The York Award
Authors:
Victoria Barton, Careers Assistant (vb513@york.ac.uk)
Andrew Ferguson, Business, Community and Enterprise Manager (arf4@york.ac.uk)
Heather Richardson, York Award Manager (hr6@york.ac.uk)
The York Award is a certificated programme of transferable skills training and experiential learning, offered by the University of York in partnership with leading public, private and voluntary sector organisations.
The York Award programme consists of three main elements:
1) Elective course programme. We offer a programme of over 30 elective courses. The vast majority of our courses are free. Courses cover a range of employment related skills and occupational areas, with 70% delivered in partnership with national and international graduate employers.
2) Assessment process for final year students. The assessment consists of a written application form and a short panel interview. We assess students’ capacities to reflect on and articulate their activities and achievements in all aspects of their time in higher education (Academic study, Work experience, Personal interests and York Award elective courses).
3) Support and advice to students undertaking the programme. The York Award offers daily York Award appointments to give students the opportunity to receive one-to-one support and advice. Students are actively encouraged to come for a one-to-one summer review appointment. In addition we offer a range of optional group workshops to support students’ understanding of The York Award and support their personal development.
Those successfully passing the assessment process receive the York Award certificate on graduation.
The York Award was founded in 1998, so has now been successfully running for 12 years. It is free to join and open to all undergraduate students. York Award courses are open to all students. We have approximately 1000 students participating in The York Award each year. This year (2009/10) we received 244 applications from final year students hoping to achieve the York Award.
The York Award is currently under review in order to evaluate how it can best integrate with the University’s employability strategy.
