The Edge Award for Excellence in Real World Learning

Guidance notes for application form

This year, applicants are invited to complete a bespoke application form for each Beacon Award. This form will give applicants the opportunity to address all the criteria that will be assessed: the Beacon Award criteria, and the bespoke sponsor’s criteria that is tailored for each award.

AoC Beacon Awards Criteria:

The Beacon Awards celebrate exemplary practice. In all applications you should evidence innovation, sustainability and impact, ensuring that you clearly show there are features which promote exemplary teaching and learning, and that the initiative has wider relevance and applicability. The application should demonstrate:

• Bespoke evaluation/quality assurance to influence continuing development of the initiative
• Regard to the promotion of equality and diversity in the delivery of the programme.
• That there is clear evidence of impact and sustainability.
• That it has features which actively promote exemplary teaching and learning
• That it is of benefit for one or more groups of students, recipients or trainees
• That it has wider relevance and applicability which makes it of significant value to other colleges as an example of outstanding practice or innovation.

The Edge Foundation Sponsor’s Criteria:

The Edge Foundation is an independent foundation working to inspire the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work. We believe in high quality professional education and training, a broad and balanced curriculum, interactive and engaging real world learning and rich relationships between education and employers.

We gather evidence through research, trials and projects on the ground and use this to lead the debate around future policy and practice.

We want to recognise, celebrate and promote examples of excellent practical teaching and learning which:

• Demonstrate the development of a curriculum which has led to improvements in practical teaching and learning that have enabled learners to have experiences that:
• Are embedded in the real world, working with experts
• they find meaningful and challenging
• are life changing
• Demonstrate the development of a responsive curriculum for professional and vocation education which has a direct and sustainable impact on employment and enterprise
• Demonstrate excellent engagement with employers and local communities, leading to sustained and successful involvement of learners in the work place
• Demonstrate Innovative best practice that delivers identifiable results and benefits for both learners and teaching professions.
• Demonstrate the development and implementation of flexible teaching, learning and assessment methods

The Edge Award for Excellence in Real World Learning application form