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 Understanding, response and analysis
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Gathering information about rights from sources
Entry 3 learners gather information from given, simple sources, Level 1 learners select and use relevant information from a limited range of provided sources, and Level 2 learners use a variety of sources, some self-selected. This is described in the support guidance for each level and is how learners find the legal rights the Level 2 criterion requires.
Literacy: Reading strategies, Understanding, response and analysis
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils scan a short leaflet about young workers for the maximum number of hours they may work on a school day and copy it into a fact box.
- Year 8
- Pupils skim two web pages about rights at work and summarise in their own words the three most important points from each.
- Year 9
- Pupils research one legal right, such as rest breaks, from three sources they choose, and write a summary that notes where each fact came from.
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
“select and use relevant information from a limited range of provided sources”
Progression step 3
I can use a range of strategies for finding information, e.g. skimming for gist, scanning for detail.
I can make use of reference/digital sources to select, summarise and synthesise information, referencing as appropriate.
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.
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.