The RCU Award for Support for Students
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.
RCU Sponsor’s Criteria:
RCU provide market intelligence and research for the further education sector. Our mission is to develop and deliver practical and relevant research solutions for clients through innovation, professionalism and market expertise.
Our products and services help our clients to improve what they do through increasing efficiency, effectiveness or reputation. We constantly refresh our approaches and scan the outside world for better ways to deliver value to our clients and we strive to be seen by the sector as the market leader in innovative data analysis and pragmatic and effective research.
We want to recognise, celebrate and promote examples of student support provided by colleges for a significant group of students, across a whole provision or college wide approach. This award might cover both learner and learning support, and may include bespoke provision for students with autistic spectrum disorders, outstanding examples of information, advice and guidance, or excellent learner/learning support for adults.
Your application should:
- Demonstrate an inclusive curriculum which promotes equality and diversity and includes teaching and learning activities well matched to students’ different needs, enabling individuals to develop skills and experiences to support successful progression to employment or independent living
- Demonstrate effective support for the curriculum through engagement with employers and local communities, enabling sustained and successful involvement of students in the workplace
- Demonstrate how students are equipped and empowered to;
- have a voice
- solve their own challenges
- make their own choices
- participate in community or society; all set within a dynamic quality improvement process
- Demonstrate an effective support model which is both comprehensive and high quality, sustained over a long period and applicable to the wider sector
- Demonstrate effective additional support arrangements for a particular vulnerable group of students which;
- include comprehensive progression planning for each individual, as well as processes that enables them to achieve success and transform their lives
- fully support students into college, employment and adult life
- Demonstrate highly effective leadership, management and governance of students or learning support, as evidenced through strategic support and challenge, sustained advocacy and improvements in teaching and learning