Who is it for?
- Young people aged 14 to 25
What do you have to do?
- Complete a certain number of challenges (depending on the level you are going for) of at least 15 hours each, keeping a diary or portfolio to show what you've done. This could be with photos, bus tickets, time sheets, posters you've designed, shopping lists, draft questionnaires or anything that shows what you've been involved with
- You also need to fill in the Youth Achievement Award booklet for each challenge
- You can choose any activity as long as it is a challenge. For example for one person it could be to design a poster on a computer, for another using a computer might not be a challenge, but participating consistently in a health programme could present a challenge
- The challenges can take place at the youth centre or somewhere else - for instance football, swimming, walking the neighbour's dog or helping run the tuck shop
- Basically you need to find a group of friends (2 or 3 is enough) with whom to decide what you want to achieve and after the activities review what you liked and what you didn't, write or draw it in the booklet and put your evidence in a folder so that someone else can see what you've done and what you've achieved
- There are 4 levels which reflect different levels of responsibility and an increasing number of challenges to be completed: bronze (participates), silver (helps organise), gold (organises) and platinum (leads)
What do you get?
- After completing each challenge you get a challenge certificate issued by the accreditation workers
- After completing all the challenges, you submit a portfolio of evidence and after assessment will get a Youth Achievement Award certificate issued by UK Youth
- Youth Achievement Awards are accredited by ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network) and are nationally recognised
Portfolios get assessed by an internal moderator and are submitted to the regional external moderation meeting to ensure standards are maintained nationally.