Arts Award Remote Centre

young people looking happy on a bandstand for Arts Award

We have extensive experience of Arts Award!

We run Arts Award Voice the official online support for young people doing their award and we regularly undertake research and development for Trinity College London to improve the award. Our own team members have achieved Arts Awards over the years.

Are you a young person who wants to do the Silver or Gold Arts Award? Or the parent/carer of someone who would love to step up? Then we can help. All online. All at times to suit you. We support you to make the most of the experience and achieve your award.

Here’s what a recent moderator said of one of our submissions:

‘Well done to the adviser supporting the young person in their centre to achieve their Arts Award so effectively. The portfolio was packed full of creative evidence, easy to navigate at moderation and an example of best practice. Well done!

The portfolio parts were clearly separated with a wide variety and range of evidence.’
Moderator (the person from the exam board Trinity College London that checks our advisers’ assessment)

Here’s how it works

A young person is assigned one of our team members as their Arts Award adviser and we guide you through every step of the journey. You complete your portfolio digitally, sharing updates with us.
Each young person should have a local champion who can support their creative projects – this could be an Arts Award adviser, a tutor or a family member.
The Arts Award adviser assesses the portfolio, we undertake centre assurance (double checking the work) and submit it to Trinity College London who may request the portfolio for further checking. Then a certificate is issued digitally.
The young person can add their Arts Award to their CV, share their portfolio in job or higher education interviews or use the 16 UCAS points which Gold Award provides (note for use in September of a given year we must complete the assessment by the May before).

How much does it cost?

Our remote centre costs are ‘time based’ so they depend on the local support network and the independence/experience of the young person undertaking an award. We charge £40 per hour in blocks of 3 hours: completing a Silver Arts Award usually requires at least 9 hours of adviser time (£360) and a Gold Arts Award is typically 15 hours (£600). However every young person is different and some can complete with less time required, and others may need more.

The time provided includes 1:1 support, portfolio assessment and moderation preparation. We don’t charge management costs, and we only submit a portfolio for moderation when we’re confident that it will pass the qualification – so resit fees or similar should never be necessary.

There is also the moderation/certificate fee charged by Trinity College London which is £37.50 for Silver and £55.50 for Gold (for submissions until August 2025).

Silver Arts Award (TCL Level 2 Award in the Arts) and Gold Arts Award (TCL Level 3 Certificate in the Arts) are funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Can Upstart support groups?

Yes! We’re more than happy to support groups of friends, those who work together in a home education group or at an Arts Award centre where the adviser is not trained to Gold level. Whilst every young person’s journey will be unique and we must assess portfolios individually, we can run support and guidance sessions with groups.

How do I get started?

Four young people as advocates for Arts Award

Supporting Arts Award centres and organisations

At Voice we love Arts Award for young people and believe that using it’s framework to accredit and develop rich arts experiences for young people is a way to build their cultural capital and employability skills.

Our offer for Arts Award centres is that we can:

help you develop young people as arts ambassadors and ‘peer advisers’ – getting more people involved and supporting younger students
help you to embed Arts Award into your projects
co-create resources for your young people to use
act as the remote Arts Award adviser for students progressing to Gold level

Find out more about Arts Award at: artsawardvoice.com