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External Moderation

External Moderation is the final stage of the Quality Assurance Process within the Youth Achievement Awards. External Moderation ensures that all the previous stages of Assessment and Moderation have been applied with diligence and rigour and the assessment criteria for the Awards have been met.

In theory no issues should arise during External Moderation that will affect accreditation of portfolios and the awarding of Certificates. Following successful External Moderation the Award Certificates are produced and sent to the Operating Agency Key Contacts approximately four weeks after the External Moderation Meeting. Please see below for the 2012 schedule and deadlines.

If however, the Assessment and Moderation process has not been applied with diligence and rigour and the portfolios submitted do not meet the standards expected then they will be deferred and 'referred back' to the Operating Agency for further work to be undertaken. The Key Contact will receive feedback and action points to be addressed to ensure that the quality assurance process is applied properly in all future submissions.

Submitting Portfolios for External Moderation

When portfolios are complete and ready for External Moderation the Operating Agency Key Contact (or a person authorised by the Operating Agency Key Contact) must return a completed External Moderation Form to Youth Scotland for each Participating Unit that is submitting portfolios and arrange for a representative of the Operating Agency to attend the External Moderation Meeting with the portfolios. The External Moderation Forms must be received by Youth Scotland on or before the stated deadlines to allow sufficient time for processing. Please see below for the 2012 schedule and deadlines. Award Group Workers wishing to submit portfolios should contact their Agency Moderator and advise them of progress, allowing sufficient time for the Internal Moderation Process to be carried out and paperwork returned within the stated deadlines.

Attending an External Moderation Meeting

The booking procedures for the External Moderation Meetings Events have been revised. Youth Scotland has placed the Booking and External Moderation Forms for every External Moderation Meeting as well as full venue details of every Moderation Meeting in 2012 on the Youth Scotland website. This shall help facilitate your forward planning. The webpage that hosts this information is, however, not accessible from any other page of the Youth Scotland website. Access to this 'hidden' webpage is only possible by following a link that has been sent only to the Operating Agency Main Contacts.

Youth Scotland will assume that any Booking Form received has been authorised by the Operating Agency Main Contact as only they or a member of staff authorised by them will have access to the Booking Forms through the link to the 'hidden' webpage. Any Moderator(s) arriving at the External Moderation Meeting without a prior booking cannot be allowed entry. This is will allow all the Agencies involved in organising these meetings, including the Host Agency, to finalise their arrangements with confidence based on the number of bookings.

The Youth Achievement Awards External Moderation Meeting dates for 2012 are: