Co-ordinator FAQs

This is the person responsible for running the UAS in a centre, and who staff in AQA will deal with about the UAS. The Co-ordinator registers units and students, checks all evidence produced when students have completed units and ensures that correct procedures are followed by anyone in the centre using the UAS. The Co-ordinator needs to know about UAS administration and assessment procedures, and how to write a unit, and submit it for validation. He/she liaises with the Assessor (the person appointed by AQA to monitor the centre's assessments), making arrangements for any visit or postal assessments needed.

No – but you do need to be prepared to take responsibility for the day-to-day running of the Scheme and for liaising with AQA, your Assessor and any of your staff using the Scheme. You are responsible for making sure that the Scheme is run in accordance with our procedures. You are responsible for ensuring that staff in your centre are completing the appropriate paperwork correctly and that full and appropriate evidence is provided when each unit is completed.

Yes – when your centre first joins the UAS you will need to attend one of our new centre training meetings. If you are taking over the role of Co-ordinator in an existing UAS centre, you could work alongside the current Co-ordinator and receive training in this way. Also, for existing centres, we run free training meetings for new or inexperienced Co-ordinators.

This depends on how widely you use the Scheme, ie how many students and how many units are involved, and how often students are achieving units. Once you gain an understanding of the paperwork involved, the role should be straightforward.

Yes – in fact we encourage this, especially in larger centres. It means that the workload can be shared and that there will always be one Co-ordinator to carry on if the other Co-ordinator leaves or is ill.

You need to complete a Notification of change of Co-ordinator form, which is on the disk given to all Co-ordinators when the centre joins the Scheme. This asks for details of training the new Co-ordinator has had. The form should be signed by the Head of Centre and sent to the Unit Award Scheme department in Harrogate.

If you want to register a new centre, and want to claim exemption from new centre training on the grounds of previous training and/or recent experience as a Co-ordinator, you can give details of this on the Centre Registration Form. If you have attended a Co-ordinator training meeting, details of this should be given on the form. We will then let you know if the previous training/experience is relevant and sufficiently up-to-date.

Your first port of call should be to contact the UAS department. The office is open Monday – Friday from 8.00am to 5.00pm. We run free training meetings for new or inexperienced Co-ordinators in the autumn and spring terms. You can also request an additional Assessor visit (chargeable) if you feel you really need this support.

Every new centre has one Assessor visit at the point when its first group of students have completed their first units. There is a charge for this. If you are a new Co-ordinator and you would like an Assessor to visit to assist you with your next assessment, you should contact the UAS department to discuss this. The visit is chargeable and the Assessor who visits may not be your centre's appointed Assessor.

Return the unit to your colleague and ask him/her to itemise the checklist as required by the unit. You may need to give assistance with this. If you cannot see how an outcome can be itemised then please contact the UAS department and we will offer advice on how itemisation may be tackled.

You need to contact the UAS department as soon as possible as you will not be able to put forward students for the award of units, or submit units for validation, until a successor has attended appropriate training. You can also request that an Assessor visit your centre to assist, but this is chargeable and the Assessor who visits may not be your centre's appointed Assessor.

One way would be to circulate this leaflet which you can obtain from us when you are formally registered.