Accreditation

Each version of the Edinburgh Award must go through an accreditation process to ensure it fulfils the requirements and intention of the Edinburgh Award.  This spans the time from a new version of the Award being proposed, to the evaluation that is carried out after the Award has been run for the first time.

Activity being recognised 

The accreditation process will begin with discussions around the student co- or extra-curricular  activity around which the Edinburgh Award could be wrapped.  This activity needs to offer sufficient development opportunity and time commitment for the students involved. If these requirements are met and if the staff member feels the Award is the right route for their activity, then the Award leader will be asked to start thinking about how they intend to run their version of the Award.

Creating the list of skills 

The Award leader will produce a list of the skills that students are likely to develop through undertaking this particular activity. These skills should be mapped under the relevant Graduate Attribute headings (Communication, Personal Effectiveness, Personal and Intellectual Autonomy and Research and Enquiry). The Award team can help with this mapping where required. There are webpages with lots of information about the University’s Graduate Attributes but we would encourage you to initially just consider the activity and what skills can be developed before looking at the website as the language that you use to describe the skills is much more likely to be relatable to your students than the much more generic language used on the website. For example, the Charity Fundraising version of the Award describes negotiation as “Developing negotiation skills when requesting sponsorship and asking people to donate”.

Completing the Framework 

Once this initial thinking has been done and the list of skills has been created Award leaders will fill in the Award Framework. The Framework provides opportunity for the specific version of the Award to be designed and planned, and to show how it fulfils the requirements of the Edinburgh Award.  It takes the Award leader through all of the Award requirements and asks how each will be addressed. This detailed description helps those involved in overseeing the Award for the University to ensure that each version will deliver on the Edinburgh Award’s objectives, and helps the Award leader and the Edinburgh Award Coordinator work together to achieve the best experience possible for both students and staff. The process of completing the Framework supports the Award Leader’s planning around the Award and support is available from the Edinburgh Award Coordinator throughout. The Framework usually goes through a number of iterations before it is fully signed off to ensure the design is as positive and impactful as possible for the students involved and is relevant and appropriate for the local unit. Session plans and resources will also be reviewed as they can often flag up things that may have been understood differently in the Framework and can provide clarification on other aspects. There are templates for these here .

Once paperwork has been signed off by the central Award Team, an Award leader can begin to run their version of the Award. During the first year of running the Award the EAC will support the Award leader, there will be contact before and after each Input to ensure the Award leader is comfortable with their plans and to reflect on how the Input went.

Evaluation

The final stage of the accreditation is the evaluation that the EAC will do with the Award leader after the first cohort of students have completed the Award. This evaluation covers all aspects of the experience for Award leaders and their perception of the experience for students. An evaluation is carried out each year though this is sometimes done electronically. Additionally, we send a set of questions to all students and will share the results of this with the Award leader.

Updating the Framework 

As a result of the initial implementation an Award leader may decide to make changes to the way they run their version of the Award. If this is the case then paperwork i.e. Framework and Session Plans must be updated and signed off by the EAC ahead of the next year of running the Award – this can be done each year so the way the Award runs can change each year, there is always the option to change small details or much larger aspects to ensure each version runs as effectively as possible.

Furture contact

After the the accreditation period has passed the EAC will check in with the Award leader periodically and is always available to offer support and advice but there is not the same expectation of contact before and after each Input.