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 Reading strategies
-
Reading job profiles to find duties, skills and qualifications
Learners read information about jobs and pick out facts, from one fact about a chosen job at Entry 1 to the typical duties, qualifications and key skills at Level 1 and a summary of qualifications, skills and progression routes at Level 2. This reading is required by the assessment criteria for learning outcomes 1 and 2.
Literacy: Reading strategies, Understanding, response and analysis
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils read a short job profile for a chef and highlight three things the chef does in a normal day.
- Year 8
- Pupils scan two job profiles from Careers Wales and fill in a grid with the duties, skills and qualifications for each job.
- Year 9
- Pupils read the full profile for a job they are interested in and write a short summary of the route into it, from GCSE choices to apprenticeship or degree.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Entry Level, learning outcomes 1 and 2, assessment criteria 1.2 and 2.2, page 5; Level 1 and Level 2, learning outcome 1, assessment criteria 1.2 and 1.3, page 6
“Summarise the qualifications and skills required for each job.”
Progression step 3
I can use a range of strategies for finding information, e.g. skimming for gist, scanning for detail.
I can show understanding of and use the main ideas and significant details in different texts on the same topic.
Progression step 4
I can use a range of strategies, e.g. speed reading, close reading, annotation, prediction, to skim texts for gist, key ideas and themes, and scan for detailed information.
I can research a wide range of reference and digital sources to develop a full understanding of a topic or issue.
-
Selecting relevant information from reliable sources
Learners use more than one source to research careers, from two sources at Entry 3 to a variety of sources at Level 1 and a range of reliable sources at Level 2, and must identify what is relevant. Choosing and judging sources is required by the assessment criteria for learning outcome 2.
Literacy: Understanding, response and analysis, Reading strategies
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils read a leaflet and a web page about the same job and sort facts into two piles, useful and not useful, for a career poster.
- Year 8
- Pupils compare a recruitment advert and an independent careers profile for the same job and discuss which gives a more balanced picture.
- Year 9
- Pupils gather information on one career pathway from three sources, rate each for reliability, and combine the most relevant points into one set of notes.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Entry Level, learning outcome 2, assessment criterion 2.1, page 5; Level 1 and Level 2, learning outcome 2, assessment criteria 2.1 and 2.2, page 6
“Identify relevant information and organise it clearly.”
Progression step 3
I can collate and make connections, e.g. prioritising, categorising, between information and ideas from different sources including digital and audio-visual texts.
I can use inference and deduction to understand the text, and can consider the reliability of what I read.
Progression step 4
I can evaluate the usefulness and reliability of texts.
I can summarise, synthesise and analyse information to gain in-depth understanding, e.g. of causes, consequences, patterns, using different sources.
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).