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, assessed internally by the centre. Numeracy sits in income and expenditure, budgeting, comparing sources of finance and cost savings, and a simple financial plan at Level 2. Literacy sits in describing and explaining finance choices and their impact, and in group discussion.
- 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
- 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, moving from stating how businesses or other institutions earn and manage money, to outlining basic business finance concepts, to identifying sources of income, cost-saving measures and how a budget helps a business stay viable. Evidence is internally assessed by the centre, which sets and marks the assessment, and quality assured by Pearson through standards verification. 10 guided learning hours. Graded Pass or Fail.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: describing how a small business or other institution manages money and the benefits and drawbacks of financial planning and budgets, then creating a simple financial plan showing how to generate income and spend effectively so the business is viable. Evidence is internally assessed by the centre, which sets and marks the assessment, and quality assured by Pearson through standards verification. 10 guided learning hours. Graded Pass or Fail.
Skills that use Collaborative talk
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Discussing finance problems in groups
The support guidance expects Entry learners to contribute to group discussions and problem solving about business finance, Level 1 learners to take a leading role, and Level 2 learners to lead and facilitate discussions. Because learners must meet the criteria independently, group discussion supports teaching but is not itself assessed.
Literacy: Collaborative talk, Listening as part of collaborative talk
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils discuss in groups how a school club could raise £100, with each pupil adding one idea and the group choosing the best two.
- Year 8
- Pupils take roles such as chair and note taker to discuss how a tuck shop could cut its costs, then report their agreed plan.
- Year 9
- Pupils lead a group discussion on funding a small business, weigh up options raised by others and reach an agreed recommendation.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 8, Levels of supervision and support before and during assessment, page 46; Section 4, Assessment of units, page 9
“They will contribute ideas and solutions to group problem-solving activities with appropriate guidance”
Progression step 3
I can contribute to group discussion in different roles, taking responsibility for completing the task well.
I can listen to and respond to others with questions and comments which focus on reasons, implications and next steps.
Progression step 4
I can undertake a range of responsibilities to structure and develop group talk, including in more formal situations.
I can recognise a range of options for action and reach agreement to achieve the aims of the group.
Good to know
- The unit is Unit SfW 8 and is worth "10" guided learning hours (Unit summary, page 5), half the 20 hours of the WJEC unit of the same name.
- Pearson maps the unit to the Mathematics and Numeracy statement "The number system is used to represent and compare relationships between numbers and quantities" (Statements of 'what matters' mapping, page 47).
- Pearson's own numeracy links for the unit are "budget, calculate, cost, income, expenses, profit, financial" (Annexe C, page 119), although the criteria themselves do not name profit, cash flow or break-even.
- Entry 2 learners can apply the ideas "to a familiar scenario such as personal spending" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 45), so the context need not be a real business at the lower levels.
- Evidence is flexible: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 45).
- AI tools must be acknowledged: "If AI is used, the final submission must be in the learner's own words and reflect their own effort" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 47).
Links with other qualifications
The WJEC Skills for Work unit Business Finance is 20 hours, requires an enterprise activity and adds profit and loss, cash flow forecasts and break-even, so it carries more numeracy than the 10 hour Pearson unit, which centres on income, costs, cost saving, budgets and a simple financial plan. Budgeting and comparing sources of finance link to WJEC GCSE Business and to the financial content of GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy, the budgeting work to the Skills for Life unit Financial literacy, and planning finance for an enterprise to the WJEC Skills for Work unit Enterprise venture. Explaining finance choices in writing builds on WJEC GCSE English Language and Literature.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Work Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfW 8: Business finance.