ASDAN Short Courses

ASDAN qualifications are designed to equip young people with key personal, social and employability skills.

About ASDAN

ASDAN is a registered education charity that designs accessible courses for young people. ASDAN also certifies providers, including those that deliver ASDAN short courses online, and offers accreditation for custom courses. ASDAN stands for ‘the Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network’. The charity’s goal is to serve young people between 11 and 25 years old and provide them with the skills and experience they need to continue their education, enter work, and live independently.

An ASDAN qualification is proof that a student has completed an ASDAN course. Some qualifications contribute UCAS points, while others certify that a young person has the skills required to enter the workforce or live independently. ASDAN offers a range of qualifications, including a general course for secondary school students, courses designed for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and more. The most common qualification is the Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE): CoPE Level 1 is an ASDAN qualification equivalent to a GCSE grade 2, providing 25 UCAS points, while Level 2 is equivalent to GCSE grade 6, providing 46 points. Students that earn a Level 3 CoPE receive 70 UCAS points, the equivalent of an A grade at AS Level.

Flexible Ways to Learn

We offer three flexible ways to learn so that young people of all backgrounds and abilities can take part, regardless of their situation or location.

Online

Studying ASDAN short courses online offers greater flexibility. Students can pursue their ASDAN qualification from any location at a time that fits within their schedule. This is particularly important for those who are unable to attend school in person.

Onsite

Young people can study the full range of short courses onsite during weekly one hour sessions at Whisgills House in the Scottish Borders where our ponies, pigs, ducks, chickens, dogs and cats all help to deliver the learning.

Blended

Learners can choose to study online and have periodic 'access days' where they come to the farm for hands-on learning in animal care, gardening, land-based skills and more.

The Range of ASDAN Courses

Are you a parent, teacher, home educator, youth group leader or alternative education provider? Explore our range of courses below and contact us to arrange a bespoke learning experience for individuals or groups of young people.

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Animal Care

The Animal Care Short Course can accredit activities and involvement in caring for all types of animals, from looking after domestic pets at home, to working with farm animals and wildlife in the community, to finding out about more exotic species at zoos and wildlife centres.

Environment

The Environmental Short Course has been developed in partnership with The Wildlife Trusts and accredits up to 60 hours of involvement in various environmental activities and projects.

Expressive Arts

ASDAN’s Expressive Arts Short Course offers exciting and rewarding activities to develop skills and knowledge through all forms of expressive arts. This programme helps learners develop practical arts skills, as well as personal, social and work-related skills.

Volunteering

The Volunteering Short Course provides a convenient way to capture, record and recognise the work of volunteers. There are challenges to help plan and review volunteering activity along with logs to keep track of the work carried out.

Careers and Work Experience

The Careers and Experiencing Work Short Course has been produced to support the delivery of careers and work-related education, and to help with planning and undertaking work experience/placements. It has been developed in line with the statutory careers guidance (January 2018).

Adventure and Residential

The Adventure and Residential Short Course accredits up to 60 hours of adventure and residential activities. We can arrange bespoke residentials and day trips to our centre with the option of workshops on bushcraft, nature, animal care, horse care and training, horticulture or environment and conservation.

Gardening

The Gardening Short Course offers exciting and rewarding activities to develop skills and knowledge through gardening. This course helps learners develop practical gardening skills, as well as personal, social and work-related skills. Certification is available for 10–60 hours of work.

;Land-Based Skills Taster

Vocational Tasters offer learners a concrete introduction to a range of employment sectors. Ideal for learners following an alternative progression route, these courses help learners to make progress towards their personal learning and career aims.

Increasing learners’ knowledge of different employment sectors will help them to make informed and long-lasting decisions about their post-16 destinations.

The Land-based Sector Vocational Taster contains modules in: agriculture; animal care; horticulture; environment and land management; health and safety in the land-based sector; careers in the land-based sector.

Moving On

The ASDAN Living Independently Short Course is focused on helping young people make a successful transitions from school education to adulthood. Developed in collaboration with local authorities, the course supports the cross-government strategy to transform support for young people leaving care – 'Keep on caring: supporting young people from care to independence'.

Peer Mentoring

The ASDAN Peer Mentoring Short Course accredits up to 60 hours of peer mentoring activity, providing recognition for those who are learning, developing, practising and passing on their skills for mentoring and 'buddying' younger ones.

Leadership

ASDAN’s Leadership Short Course offers exciting and rewarding activities to develop skills and knowledge through taking on a leadership role or responsibilities. This course helps learners develop their leadership skills, as well as personal, social and work-related skills.

The Leadership Short Course will enable learners to:

learn about themselves and leadership, and develop an understanding of what type of leader they could be
learn and demonstrate the skills and techniques needed to be a leader
reflect and gain an understanding of their performance as a leader and support others as they learn about leadership

Activities Tutoring

The ASDAN Activities Short Course accredits up to 60 hours of mixed activity. It can be used in most situations, but is particularly suitable for accrediting activities taking place in youth projects that do not fit easily into set challenges.

The Peer Tutoring Short Course is a second award, which offers the opportunity of additional recognition for young people who are supporting others through the Activities Short Course (perhaps having completed it themselves), or who are taking on a leadership role for a group of young people engaged on a specific activity.

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