If you're a student with caring responsibilities, you'll hopefully know that you develop many of the Warwick Award's 12 core skills every single day. Successfully managing a study and work schedule along with the care of others helps you build valuable skills that you can use in a variety of settings after graduation.

That's exactly why we offer Core Skills Points towards the Warwick Award to students who have caring responsibilities - between 10 and 20 points depending on which level of the Award you're working towards. To claim these points, you need to complete the Students with Caring Responsibilities activity that is listed on the Award platform - for more information about how to do this, keep reading.

Also, be sure to check out our case study with Warwick student Treesa Joseph, where she explains how she balances studying with childcare, what skills she's developed doing so, and what sort of experience she has had with the Warwick Award.

What do I need to do?

1. Register for the Warwick Award (if you haven’t already)!

2. Log into the Warwick Award platform and sign-up for the Students with Caring Responsibilities activity.

3. Identify an advocate and ask them to download and complete the advocacy form on your behalf.

When completed they should return the form to you, so that you can upload it as part of your points claim at the end of this process.

Your advocate must be someone you know in a professional capacity, who is aware of, and willing to confirm their knowledge of your caring responsibilities. An advocate could be your personal tutor, a module leader, a representative from an external carer’s agency or from the Student’s Union Parents and Carers Network, for example. If you are struggling to identify a suitable advocate then please contact the Warwick Award team and we’ll do our best to help.

4. Complete the Students with Caring Responsibilities Moodle Course.

This will help you to reflect on the skills you have gained through your caring role and how these may be useful in your studies and after graduation.

5. Submit a short reflection and your advocacy form through the Warwick Award platform.

Submit your reflection and your advocacy form via the Students with Caring Responsibilities activity. These will then be verified by the Warwick Award team before your Core Skills Points are added to your Award profile.

6. Why not explore the Warwick Award platform further?

Discover other activities and opportunities to earn more Core Skills Points. You can also find out more about the Warwick Award here.