The National Youth Agency - Awards Network Policy context

Awards Network Policy context

14-19: Opportunity and Excellence, published in early 2003, gave further encouragement to the work of the Network. Its vision was that 'all young people can develop essential practical skills for life and work.

In addition, the curriculum and assessment arrangements must emphasise and promote competence in analysis, problem-solving and thinking, so that young people have the confidence to explain and defend their conclusions'. In the section about the curriculum "young people said they would welcome a greater acknowledgement of activities and achievements outside the classroom. Our Working Group on 14-19 Reform will consider this as part of their consideration of a unified framework of awards at 19.” The work of Mike Tomlinson's Working Group on 14-19 Reform took this work forward a stage. Its final report recognises the role of Awards in wider learning and recommends that the Network, together with others, should undertake research into the development of the activities that generate wider learning.

Also of interest...

To this end, the Network's action research project sponsored by the Learning and Skills Council has played an important role in the development of the Network over the past four years. The focus of the research has been the contribution that Awards make to the learning of young people on the Entry to Employment programme. As part of this highly successful research programme, the Network has developed and adopted a set of Quality Assurance guidelines for all Awards in this Framework. These help to guarantee that young people consistently receive what the award organisations say is on offer.

There is a central recognition that Awards can generate some of the credits that a young person requires in order to achieve a diploma. In The Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) which is currenttly being trialled and tested, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority seeks to include much more than existing qualifications in a Framework that may well replace the NQF. Some Personal and Social Development Units developed by Award organisations are being tested in the QCF, as part of the development of the Foundation Learning Tier. The units represented by the Awards will generate credit for young people. They may also then count towards school league tables and be a clear option for schools and FE colleges to use.

The network members have undertaken a mapping exercise of their respective awards. The result, hopefully, is a coherent document that shows linkages to the National Qualifications Framework and clarifies for young people, non-formal education/youth work practitioners and policy makers the process of deciding which awards to focus on.