National 5 Practical Metalworking

What’s changing
From session 2025-26, we’re removing the question paper from the National 5 Practical Metalworking course. 
With the question paper removed, we’re expanding the practical activity to include a case study, worth 10 marks. Adding a case study will ensure that all course content can continue to be sampled in the course assessment. 

The updated practical activity will be worth 80 marks and will make up 100% of the course assessment. 

Why we’re making these changes
We’re making these changes in response to feedback from teachers and lecturers, gathered during research we conducted in 2024 to explore whether we should remove question papers from practical courses. This is a first step towards reviewing the balance of assessment approaches across National Qualifications.  

View our online news article - SQA rebalancing assessment for practical qualifications (20 March 2025)

Updated documents
We've updated the Practical Metalworking course specification and specimen coursework assessment task to reflect these changes.

In the course specification, we’ve also updated the bench work section of the ‘Skills, knowledge, and understanding for the course assessment’ table to specify hammer types as ball pein, cross-pein, and claw. In addition, we've updated the ‘Further information’ section with links to recent research.

In the specimen coursework assessment task, we’ve added information on completing the log book to the ‘Specific information for teachers and lecturers’ section, and clarified some of the marking instructions.

You'll find more information on the changes in the ‘history of changes’ section at the back of each document. 

New course code
We’ll also issue a new course code for National 5 Practical Metalworking. This is the code you’ll need to enter learners for the course in session 2025-26 onwards. We’ll confirm the new course code in May.

We’re running Understanding Standards events for National 5 Practical Metalworking on the following dates:

• Tuesday 7 October 2025 from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm
• Wednesday 29 October from 1.30 pm to 4.30 pm

The events will take place at our Glasgow office.

What the events will cover

The events will focus on the practical activity, which has been extended following the removal of the National 5 question paper. During the events, you’ll take part in discussions about how to allocate marks for the three sections of the practical activity, including the new case study.  

Book a place

Bookings are limited to one representative from each school, college or training provider.

To book onto an event, please use our online booking system at athena.sqameet.net. You’ll need a username and password to access the booking system.

You can view our full programme of Understanding Standards events and webinars at www.understandingstandards.org.uk