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 Reading strategies
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Reading multiple-choice questions precisely
Unit 1 is examined only through multiple-choice questions, so learners must read short questions and options closely and know specialist terms such as HACCP, COSHH, macronutrients and the 14 allergens. The examination tests the full breadth of Unit 1 content over time, so there is no extended writing in this unit.
Literacy: Reading strategies
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils read real food packaging and find the use-by date, the storage instructions and any of the 14 allergens shown in bold.
- Year 8
- Pupils answer multiple-choice questions on food safety hazards and, for each one, write a sentence explaining why the nearly right option is wrong.
- Year 9
- Pupils write their own multiple-choice questions on personal hygiene and HACCP, with one right answer and three believable wrong ones, then swap and answer a partner's set.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Section 5.3.1, page 17; Unit 1, Assessment requirements, page 53
“The external theory examination will contain multiple-choice questions (MCQs).”
Progression step 3
I can read words and sentences from different texts using a range of strategies to make meaning.
I can use inference and deduction to understand the text, and can consider the reliability of what I read.
Progression step 4
I can use my knowledge of:
- word roots and families
- grammar, sentence and whole-text structure
- content and context
to make sense of words, sentences and whole texts.
I can use inference and deduction to understand more complex texts, and can consider the reliability and impact of what I read.
Progression step 5
I can use my knowledge of:
- word roots and families
- grammar, sentence and whole-text structure
- content and context
to make sense of words, sentences and whole texts.
I can gain full understanding of texts using inference, deduction and analysis, understanding the context of the texts that influence the reader.
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Reading a brief and investigating dishes for an audience
Unit 2 starts with interpreting a brief, then learners investigate suitable dishes by identifying the audience, the event, its purpose and tone, and the dietary, lifestyle and health needs of the guests. The assessment criterion requires this investigation, and the brief changes every year, so learners must read an unseen scenario closely.
Literacy: Reading strategies, Understanding, response and analysis
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils read a short brief for a children's party, highlight the guests, the budget and any dietary needs, and list three things their dish must do.
- Year 8
- Pupils read a café scenario that includes a vegan guest and a guest with coeliac disease and write down what each dish must avoid and include.
- Year 9
- Pupils read a full mock brief for a cultural celebration at a community hall, annotate every requirement, and turn it into a checklist they tick off while planning.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 2, Overview, page 55; LO1, section 1.1, page 57; assessment criterion 1.1, page 71; Appendix 1, A1.2, page 77
“Learners will experience the full meal-production cycle: interpreting a brief, selecting suitable dishes, considering dietary needs”
Progression step 3
I can use a range of strategies for finding information, e.g. skimming for gist, scanning for detail.
I can show understanding of and use the main ideas and significant details in different texts on the same topic.
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.
I can read closely, follow up and use additional material in texts to extend my understanding.
Progression step 5
I can independently research a wide range of sources to develop an understanding of an increasingly complex topic or issue.
I can read closely, analysing the content, language and impact of texts to deepen my understanding.
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.