Y-Mark nominated (again) for FAB Innovation of the year award

On the 19th October 2017, YMCA Awards will be at the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) Awards ceremony with our fingers crossed that our Y-Mark digital marking platform can claim the title of Innovation of the Year. However, if we are lucky enough to be chosen, it won’t be the first time that we have been recognised for our commitment to driving innovation and change within the sector.

YMCA Awards has, in fact, won the Innovation of the Year title for the past two years in a row.

In 2016 we won Innovation of the Year for our comprehensive and bespoke package of online learning games, which we developed so that we could provide an engaging online learning experience for users. By gamifying many of the core components of our courses, we have been able to make learning a genuinely fun experience, and have therefore seen a dramatic increase in learner performance and satisfaction.

Likewise, in 2015 we won the title for our very first smartphone app, Y-Go, which is currently available for free for both ISO and Android devices. Y-Go provides vital information about YMCA Awards, as well as revision tips based on the learner in question’s preferred learning style. It also provides information about how to create the most eye-catching CV, guidance on how to make the best first impression during an interview and has proven to be one of our most successful resources.

This time around however it is our Y-Mark digital marking platform that has been nominated for the award. Y-Mark is an open-book assessment platform with the ability to self-mark, which therefore gives users immediate feedback on their progress, and provides them with the capacity to address gaps in their knowledge immediately and correct mistakes as they make them. Y-Mark has saved our tutors an average of 25 minutes’ worth of marketing per learner when compared to traditional worksheet assessment and has also saved learners quite a bit of time themselves as they no longer have to sift through feedback notes and search for where they went wrong.

YMCA Awards Head of Products and Services Adam Williams said, ‘Y-Mark is a truly remarkable product, with the capacity to revolutionise digital assessment for students and training providers.

‘I’m not at all surprised that the commitment of the YMCA Awards team to creating such unique and remarkable learning platforms has been acknowledged by the FAB in our nomination for Innovation of the Year.

‘However, as it is for our learners, it is not the award itself that drives us but the satisfaction that comes with achieving our own goal of creating qualifications that allow our learners and tutors to succeed.’

YMCA Awards’ purpose is to create qualifications that truly challenge and help people achieve, and we will continue to do all we can to disrupt the sector and drive the innovation that learners need and deserve to thrive. 

Innovation within the awarding sector is crucial if we are to respond to the new demands being placed on leaners and if we are to truly take advantage of the new technologies available to advance learning. We are very proud of our record driving innovation in the past, and will continue to do all we can to remain the organisation of innovation within the sector. 

This article was originally published on YMCA Awards website.