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 Vocabulary, spelling, grammar
-
Naming rights and responsibilities with workplace vocabulary
Entry 1 learners list or point to at least two workplace rights and two responsibilities, Entry 2 learners state them, and Entry 3 learners identify at least three of each for employees and employers and know the difference between a right and a responsibility. This is required by the Entry Level assessment criteria.
Literacy: Clarity and vocabulary, Vocabulary, spelling, grammar
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils sort cards such as paid holiday, arriving on time and a safe workplace into rights and responsibilities and say each word aloud in a sentence.
- Year 8
- Pupils build a glossary of ten workplace terms, including employee, employer and minimum wage, with a definition and example for each.
- Year 9
- Pupils write a short guide for a new part time worker that uses the correct terms to set out three rights and three responsibilities for each side.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 15, Assessment criteria Entry 1 to Entry 3, page 78; Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 1 to Entry 3, page 79
“They know the differences between workplace rights and responsibilities, giving appropriate examples.”
Progression step 3
I can express issues and ideas clearly using area of learning and experience/discipline-specific vocabulary and examples.
I can use varied, appropriate and precise vocabulary including area of learning and experience/discipline-specific words for different purposes.
Progression step 4
I have experienced a range of area of learning and experience/discipline-specific and general academic vocabulary, and can use them in my own communication.
I have experienced a range of area of learning and experience/discipline-specific and general academic vocabulary, and can use them in my own communication.
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.