IDEA

==Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award Scheme==
iDEA is the Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award Scheme. It's inspired by the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and is intended to be a digital version of that. It's relevant to business studies as well as to ICT / Computing / Computer science.  
iDEA is a free online award scheme with Bronze, Silver and Gold levels. You receive a paper certificate when you have completed your award. It's not a GCSE equivalent by any means, BUT it's free, and could be a useful thing to add to your portfolio, especially if you want to get onto an IT course at L3 and have not been able to take ICT IGCSE or similar .
== How iDEA works ==
"Learners take part in a series of challenges in order to win awards. For every new skill and learning experience mastered, iDEA learners are awarded a digital badge. Each badge carries a number of points. When participants earn enough points, they are awarded the Bronze, Silver or Gold Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award." Source
"There are badges which can help you to be safe online, and pick up tips and techniques on topics such as web design, cyber security, cloud computing, animation and how to use colours in digital creations."
=== Record of Achievement ===
There is an online iDEA Record of Achievement platform, where employers or colleges can verify your certificate. You can print off a record of the badges (modules) you have completed, like a transcript. This is useful even if you haven't completed the award yet:
"You can download, print and share your achievements as often as you like before or after you get your Award. This means you will be able to showcase your hard work in a verifiable certificate whether you have earned two badges or fifty badges." [from iDEA Record of Achievement]
=== Comments from home educators: ===
From NS:
My son recently completed the Bronze award and has now started the Silver one. We signed up as an individual and he received his certificate by post. He enjoyed doing it. A few tasks might have been better doing with others in a class but you don't have to do everything; you choose what you want to complete, as long as you acquire enough points in each section for the award. He took about a year to complete it as we didn't hurry it and he just did it when he felt like it so he would go weeks without doing any. He was 12 when he started and 13 when he completed it.Considering it has cost us nothing to do I think it is well worth it. He is finding the silver award a bit harder as he has had to do a bit of background work for some of the tasks as they are things he hasn't done at home, but also I have the feeling it is aimed at slightly older children. Again there is no rush or time limit to complete the award.
Blog post about iDEA awards from Salford Community College
Manchester Metropolitan University is encouraging its students to do iDEA and is rolling out iDEA credits in its courses.
Category:Information Technology and Computing