Skills for Work: Rights and Responsibilities in the Workplace
Rights and Responsibilities in the Workplace is a Pearson Skills for Work unit in which learners find out about the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers, including legal rights, and how individuals take personal and social responsibility at work. It is one 10 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2, assessed internally through a centre set assignment. Literacy carries the unit: learners list, state, identify, describe and then explain rights and responsibilities with workplace vocabulary, and gather information from given or self-selected sources. Pearson records no numeracy link and none of the criteria needs any.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 10
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- 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, moving from listing examples of workplace rights and responsibilities and a way to take responsibility, to identifying rights and responsibilities for employees and employers and ways individuals can take responsibility. Evidence is chosen by the centre, which sets and marks the assessment; Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. 10 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at Level 1 (describe) and one at Level 2 (explain) how employees and employers can demonstrate taking responsibility for meeting workplace rights and responsibilities, including legal rights, across at least two (Level 1) or three (Level 2) workplace contexts. Evidence is chosen by the centre, which sets and marks the assessment; Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. 10 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context
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Describing and explaining how people take responsibility at work
Level 1 learners describe how employees and employers meet workplace rights and responsibilities, with at least three of each in at least two workplace contexts. Level 2 learners explain at least four examples for employers and four for employees, including specific legal rights, and explain how individuals take social and personal responsibility in at least three contrasting contexts. This is required by the Level 1 and Level 2 assessment criteria.
Literacy: Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context, Connectives and syntax
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils write three sentences about how a shop worker shows responsibility, each using because or so.
- Year 8
- Pupils write a paragraph comparing an employer's and an employee's responsibilities for health and safety in a café.
- Year 9
- Pupils write an organised explanation of how people take personal and social responsibility in a hospital, a building site and an office, using connectives to contrast the three.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 15, Assessment criteria Level 1 and Level 2, page 78; Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 1 and Level 2, pages 79 to 80
“explain how individuals can demonstrate taking social and personal responsibility in at least three contrasting workplace contexts”
Progression step 3
I can write a comprehensive account of a topic, theme or viewpoint.
I can use an increasing range of connectives to organise my ideas in sentences, paragraphs and whole texts.
Progression step 4
I can use summary, discussion of issues, detailed explanations and logic when covering a topic.
I can use a range of connectives specifically when organising my ideas in whole texts for different purposes.
Progression step 5
I can write extended pieces which include detailed evidence and information for different purposes and audiences within and across different disciplines.
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Organising and presenting findings clearly
Level 1 learners are accountable for organising their findings and presenting them clearly and accurately, and the unit's literacy links include discussion and report. The format is the centre's choice, so learners may present in writing, in a recorded talk or in a discussion that is observed. Presenting findings is part of the support guidance rather than a separate criterion.
Literacy: Purpose, Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils present to a partner, from a prompt card, two rights and two responsibilities they found out about, in a clear order.
- Year 8
- Pupils turn their notes on rights at work into a short report with headings for employees and employers.
- Year 9
- Pupils give a two minute talk to the class on responsibility at work in one job, then answer questions and adjust their explanation when listeners are unsure.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 15, Levels of supervision and support before and during assessment, page 80; Annexe C, SfW 15 row, page 121
“They are accountable for organising their findings and presenting them clearly”
Progression step 3
I can organise talk so that different audiences in different contexts can follow what is being said, including using formal language.
I can use and adapt different structures within my writing, e.g. reporting an event, investigation or experiment.
Progression step 4
I can organise talk effectively to respond to how listeners are reacting by adapting what I say and how I say it.
I can organise and construct my writing effectively, connecting and developing my ideas for a range of different contexts.
Good to know
- The unit is Unit SfW 15 and carries 10 guided learning hours: "SfW 15 Rights and responsibilities in the workplace 10" (Unit summary, page 5). The WJEC unit of the same name is 20 guided learning hours.
- A unit counts once only: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- Pearson's own mapping lists the literacy links as "write, discussion, report, research, describe, explain" and the numeracy link as "No direct link" (Annexe C, page 121).
- Evidence does not have to be written: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 79), and examples of evidence include "observation records, witness testimony, and products of learners' work" (Internal assessment, page 9).
- Assignments "can include both practical and written tasks" and learners may be allowed "one resubmission of improved evidence" at the centre's discretion (Assessment of units, page 9).
- AI may be used, but "the final submission must be in the learner's own words and reflect their own effort" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 81).
- The Skills for Work specification has editing slips: the assessment section says "Every unit in our Skills for Life qualifications includes an Authorised Assessment Brief" (Authorised Assignment Briefs, page 8), and the units section points to "Section 6 Glossary" (page 11) although the glossary is section 7.
Links with other qualifications
Explaining rights and responsibilities in organised writing or talk supports GCSE English Language and Literature and GCSE Cymraeg Language and Literature, the work on legal rights, equality and fairness links with GCSE Social Studies, and the employer and employee duties give context for GCSE Business. Pearson groups the unit with Understanding the changing labour market, Using IT in the workplace and Wellbeing and work. Compared with the WJEC Rights and Responsibilities in the Workplace unit, the Pearson unit is half the size (10 rather than 20 guided learning hours) and has one broad criterion per level; it does not ask learners to read an employment contract or suggest how to raise a complaint, so the WJEC unit has more reading and the small amount of numeracy around pay, hours and holidays.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Work Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfW 15: Rights and responsibilities in the workplace.