The Entry Level qualifications in Communication and Application of Number, however, will remain available for registration until 31 August 2020.

Key changes

Essential Skills Wales are the only basic skills qualifications available in Wales.

We have created the new qualifications in response to the Welsh government review of qualifications in 2012, which resulted in the following key changes:

• an increased emphasis on rigour, and more robust quality assurance.
• a renewed focus on development and assessment of the skills needed for learning and work, developed through engaging learning activities.
• a revised subject specification for Essential Employability Skills replacing Wider Key Skills.
• coherence with the Welsh government’s Literacy and Numeracy Framework, the emerging wider skills and digital literacy frameworks and the revised Welsh Baccalaureate.
• clear, purposeful assessment of the skills including Controlled Tasks.
• all assessments being made available in English and Welsh.

Awarding bodies

The new qualifications are a joint development between:

• Agored Cymru
• City & Guilds
• Pearson
• WJEC.

The four awarding bodies will be using a common set of assessments to ensure consistency.