Skills for Work: Exploring Career Pathways
Exploring career pathways is a Skills for Work unit in which learners research job roles and longer career pathways, compare their own skills, behaviours, attitudes, knowledge and experience with what employers need, and plan their route into a chosen job. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2, and it is assessed internally by the centre. Literacy demand is high: learners read and draw information from several sources, describe or explain what they found, reflect on their strengths and development needs, and write a structured plan. Numeracy is light: goal timescales, with salary and training costs only as examples.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- High
- 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 Entry level: learners state simple information about a job they may be interested in (Entry 1), outline information about a chosen job role or career pathway (Entry 2), or identify information from different sources about an occupational pathway and a career pathway (Entry 3), and give the steps or a basic plan for entry to a chosen job role. Evidence is assessed internally by the centre through a centre-devised assignment, which can be based on Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief, and is quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each level: learners describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) information from a range of sources about different occupational and career pathways, compare their own skills with the entry requirements, and produce a structured plan (Level 1) or a detailed and realistic plan with strategies for progression (Level 2) for entry to a chosen job role. Evidence is assessed internally by the centre and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Understanding, response and analysis
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Reading and selecting information from several sources
Entry 3 learners identify information from at least two sources, and Level 1 and Level 2 learners draw on at least three or four sources about at least two occupational pathways and one career pathway. This is required by the assessment criteria.
Literacy: Reading strategies, Understanding, response and analysis
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils scan a job profile for the qualifications and main tasks and highlight them in two colours.
- Year 8
- Pupils read a job advert and a careers website page about the same job and fill in a table of what each source says.
- Year 9
- Pupils research one career pathway from three sources, then write a summary bringing the information together and noting where the sources differ.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 4, assessment criteria Entry 3 to Level 2, page 26; Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 3 to Level 2, pages 27 to 28
“Learners can describe information from at least three sources about at least two occupational pathways”
Progression step 3
I can use a range of strategies for finding information, e.g. skimming for gist, scanning for detail.
I can collate and make connections, e.g. prioritising, categorising, between information and ideas from different sources including digital and audio-visual texts.
Progression step 4
I can research a wide range of reference and digital sources to develop a full understanding of a topic or issue.
I can summarise, synthesise and analyse information to gain in-depth understanding, e.g. of causes, consequences, patterns, using different sources.
Good to know
- The unit is listed as "SfW 4 Exploring career pathways 20", so it is 20 guided learning hours (Unit summary, page 5).
- A unit can be passed only once: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- Reading load rises with the level: Level 2 learners explain "information from a range of at least three or four sources" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 28).
- Evidence can be practical or written: assignments "can include both practical and written tasks" (Assessment of units, page 9), and "there are no mandatory evidence requirements" for this unit (page 27).
- AI may be used only if the work stays the learner's own: "the final submission must be in the learner's own words and reflect their own effort" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 29).
- Numeracy appears only as examples: starting salary is an "e.g." at Entry 1 and "cost of training" is an example barrier at Level 2 (pages 27 to 28), and content given as "e.g." is not compulsory (Units, page 11).
Links with other qualifications
Reading sources and writing structured plans link to GCSE English Language and Literature, and the planning and self-assessment link to the WJEC Skills Suite units Personal development planning, Jobs of the future and Applying for jobs. Compared with the WJEC Exploring career pathways unit, which is also 20 guided learning hours and ends with learners presenting information about a chosen career, the Pearson unit puts more weight on extended written planning: Level 1 learners set short and medium term goals and progression routes, and Level 2 learners also explain barriers to entry and realistic strategies to overcome them.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Work Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfW 4: Exploring career pathways.