Skills for Work: Sustainable Economic Development
Sustainable economic development (Unit SfW 3) is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. Learners identify sustainability issues such as waste, pollution, climate change and transport, their impacts and actions to reduce them, then plan and carry out sustainability actions at home, in school, in the community or in a simulated workplace. The centre sets and marks the assignment. Literacy sits in researching and explaining issues at local, national and global scale, writing an action plan and suggesting improvements. Numeracy is light: Level 2 needs measurable goals, and Pearson names cost as a link, but no calculation is required.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- 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: list, outline or identify sustainability issues and actions to reduce their impact, and take part in sustainability activities in their own setting, following a simple action plan at Entry 2 and producing one at Entry 3. There are no mandatory evidence requirements; the centre sets and marks its own assignment (Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief is optional), internally verified and checked by a Pearson Standards Verifier. Graded Pass or Fail. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each level: describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) a range of sustainability issues and their impacts, then develop and implement an action plan in their own setting, with realistic short term goals at Level 1 and detailed, measurable goals at Level 2, where learners also give two local, two national and two global examples. Evidence is chosen by the centre, internally assessed and checked by a Pearson Standards Verifier. Graded Pass or Fail. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Clarity and vocabulary
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Describing and explaining sustainability issues and impacts
Entry learners list, outline or identify sustainability issues and actions to reduce their impact, Level 1 learners describe a range of issues and their impacts across settings, and Level 2 learners explain a wide range of issues with their wider impacts and implications. This is required by the assessment criteria, in speech or writing.
Literacy: Clarity and vocabulary, Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context, Vocabulary, spelling, grammar
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils match sustainability issues such as litter and car fumes to their impacts and say one action to reduce each.
- Year 8
- Pupils write a paragraph describing how food waste affects the school, the community and the environment.
- Year 9
- Pupils write an explanation of the wider implications of one issue, such as transport emissions, using cause and effect connectives and subject terms.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfW 3, Assessment criteria, page 22; Essential information for assessment decisions, pages 23 to 24
“Explain a wide range of sustainability issues and their impacts”
Progression step 3
I can express issues and ideas clearly using area of learning and experience/discipline-specific vocabulary and examples.
I can write a comprehensive account of a topic, theme or viewpoint.
Progression step 4
I can use summary, discussion of issues, detailed explanations and logic when covering a topic.
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 3 and the unit summary lists it at 20 GLH ("SfW 3 Sustainable economic development 20", Unit summary, page 5); it counts towards Skills for Work qualifications numbered C00/5473/0 to C00/5474/4 (Qualification titles, pages 3 to 4).
- A unit is achieved once, at one level: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- Written work is not compulsory: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 23), and assignments "can include both practical and written tasks" (Assessment of units, page 9).
- Level 2 needs "a detailed action plan with measurable goals and activities" (Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 2, page 24), so goals must be countable, not only described.
- Despite the title, the criteria contain no economics or costing; the only economic element is Pearson's Annexe C numeracy link "cost, financial" (Annexe C, page 118).
- AI may be used only if acknowledged: "the final submission must be in the learner's own words and reflect their own effort" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 25).
- The Level 1 criterion is garbled in print: "their impact and actions that and develop and implement an action plan" (Assessment criteria, page 22), and the Entry 3 guidance repeats a word in "in in the home" (page 23).
Links with other qualifications
Explaining issues such as pollution and climate change and reading about them at local, national and global scale reinforce GCSE Geography, GCSE Social Studies and the WJEC Foundation in Humanities, and writing an organised action plan supports GCSE English Language and Literature. Setting measurable goals links lightly to GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy, and the workplace setting to GCSE Business. Within the WJEC Skills Suite it overlaps with Sustainability In Action and Jobs of the Future. Compared with the WJEC Sustainable Economic Development unit, which asks learners to review the impact of their activities and, as suggested work, measure energy, water or waste, the Pearson unit adds a required spread of local, national and global examples at Level 2 and a measurable action plan, with no separate review of impact.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Work Award, Certificate and Diploma specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfW 3: Sustainable economic development.