Accredited Award Provider

Accredited Award Providers (AAPs) are organisations, both commercial and charitable, whose opportunities have been approved by the Duke of Edinburgh's Hillary Award (The Award) as meeting our sectional conditions and can count towards the achievement of an Award.

AAPs are usually able to provide a section in its entirety, including training, supervision, assessment and reports on the Online Record Book (ORB).

The AAP licence is a quality standard on an oraganisation's activity, meeting the programme and sectional requirements of the Award. Please note that the AAP licence does not guarantee the suitability of an AAP in terms of health and safety, child protection or it's financial stability. Award Units working with AAPs will have their own process for checking the suitability of the AAP's programme in terms of health and safety requirements for their young people. Similarly, it is the responsibility of the participant's parent/guardian/carer to evaluate the safeguarding and health and safety policies the organisation has, if a participant is engaging directly with an AAP.

Photo: Escape Adventurous Journeys

Become an Accredited Award Provider

Thank you for showing an interest in working with with the Award through becoming an AAP. We look forward to working with you to build an exceptional programme that will meet the sectional requirements, enabling you to confidently state that your programmes count towards an Award.

The first step in applying to become an AAP is top complete an application form. Once we receive this, a member of the Award will contact you within 2 - 3 weeks to discuss your proposed programmes. If suitable, we will send out the Terms and Conditions for you to complete.

An AAP licence is not complusory for organisations offering opportunities suitable for the Volunteering, Physical, Skill and Residential sections of the Award. However, due to the increased level of responsibility that expedition providers have, an AAP licence is complusory for all organisations offering opportunities suitable for the Adventurous Journey section of the Award.

Benefits of becoming an Accredited Award Provider

There are a number of key benefits in holding an AAP licence:

AAP logo - whether you are a large provider or a sole trader, the AAP licence enables you to display the Award logo on any of your Award activities.
Pre-approved programmes - your approved programmes will be treated as being pre-approved for fulfilling Award requirements for the relevant section(s).
Website - a listing on the Award website.
Award network - we will notify our network of your new partnership status.
Support - we will support you to create and develop new Award programmes.
Contact - direct contact and support from the Award team.

Accredited Award Provider Application Process

If you want to offer participants this opportunity then there are 2 types of licence that you can apply for:

AAP (Adventurous Journey) This type of licence is for those who want to deliver the Adventurous Journey (Preliminary Training, Practice and Qualifying Journey) Section of the Award to participants who are already enrolled with an Award Unit. AAPs who run this will need to provide evidence of a third party audit from a Worksafe approved audit provider of your Safety Management plan and systems.
AAP (Other Sections) This type of licence is for those who want to deliver another Section of the Award, other than the Adventurous Journey to Participants who are already enrolled with an Award Unit.

More information about this/these sections can be found on our website:

Skills - The Skills Section is about developing an interest or talent, whether this is musical, technical, creative, academic, artistic, environmental or cultural in nature. Skills Section activities should not be physically demanding; for example, dancing, gymnastics, yoga (these activities should be done for the Physical Recreation Section). While participating in a physical activity may require skill, for the purpose of the Award playing sport/doing physical activity comes under the Physical Recreation Section only. The Skills Section is about trying to learn something, get better at it and improve mental ability.

Voluntary Service - Voluntary Service is all about participants giving their time to help others in the community so that they have a greater sense of the needs of others. It is an opportunity for participants to get out of their comfort zone and engage with a reality that they are not familiar with.

Physical Recreation - The Physical Recreation Section is an opportunity for participants to take part in a physical activity in order to improve their health, fitness and wellbeing. This could be a team sport, a solo sport or a fitness programme. While some participants might enjoy taking part in a competitive activity, others might prefer non-competitive ones.

Adventurous Journey - The Adventurous Journey is about participants going on an Exploration or Expedition in an unfamiliar environment. It gives participants the chance to learn more about their wider environment, including the environmental impact their and others’ activities have. Teamwork, leadership, decision making and social connection are key components of the Adventurous Journey. There are three components of the Adventurous Journey which must all be completed at Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Preparation and Training - Training is required to ensure that all group members undertake the journey safely. A Preparation and Training Guide can be found on our website.
Practice Journey - Participants must undertake sufficient Practice Journeys to ensure that they can complete the Qualifying Journey safely.
Qualifying Journey - During the Qualifying Journey the group should be as self-sufficient and independent as reasonably possible. This is the Journey that Participants are assessed on.

Gold Residential Project (Gold level only) - The Gold Residential Project Section is only undertaken at Gold level. It provides participants with the opportunity to have a shared, purposeful experience with people they don’t know in an unfamiliar setting.

Assessor

For each Section of the Award a participant must have an Assessor. An Assessor is an adult, who has knowledge of the chosen activity (who is not a family member or peer) who helps a participant complete their chosen activity. As an Accredited Award Provider you would need to find someone to be the Assessor for any Participant completing an Award Section with you. The Assessor must regularly see the participant taking part in the activity. For example, if the participant is running for their Physical Recreation section then the Assessor should go out running with them regularly (roughly every 4-weeks). Once a participant has completed an Award Section, they can send the Assessor a link to their activity hours through the Online Record Book (ORB) and the Assessor can verify that these hours are correct and write an electronic Assessor's report for them.

You can also apply to be an Award Unit if you want to help Participants take part in the rest of the Award.

There is an annual cost in being an Accredited Award Provider with us which is $115 (including gst.). There is also an activity fee of $5 for each Participant who completes a component of the Award with you. This is paid monthly.

As part of the process of setting you up as an Accredited Award provider we require you to complete our Online Training. You should receive a separate email with information on how to complete this training and police vetting. Although you have probably already been Police Vetted for your current position, it is a requirement of our organisation that all Award Leaders are Police Vetted by us.