Skills for Work: Interview and Confidence Techniques
Interview and confidence techniques is a Pearson Skills for Work unit in which learners research a business and job role, plan their interview day, prepare questions and answers, take part in a mock interview and respond to feedback. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, at any level from Entry 1 to Level 2, graded pass or fail. Literacy demand is high: reading to research a business, writing a plan and a bank of questions and answers, answering in structured STAR answers, asking questions and reflecting on feedback. Numeracy is limited to working out travel timings, and aptitude test numerical reasoning is awareness only.
- 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 of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3: list, outline or prepare business research and interview planning, and take part in a mock interview, from simple participation at Entry 1 to some clear responses at Entry 3. Centres choose the type of evidence; it is internally assessed by the centre and quality assured by Pearson through standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: prepare well-developed (Level 1) or detailed (Level 2) business research and interview planning, and show question and answer techniques (Level 1) or a clear understanding of how the interview process works (Level 2) in a mock interview, then respond to feedback. Centres choose the type of evidence; it is internally assessed by the centre and quality assured by Pearson through standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Measurement
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Working out travel timings for the interview
Learners plan when to leave and how long the journey will take. Entry 3 learners make realistic travel plans considering timings, Level 1 learners work out departure times from online timetables, and Level 2 learners produce a well-organised travel plan. The travel plan is part of the required interview planning, though the calculation is simple.
Numeracy: Measurement
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils estimate how long it takes to walk from home to school and check it with a timed walk.
- Year 8
- Pupils read a bus timetable to find which bus gets them to town before 10:00 am and how long they will wait.
- Year 9
- Pupils work backwards from a 9:00 am interview using a train timetable and walking time to find when they must leave home, allowing ten minutes spare.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 9, Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 3, page 49, Level 1 and Level 2, page 50; Annexe C, Numeracy Links, page 120
“including appropriate clothing and realistic travel plans, considering timings”
Progression step 3
I can use and interpret calendars, timetables and schedules to plan events and activities, and make calculations as part of the planning journey.
I can estimate how long a journey takes.
Progression step 4
I can use timetables and time zones to calculate travel time.
Good to know
- The unit is "SfW 9 Interview and confidence techniques" with "20" guided learning hours (Unit summary, page 5).
- A unit is achieved at one level only: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- Evidence is the centre's choice: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 49), but the guidance at every level describes a mock interview, so much of the evidence is spoken.
- Level 2 goes beyond STAR: learners give "clear, reasoned responses to different question types including 'claim, evidence, and connection' questions" (Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 2, page 50).
- Numerical reasoning in aptitude tests is mentioned only for awareness, "but not necessarily practised" (Annexe C, Numeracy Links, page 120).
- AI may be used only if it is acknowledged, and "the final submission must be in the learner's own words" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 51).
- The Skills for Work specification has two obvious errors: its assessment section says "Every unit in our Skills for Life qualifications includes an Authorised Assessment Brief" (page 8), and it points to "Section 6 Glossary" (page 11) when the glossary is section 7.
Links with other qualifications
WJEC also offers an Interview and confidence techniques unit in its Skills Suite, with the same 20 guided learning hours. The WJEC unit spreads the work over four learning outcomes, including reading job descriptions and positive body language; the Pearson unit has one criterion per level that combines business research, a written interview-day plan with a bank of questions and answers, and a mock interview with feedback, and it adds claim, evidence and connection questions at Level 2. Both rely mainly on speaking and listening. That formal spoken work matches the oracy in GCSE English Language and Literature and GCSE Cymraeg Language and Literature, and the WJEC Skills Suite unit Applying for jobs covers the written application that comes before an interview.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Work Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfW 9: Interview and confidence techniques.