It is based on the successful Youth Achievement Awards (for young people aged 14 plus) and the Youth Challenges (aimed at young people aged 11 plus).  The JAA uses a peer education approach to helping children plan and review the learning gained in an almost limitless range of activities that interest and motivate them. They recognise and reward children’s achievements, and are designed to develop a range of personal and social skills,
including:

• Self confidence and self esteem
• Communication
• Giving and receiving constructive criticism
• Taking responsibility
• Planning and reviewing their own learning

By using the JAA many agencies report that this helps children engage early in non-formal learning programmes and develops the personal and social skills that they will need as they move from being children into their teenage years.  In schools, junior children are assessed on a range of academic skills but often their personal and social development goes unrecorded and unrewarded: the JAA provides a tool for us to do this and
a methodology for developing these skills.

‘It has given us structure and an evidence base for an already existing project'  Primary Head, Liverpool

‘JAA is a very simple and effective accreditation route’  Youth worker - Tees Valley