An overview of where flexibility can be exercised within the Edinburgh Award. Every version of the Award is shaped by guiding principles and requirements contained in the central Framework. While the Framework provides much of the ‘what’, flexibility comes in the ‘how’ of how Award leaders choose to approach their version. Having one central Framework allows the Award to be recognised by the institution, however we have chosen to encourage flexibility to allow for individual Award leader style, differences in group size, to create a tailored community and allow for differentiation based on the individual activity. The table below outlines the various elements of the Award and describes where there is, and where there is not, flexibility. Elements of the Award and flexibility Area Description Core requirement Local flexibility Minimum threshold of student engagement required What number of hours and what activity students must complete needs to be defined in the Framework and explained to students. Overall learning hours must add up to at least 50 hours Up to 10 of these hours can be amassed through attendance/engagement with Award elements e.g. Inputs/writing reflections Experiential learning must make up 60% of the remaining hours Students can only amass up to 40% of the remaining hours through training and passive learning Hours must be spread evenly across the time period the Award runs – with around half of the hours completed by Input 2 and the remainder completed between Inputs 2 and 3. This ensures ongoing development for the students throughout the Award journey. While there are minimum requirements you can decide to increase the overall number of learning hours required You may choose to require attendance at additional workshops or for students to engage in other activities relevant to the role. Timing of the Award Before you start running your Award you need to decide what time period it will run over and then let the central Award Team know Your Award needs to run over at least 6 weeks because this is the shortest length of time over which we believe the full reflective journey can be experienced effectively. If the Award is running over such a short length of time then a student must be engaging with the activity on a full time basis e.g. summer internship. Contact with students is required at least every 16 weeks either through an Input session or a short reflection from your students. The Award can run over any time period that makes sense for your setting. It can run from between 6 weeks for up to 2 years. Change of Award Leader The central Award team must be notified of any change to Award Leader and ideally a handover meeting would take place including both previous and new Award leaders and the central Award team to ensure the Award and its processes are clear and everyone is comfortable with plans going forwards. Any changes to the Framework need to be approved by the central Award team to make sure plans are as effective for the students involved and will work for the local unit running the Award. Staff are encouraged to review the Framework that they inherit and suggest any changes they want to make. This might include, but is not limited to: Eligibility requirements Tasks carried out within sessions Whether sessions are in-person or online or self-directed Delivering Inputs The three stages of the Award journey are referred to as Inputs, these take place at the beginning, middle and end of an Award. There are various aspects that need to be addressed in each of the inputs, these aspects support students planning for, reflecting back on and then articulating their development. There should be a focus on peer support within these inputs. The Award Leader is there to facilitate students learning from each other and their own reflection rather than in a teaching capacity. Input 3 has to be done as an interactive, group session. You can choose how to approach the Inputs: While Input 3 needs to be an interactive group session, you may choose to carry the other two as group sessions or as a series of self-directed tasks for students to complete. Assessing student submissions Students will submit pieces of work after each of the input stages. These help to monitor student engagement with the Award process These need to be submitted to you electronically. If you are holding your Inputs as sessions then they should be submitted within a week of the session. More detail about what these involve is available in each of the Input sections. You may choose to use Peer Assessment within your Award, either informally or more formally through an online platform like Peer Mark. There is more information about this in the Peer Assessment section. Special Circumstances and Adjustments There may be scenarios where a student is unable to attend a session or meet a deadline and where this scenario is classed as a Special Circumstance we have a central policy to cover that. However, it is likely you will have students to miss an element for a reason not covered by Special Circumstances and so you need to decide locally how to approach those situations. Decide what approach you’ll take to giving students extensions/making allowances for those who miss sessions and communicate this to students. You can choose to take a strict approach whereby no adjustments are made unless Special Circumstances apply. Or you might decide to make adjustments if a student gets in touch ahead of a deadline or session to let you know they aren’t going to make the deadline or you might create a clear criteria of situations that get approved and those that don’t. This article was published on 2024-05-06
