VCSE Hospitality and Catering
The VTCT Skills VCSE Hospitality and Catering has a 28 mark multiple-choice examination on Unit 1, covering the industry, food safety, nutrition, customer care and sustainability, and a 12 hour Unit 2 Non-Examined Assessment in which learners plan, cook and serve a dish. Literacy sits mainly in Unit 2: reading the brief, writing a meal and service plan, justifying dish choices, evaluating their work from a reflective journal, and speaking and listening to guests during table service, with Welsh greetings where appropriate. Numeracy is practical: safe temperatures and times, weighing and portioning, costing a dish within budget, timing a plan, and reading nutrition labels. Key Stage 3 should build timed, costed plans and honest written evaluations.
- Awarding body
- VTCT Skills
- Level
- Level 1 and Level 2
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- Medium
- Specification
- Open the specification
- Step before
- Foundation Hospitality and Catering, Entry Level and Level 1
How this qualification is assessed
- Unit 1 (UWHC1): Introduction to the Hospitality and Catering industry: MCQ External theory examination 60 minutes, 30%, 28 marks, multiple-choice questions on LO1 to LO5, set and marked by VTCT Skills, taken on screen with a paper option, sat in the April or May series at the end of Year 10 with one resit in Year 11 (best result counts); 40 GLH
- Unit 2 (UWHC2): Planning, preparing and serving a meal: Non-Examined Assessment, maximum 12 hours, 70%, four tasks worth 8, 12, 16 and 12 marks, set by VTCT Skills with a new brief each year, released in December of Year 11 and submitted in April, marked and internally quality assured by the centre with a level-based mark scheme, externally moderated by VTCT Skills, no resit; 100 GLH
Skills that use Connectives and syntax
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Justifying dish choices
Unit 2 learners justify their dish choices, for example against the Eatwell Guide and Public Health Wales guidance, the cost and the set budget, and the dietary needs in the brief, explaining how they adapted recipes without losing taste or presentation. The assessment criterion requires the justification, and VTCT maps writing justifications to literacy.
Literacy: Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context, Connectives and syntax
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils choose a sandwich filling for a primary school picnic and write two sentences explaining why it suits young children, using "because".
- Year 8
- Pupils adapt a lasagne recipe for a guest with a dairy allergy and write a paragraph explaining each change and how it keeps the dish tasty.
- Year 9
- Pupils plan a main course for a lunch club for older people and write a justification covering nutrition against the Eatwell Guide, cost against a budget and the guests' dietary needs.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 2, LO1, section 1.3, page 59; assessment criterion 1.3, page 71; Section 11.1, page 73
“Adapt recipes to meet those needs without compromising taste or presentation”
Progression step 3
I can adapt my writing style and structure to suit the audience, purpose and context, e.g. suitable balance between facts and viewpoints, a precise conclusion.
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.
I can show sustained awareness of different readers by selecting from a range of styles and structures, and adapting my use of language confidently.
Good to know
- No marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar are mentioned. The NEA is marked by the centre "using a level-based mark scheme issued by VTCT Skills" (Section 5.1, page 16), and the descriptors are in the separate "VCSE NEA Teachers/Assessors Guidance and Marking Criteria" (page 5).
- Calculator use is not stated anywhere in the specification, for either the examination or the NEA.
- Unit 1 has no written answers: it is "a multiple-choice question paper" (Unit 1, Assessment requirements, page 53), so all extended writing sits in the Unit 2 NEA.
- The specification does not say how spoken table service is evidenced for marking and moderation; it only tells teachers to help learners understand "The ways in which learners should prepare and present their evidence" (Section 5.4.4, page 20).
- Welsh is encouraged, not required: learners "Use basic Welsh greetings (where appropriate)" (Unit 2, section 3.3, page 66).
- Teachers must not "Coach learners in how to produce the evidence or what evidence to produce" (Section 5.4.6, page 21), and there is "no resit opportunity for the Non-Examined Assessment" (Section 5.4.8, page 21).
- VTCT's Curriculum for Wales mapping (Section 11.1, page 73) links literacy to "(writing meal plans and justifications)" and written evaluation, and numeracy to Unit 1 LO3.3 and LO5 and to Unit 2 "(costing dishes; time plans)", measuring and time evaluation.
- The document contradicts itself on NEA marking: Section 5.1 (page 16) lists task marking as "high control", while Appendix 1, A1.2 (page 78) lists task marking for the same NEA as "medium control".
Links with other qualifications
Compared with the WJEC VCSE Hospitality and Catering, where learners write either a justified menu and production plan or an event proposal and event plan in a chosen 70% unit, sit an on-screen food safety examination and complete a separate externally set Unit 1 assignment, the VTCT Skills version asks every learner to plan, cook and serve, with all extended writing, costing and timing in one NEA and only a multiple-choice examination for Unit 1. Temperatures, weighing, nutrition and evaluating practical work overlap with GCSE Food and Nutrition, costing overlaps with GCSE Business, and the Skills for Work topics VTCT suggests, Customer Service and Working in Wales, match WJEC Skills Suite units already on the page.
Source: VTCT Skills Level 1/2 VCSE Hospitality and Catering Qualification Specification, HC2W1 (qualification number C00/5368/9), Version P1, issued 01/09/2026.