Skills for Work: Business Finance
Business finance is a Skills for Work unit about how businesses get money, spend it, invest it and save costs, applied in a real enterprise activity such as a tuck shop, cake sale or fundraising stall. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Skills for Work, or Skills for Life and Work, Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. Numeracy is central: counting and adding money at Entry Level, then budgets, records of income and expenditure, profit and loss, percentages, cash flow and break-even at Levels 1 and 2. Literacy sits in explaining and evaluating reasons and justifying money decisions.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- High
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): Four learning outcomes with assessment criteria at Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3 (unit codes S653E1, S653E2, S653E3). Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours. Learners must take part in an enterprise activity.
- Level 1 and Level 2: Four learning outcomes with assessment criteria at Level 1 and Level 2 (unit codes S653L1, S653L2). Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours. Learners must take part in an enterprise activity.
Skills that use Representing data
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Recording income and expenditure accurately
Entry 2 learners suggest how income and costs can be recorded, Entry 3 learners produce a record of income and costs, and Level 1 learners record income and expenditure in their activity. The amplification lists receipts, tables, tallies and bank statements as ways to track money.
Numeracy: Financial literacy, Representing data, Calculation, Communicating with symbols
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils keep a tally chart of tuck shop sales for one break time and turn it into money taken, writing amounts in pounds and pence.
- Year 8
- Pupils record a week of stall income and spending from receipts in a two column table and add each column to two decimal places.
- Year 9
- Pupils keep a running balance ledger for a fundraising event, checking each total against the cash count and finding the cause of any difference.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Entry Level, learning outcome 4, assessment criteria E2 4.3 and E3 4.3, page 6; Level 1 and Level 2, assessment criterion L1 4.3, page 8; Amplification of LO3, page 11
“Produce a record of income and costs for an enterprise activity”
Progression step 3
I can plan and track money and savings by keeping accurate records.
I can add and subtract totals less than £100 using correct notation, e.g. £28.18 + £33.45.
I can represent data using:
- lists, tally charts, tables, diagrams and frequency tables
- bar charts, grouped data charts, line graphs and conversion graphs
- pictograms where one symbol represents more than one unit using a key
- Venn and Carroll diagrams.
Progression step 4
I can use efficient written methods to add and subtract numbers and decimals of any size, including a mixture of large and small numbers with differing numbers of decimal places.
I can refine methods of recording calculations.
Good to know
- Unit codes are S653E1, S653E2, S653E3, S653L1 and S653L2, and the unit is 20 GLH in the Skills for Work suite (Unit overview, page 3).
- An enterprise activity is compulsory: "To achieve this unit, learners must take part in an enterprise activity." (Unit overview, page 3).
- The numeracy is set out level by level: Entry Level learners practise "recognising, counting and comparing amounts of money", and Level 1 and 2 learners "calculate income, costs, profit, loss, and break-even points" (Unit overview, page 4).
- Evidence may be "verbal, written, practical or visual", and judgements should not focus on "spelling or presentation unless specifically assessed" (Sources of evidence, page 13).
- The portfolio "is not limited to paper-based materials" and can include "photographic evidence" and "video/audio recordings" (Section 4.1, page 18).
- Suggested assessment tasks "are not mandatory"; teachers may use, adapt or replace them (Section 4.1, page 18).
- AI misuse is malpractice, including "Using AI to complete parts of the assessment so that the work does not reflect the learner's own work, analysis, evaluation or calculations." Use of AI tools must be acknowledged (Section 4.6, page 21).
- "Assessment of this unit should not require any specific resources" (Resources required for assessment, page 15).
Links with other qualifications
The pack names Enterprise venture, Financial literacy, Teamwork and Using IT in the workplace as closely related Skills Suite units, with Ethical choices for responsible business decisions, and points to the VCSE and Foundation qualifications in Retail and Customer Service and to GCSE Business. GCSE Business shares sources of finance, costs, profit, cash flow and break-even, and GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy covers the same money calculations, percentages and reading graphs. Explaining and evaluating business decisions in writing and speech supports GCSE English Language and Literature.
Source: WJEC Business finance 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).