Essential Skills Wales: Focusing on the future of digital skills
Qualifications Manager Nathan Evans introduces our proposals for the new Essential Skills Wales digital skills qualifications.
Digital capability is more important than ever. Whether completing online forms, managing personal information, collaborating digitally, or navigating the risks and opportunities of AI, learners need the confidence and competence to participate fully in a connected world. The proposed reforms to the Essential Skills Wales digital skills qualifications are designed to ensure they keep pace with this changing landscape while preserving the strengths of the current suite.
These refreshed qualifications will balance continuity and change: protecting what already works well while modernising content, and redesigning assessment so it remains both meaningful and manageable.
What’s staying the same and why
A strong, practical digital focus
At their heart, digital skills qualifications still focus on the real, transferable digital skills learners need in everyday life. The five familiar skill areas - digital responsibility, productivity, information literacy, collaboration, and creativity - remain central. Practitioners consistently fed back that this structure supports clear planning and delivery, and reflects the real-world nature of digital activity.
A qualification designed for life, learning and work
The new proposals retain the practical, applied character that defines Essential Skills Wales. Learners will continue to create digital resources, manage information, communicate online and use digital tools safely. These competencies remain essential for employability and navigating everyday digital life confidently and responsibly, so the refreshed qualifications preserve this core purpose.
What’s changing and why
A streamlined progression model
One of the most significant proposed changes is a clearer, more focused level structure. The current suite spans Entry 1 to Level 3. Under the proposals, digital skills would move to Entry 3, Level 1 and Level 2 only.
Our review showed very low demand for Entry 1, Entry 2 and Level 3 digital skills qualifications. Increased everyday exposure to technology means that the lower entry levels no longer reflect learners starting points, while the Level 3 is used only in a small number of niche contexts that are now changing. As a result, the new proposals focus on Entry 3 to Level 2, where the qualification is most relevant, and where learner uptake is strongest.
This shift:
· simplifies delivery for centres
· matches how most learners currently engage with digital skills
· improves clarity by removing levels that attracted very low uptake
Modern, future-focused content
Digital life has transformed since the qualifications were last reviewed over ten years ago. The proposals update content across all levels to reflect:
· AI and automated systems
· digital footprints and data privacy
· device and account security
· cloud-based tools
· accessing and managing digital information safely
Importantly, the revised content will be software-agnostic, ensuring learners can develop transferable skills rather than skills tied to specific platforms.
In response to consultation feedback, AI features prominently in the new qualifications. At Entry 3, learners become aware of AI-generated information. At Level 1, they explore its uses, benefits and risks. At Level 2, they examine its ethical, societal and legal implications, ensuring Wales nurtures not just digital users, but digital citizens.
A more manageable assessment model
The consultation proposes a hybrid assessment approach for Level 1 and Level 2. This would include:
· an external on-screen test assessing knowledge-based elements
· an internally assessed second component, likely a practical task or controlled activity, designed to assess the skills best demonstrated through hands-on digital work
This change responds directly to centre feedback that current assessments are too long, too demanding to administer, and not always reflective of authentic digital practice. It also removes the structured discussion, which centres reported is challenging to facilitate consistently and does not provide an authentic way of assessing digital skills. With the proposed model, assessment becomes more manageable and more authentic. It also gives awarding bodies flexibility, including scope to permit practical use of AI within digital creativity or productivity tasks where appropriate.
Looking ahead
The proposed Essential Skills Wales digital skills qualifications retain the strengths that educators value while modernising the content and structure to meet today’s digital realities. They offer a clearer pathway, more relevant content, and a more balanced assessment model, ensuring learners in Wales continue to develop the digital fluency, confidence and critical awareness they need to thrive.
You can help shape the future of the Essential Skills Wales qualifications by responding to our proposals before 5 February 2026.