ASDAN’s regulated Employability qualifications. Available at Entry Levels 1, 2, and 3 and at Levels 1 and 2, with each level offered in three sizes — Award, Certificate, and Diploma. Designed to develop and evidence the practical skills, attitudes, and knowledge a learner needs to enter and sustain employment.
Employability is the regulated companion to the non-regulated Workright programme. The two cover similar territory; the regulated qualification offers commissioner-recognisable Ofqual accreditation alongside the portfolio model.
Unit territory
Employability units are drawn from areas including:
- Self-assessment and self-awareness — recognising one’s own strengths, skills, sensory and cognitive preferences; understanding what kind of work suits the learner
- Searching for a job — using job boards, the National Careers Service, sector-specific channels; networking; recognising scams
- Applying for a job — CV construction; covering letters; application forms; portfolios for creative and trade routes
- Interview skills — preparation; the interview encounter itself; follow-up; handling rejection
- Career planning and progression — long-arc thinking; career-management skills; CPD; lifelong learning
- Working in a team — co-operation; communication; resolving conflict; understanding team roles
- Following instructions and procedures — accurate communication at work; safety procedures; quality control
- Using digital tools at work — productivity software; email and meeting conventions; digital safety in a professional context
- Customer service — interacting with the public, clients, or service-users; handling complaints; representing the organisation
- Health and safety at work — risk awareness; safe practice; reporting concerns
- Rights and responsibilities at work — contracts; pay; statutory protections; trade unions; what to do when something is wrong
Why this is well-suited to the NEO cohort
Employability fits NEO learners because:
- Regulated. Ofqual recognition; comparable to GCSE-equivalent Level 2 portfolio qualifications in commissioner conversations
- Practical. Every unit has obvious workplace application
- Builds dignity. The “rights and responsibilities” content matters for learners who may be entering employment without family-knowledge of their rights
- Portfolio-evidenced. Application drafts, mock interview videos, sector-research write-ups, work-experience reflection logs all serve as natural evidence
- Modular. A learner can enter at Entry 1 and progress to Level 2 over multiple years, with each level independently certificated
Tests canonical
- Life and Work — Employability (the primary canonical match — qualification mirrors canonical strand)
- Life and Work — Citizenship (rights and responsibilities at work)
- Life and Work — Financial literacy (payslips, tax, NI, contributions)
- Life and Work — Independent living (managing the working week, commute, energy)
- KS3 Digital Literacy / KS4 Digital Literacy (digital tools at work units)
- KS3 CEIAG / KS4 CEIAG (Gatsby Benchmarks 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 in particular)
Cornerstone fits
- Reflection (●●●) — self-assessment, planning, future-thinking
- Connection (●●●) — interviews, teamwork, customer service, networking
- Movement (●●) — for some routes (trades, hospitality, healthcare); commute and physical workplace navigation
- Creativity (●●) — for creative-sector routes
Preparing for Adulthood (PfA) anchor
Employability maps most directly onto the Employment PfA outcome and contributes to Independent Living through the practical skills around managing the working week. See PfA outcomes.
NEO operational note
Employability and Workright cover similar curriculum territory. The choice between them — for a given learner, in a given year — typically turns on:
- Does the commissioner / LA require a regulated qualification (Employability) or is non-regulated certification (Workright) sufficient?
- Is the learner ready to commit to the credit-volume that Employability requires at the chosen level?
- Is the learner working at a level that matches an available Employability tier?
NEO’s named practitioner co-ordinates the choice with the commissioner. The two routes are complementary rather than mutually exclusive — a learner may complete a Workright module set in Year 10 and progress to Employability Level 1 in Year 11.
Source
ASDAN — Employability qualifications (publicly available). Full unit handbook required for outcome-level tagging.