Skills for Work: Exploring Career Pathways
Exploring career pathways is a 20 hour Skills for Work unit in which learners find out about jobs, sectors, qualifications and progression routes, reflect on their own interests and skills, and present what they find. It is one unit that learners combine with others into a Skills for Work, or Skills for Life and Work, Award, Certificate or Diploma. Literacy runs through every learning outcome: reading job profiles, selecting and summarising information, writing or talking about their own strengths, and presenting with correct terminology. Numeracy is light. The overview mentions interpreting labour market data, but no assessment criterion asks for calculation or data handling.
- 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
- Low
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): Four learning outcomes (types of jobs and sectors, locating and organising basic job information, own interests and skills, presenting information about a chosen career), evidence compiled in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC, 20 guided learning hours, unit codes S657E1, S657E2 and S657E3
- Level 1 and Level 2: Four learning outcomes (jobs, sectors, skills and qualifications, researching and organising career pathway information, reflecting on interests, skills and aspirations, presenting findings about career options), evidence compiled in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC, 20 guided learning hours, unit codes S657L1 and S657L2
Skills that use Interpreting data
-
Reading labour market and pay information
The unit overview says learners interpret labour market and career related data, and Careers Wales job profiles include pay and future demand. No assessment criterion requires calculation or data handling, so this is light, optional numeracy at any level.
Numeracy: Interpreting data
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils read the starting and experienced pay for three jobs from job profiles and order them from lowest to highest.
- Year 8
- Pupils read a bar chart of job vacancies by sector in their region and say which sector has the most openings.
- Year 9
- Pupils interpret a Future Jobs Wales graph of expected growth by industry and discuss what it suggests, and what it cannot tell them, about their own career choice.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit overview, integral and cross-curricular skills, page 4; Resources available to support delivery, page 11
“interpreting labour market and career-related data”
Progression step 3
I can extract and interpret information from an increasing range of diagrams, timetables and graphs (including pie charts).
I can draw conclusions from data and recognise that some conclusions may be misleading or uncertain.
Progression step 4
I can interpret graphs that describe real-life situations, including those used in the media, recognising that some graphs may be misleading.
I can interpret mathematical information; drawing inferences from graphs, diagrams and data, including discussion on limitations of data.
Good to know
- Unit codes run from Entry 1 to Level 2: "S657E1" to "S657L2", 20 guided learning hours (Unit overview, page 3).
- No special equipment is needed: "Assessment of this unit should not require any specific resources." (Resources required for assessment, page 13).
- Extended writing is not expected: "extended written work is not required unless appropriate", and judgements should not focus on "spelling or presentation unless specifically assessed" (Sources of evidence, page 9).
- Evidence can be spoken or recorded. The specification lists "video/audio recordings" and "teacher/assessor questioning" among evidence types, and the portfolio "is not limited to paper-based materials" (section 4.1, page 18).
- AI can be used only if acknowledged. Learners "risk committing malpractice if AI is misused", for example "Copying or paraphrasing sections of AI-generated content" (section 4.6, page 21).
- Suggested assessment tasks "are not mandatory"; teachers may adapt them or write their own (section 4.1, page 18).
- Appendix A of the specification maps this unit to Numeracy but not to Literacy (page 29), even though every assessment criterion relies on reading, writing or speaking.
Links with other qualifications
The pack names VCSE Retail and Customer Service as a possible link, since that qualification also looks at job roles and progression in a sector. Within the Skills Suite, the pack suggests delivering this unit alongside Personal development planning, Jobs of the future, Applying for jobs, Interview and confidence techniques, Work experience, Career creativity, Rights and responsibilities in the workplace, Understanding the changing labour market and Working in Wales.
Source: WJEC Exploring career pathways 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).