Skills for Work: Enterprise Venture
Enterprise venture is a 20 hour Skills for Work unit, from Entry 1 to Level 2, in which learners generate ideas for a product or service, plan and present one, run it for real and evaluate it. It is one unit that learners combine with other 10 or 20 hour units into a Skills for Work, or Skills for Life and Work, Award, Certificate or Diploma. Literacy runs through every outcome: discussing ideas, writing a plan, pitching, keeping a log and evaluating. Numeracy sits in setting and justifying a price, which the plan requires, and in budgets, sales records and simple market research data.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- High
- Amount of numeracy work
- Medium
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): Four learning outcomes (share or discuss ideas for an enterprise activity, take part in planning and presenting the idea, take part in an enterprise activity, reflect on it), with separate assessment criteria at Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3. Learners must take part in a real enterprise activity. Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: Four learning outcomes (generate and develop ideas for a product or service, plan and present an enterprise venture idea, carry out the venture, evaluate it), with separate assessment criteria at Level 1 and Level 2. Learners must take part in a real enterprise activity. Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Representing data
-
Collecting and using simple market research data
The suggested activities ask Level 1 and Level 2 learners to identify needs and test ideas with peers or community groups, and possible evidence includes simple surveys, tally charts and sales data. This supports the required discussion of ideas and the evaluation, but collecting and presenting the data is a suggestion, so it is taught, not assessed.
Numeracy: Collecting data, Representing data, Interpreting data
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils ask classmates which of three snacks they prefer, record the answers in a tally chart and draw a bar chart.
- Year 8
- Pupils write five survey questions about a product idea, collect 20 responses and present the results in a table and chart.
- Year 9
- Pupils design a questionnaire for a target age group, analyse the results and draw a conclusion about their idea, noting why the sample might mislead them.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Suggested activities, Level 1 and 2, pages 13 and 14; Sources of evidence, page 14
“Market research tasks: learners identify needs and test ideas with peers or community groups”
Progression step 3
I can collect relevant data to answer posed questions.
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 collect own data for a survey, e.g. through designing a questionnaire.
I can draw conclusions from data and recognise that some conclusions may be misleading or uncertain.
Good to know
- The unit codes are S656E1, S656E2, S656E3, S656L1 and S656L2, and the unit is 20 guided learning hours in the Skills for Work suite (Unit overview, page 3).
- Learners must actually run something: "To achieve this unit, learners must take part in an enterprise activity." (Unit overview, page 3).
- Spelling and presentation are not judged: "Assessor judgements should focus on the meeting of standards, not on spelling or presentation unless specifically assessed." (Sources of evidence, page 14), and "extended written work is not required unless appropriate" (page 14).
- Evidence can be spoken or recorded as well as written: "Reflection journals: written, audio, or video reflections" and "Pitch presentations" are listed (Sources of evidence, page 14).
- If not specified, "a plural reference within assessment criterion refers to a minimum of two" (pages 6 and 8).
- 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 "Using AI to complete parts of the assessment so that the work does not reflect the learner's own work, analysis, evaluation or calculations" is malpractice (Skills for Life and Work specification, section 4.6, page 21).
- The pack names "Numeracy (budgeting, costs, pricing)" as a cross-curricular link (Unit overview, page 4), and Appendix A of the specification maps the unit to Literacy, Numeracy, Digital Competence and Creativity and innovation (page 29).
Links with other qualifications
The pack names links with VCSE Retail and Customer Service, the Foundation qualification in Retail and Customer Service and GCSE Business, which share pricing, costs, profit, marketing and serving customers. Costing, profit and survey data link with GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy, and pitching and writing promotional material with GCSE English Language and Literature. Making a product to sell can draw on GCSE Food and Nutrition or GCSE Design and Technology. The pack names Business finance, Teamwork, Sustainable economic development, Community participation, Customer service, Working in Wales, Personal development planning, Using IT in the workplace, Work experience and Ethical choices as related Skills Suite units, with Business finance sharing budgeting and pricing.
Source: WJEC Enterprise venture 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).