The award winning project
and it's background

An RSA Award Winning Project

The RSA was founded by William Shipley in 1753 at a coffee house in Covent Garden, London. Fellows of the society include Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Sir David Attenborough, Dame Judi Dench, Jon Snow, Tim Smit and many more well known individuals. HM Queen is the society's patron and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh is its President.

More recently the RSA initiated a series of 'Coffee House Challenges' to commemorate its origins and encourage fresh thinking about society issues and problems. Street-Cred was one of the award winning projects announced by the actor Griff Rhys Jones at a special event held at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the RSA's 250th anniversary.

The Street-Cred Project

The Street-Cred scheme is designed for participants to earn credit points for their contribution to a wide variety of social and environmental projects at home and overseas. The scheme is also designed so that these points will be recognised by Colleges and Universities (e.g. reduced fees) and by Employers (e.g. at recruitment).

Background

There are a large proportion of school leavers that want to apply for a place at College or University but are deciding not to due to the potential high level of student debt. By providing a method to reduce the cost of tuition fees this scheme aims to encourage more to apply from disadvantaged groups and lessen the financial burden on them.

Futhermore, more school leavers are achieving top grades and Colleges, Universities and Employers are finding it difficult to differentiate between candidates in terms of more traditional academic qualifications alone. This scheme places emphasis on key skills that will provide an additional basis on which to recognise candidate potential.

Interest is also likely from those without traditional academic qualifications but seeking to contribute to worthwhile projects in a way that receives recognition for the contribution provided.