Youth Achievement Awards: A Guide For Young People

a guide foryoung people

Key Features

The quick 5-step guide to

Youth Achievement

Awards...

1. Choose a responsibility level

2. Set a number of challenges

3. Meet your challenges while collecting evidence

4. Keep your evidence in a portfolio

5. Collect an accredited Award for your hard work!

BR

ON

ZE

Tak

ing

part

SIL

VE

R

Hel

ping

/ su

ppor

ting

GO

LD

Org

anis

ing

PLA

TIN

UM

Lead

ing

4 levels of YouthAchievement Award

We call the activities you do for a Youth

Achievement Award ‘challenges’.

The challenges you do must reflect the level of

Award you have chosen.

Bronze

Taking part

Silver

Helping

Gold

Organising

Which responsibility level is each challenge?

Peer educating

Attending a sports club Helping to run the pupil council

Learning to design a computer game

Being in charge ofadvertising school play

Taking part in a maths group

Contributing to the runningOf an afterschool club

Example challenges

Attending a sports club

Learning to design a

computer game

Taking part in a maths

group

Helping to run the

pupil council

Contributing to the

running of an

afterschool club

Being in charge of

advertising the

school play

Running a sports

club

Peer educating

The answers!

Example challenges

Bronze

Taking part

Silver

Helping

Gold

Organising

A challenge must last at least 15 hours

The higher the level of Award, the more challenges you have to do.

Challenge 1

Challenge 2

Challenge 3

Challenge 4

Bronze

Challenge 1

Challenge 2

Challenge 3

Challenge 4

Challenge 5

Challenge 6

Challenge 7

Presentation

Gold

Challenge 1

Challenge 2

Challenge 3

Challenge 4

Challenge 5

Challenge 6

SilverSilver

You can start at any level

Remember, each challenge has to meet the responsibility level of your Award.

Your challenges do not have

to be linked to each other...

...and nor do they have to

be taken at the same place.

Helping run a peer education projectHelping out at football trainingPart of a team running a coffee morningMaking a filmSupporting someone with reading difficultiesHelping out at the youth club

Here is an example of the variety of challenges you

could do for a Silver Award.

Note: you do not have to do your Award in just one

location!

Challenge 1 (15 hours)

Challenge 2(15 hours)

Challenge 3(15 hours)

Challenge 4 (15hours)

Let’s have a more detailed look at how you could accredit the work that goes

on in an Eco-School project.

The hours refer to the minimum requirement.

Follow this simple process

whilst doing your Award

PLAN: think about what you want to achieve

DO: Try to achieve your targets. Collect evidence

Along the way to demonstrate your efforts.

REVIEW: Analyse how you did and

what could have been done better.

RECOGNISE: You will receive an accredited Awardafter a successful completion.

Collecting evidence

We encourage you to be creative in how you collect evidence.

There’s no need for lots and lots of writing with Youth Achievement Awards.

Exercise: How would you collect evidence which showed you tried to meet the following targets?

Rehearsing panto lines

Attending rehearsals

Performing in the school play

Creating a website

Making posters

Helping my English teacher

Running a sports club

TARGET POSSIBLE EVIDENCE

Copy of script

Attendance register

DVD of the play

Screenshots of website

The posters

Note from English teacher

Annotated photographs

How would you evidencethese targets?

Peer assessment is a crucial part of the Awards. You must support each other and quality checkeach other’s work as you proceed.

Peers check:

Your challenge is set at the

correct level of responsibility

Your targets are challenging

You have collected enough evidence to

show number of hours taken

Collect your evidence in an organised

manner, perhaps in a folder. This should

illustrate what you have achieved and how

you worked towards your challenges.

A portfolio must demonstrate that you:

worked towards

your targets

took the correct amount of

responsibility for the Award

Level

A portfolio must demonstrate that you:

spent the minimum time required on each challenge

completed the correct number of challenges

Moderation

Sam, working ona Silver Award

Sam’s peers forman Award Group

The Award GroupWorker

The Internal Moderator

After these steps your school takes your portfolio to an external moderation meeting where other

people will judge it.

When it passes, you get a Youth Achievement Award!

Platinum Award

A Platinum Award is a little different from the others. You have to follow specific steps in

order to achieve your Platinum.

Your teacher has more information.

Youth Achievement Awards have been credit rated for the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)

SCQFLevel

Youth

Achievement

AwardsOther courses

7 Platinum Advanced Higher

6Gold Higher

5 Silver Standard Grade (Credit)

4 Bronze Standard Grade (General)

What do others think?

Teachers like that you

take on responsibility:

we get to plan with them.Teachers like that you

take on responsibility:

we get to plan with them.My Youth Achievement Award has helped me follow a career because it

has made me make decisions. I’m better at judging the good points and

bad points of different activities.

My Youth Achievement Award has helped me follow a career because it

has made me make decisions. I’m better at judging the good points and

bad points of different activities.It’s not like normal schoolwork:

this is fun. We get to be in

charge and have responsibility.

In other classes the teacher tells

you what to do but not here.

It’s not like normal schoolwork:

this is fun. We get to be in

charge and have responsibility.

In other classes the teacher tells

you what to do but not here.

This will help us in job applications because it shows we’ve got the commitment and dedication to finish something.

This will help us in job applications because it shows we’ve got the commitment and dedication to finish something.

This gave me the

confidence to

dance on a stage

This gave me the

confidence to

dance on a stage

• You choose a responsibility level

• Each level has a different number of challenges

• A challenge must match the responsibility level

• A challenge must last at least 15 hours

• You collect evidence in a folder (or on a disk)

• Your peers support you through the Award

• A worker ensures your portfolio meets the standard

• Your portfolio is then externally moderated

In summary...

Quiz – Bronze, Silver or Gold?

Playing for the school

football team

TAKING PART? HELPING? ORGANISING?

Bronze – taking part


Helping to run a football

team outside of school


Silver – helping/supporting


Making posters for a

charity event


Depends...this activity could come under any of the Award levels


Helping a teacher

prepare a lesson


Silver – helping / supporting


Writing and planning

a play


Silver or Gold. Depends whether you are doing this alone or with support.


Planning a coffee

morning


Silver or Gold. Depends whether you are doing this alone or with support.


Sitting on the pupil

council


Bronze or Silver (most likely). Depends how much responsibility you take on.


Organising the pupil

council


Silver or Gold. Depends whether you are doing this alone or with others.

That’s the end of the

introduction! View this video

for more information.

Balfour House19 Bonnington GroveEdinburghEH6 4BL

0131 554 [email protected]

Youth Achievement Awards: A Guide For Young People

Education

Transcript of Youth Achievement Awards: A Guide For Young People