What is RED award?

The Reading Experience and Development (RED) Award is the official University of Reading Employability Skills Certificate. It is here to help Reading students make the most of the extra-curricular activities and experiences on offer outside of the academic programme.

The certificate is awarded alongside your degree and will support you to gain experience and stand out from the crowd in an increasingly competitive job market. The RED Award is open to all students and we recommend that you complete the award within one academic year. We would encourage you to complete this during your first year of study, so that you can move onto the further tiers of the award (RED Award Plus and RED Award Xcel) and leave the university with a well-rounded experience. Since the scheme started in 2010-11, there has been almost 11,000 students registering for the RED Award… with 35% going on to complete!

The award involves 40 hours of activity, including gaining 35 hours of Experience (through activity such as part-time jobs, internships, volunteering etc) and 5 hours of training and development (through workshops to help aid your development outside of your course). If you are new to award but have already completed some of this activity then you can backdate anything you have done since you started at the university!

Once you have completed the award you will receive a certificate and the completion will be added to your diploma supplement annex. 

Case Studies

• Francesca Della Vale - Year 1 BSc Zoology
• Kwasi Asante - Postgraduate - PhD Biological Sciences
• Rob Churchill - Year 2 - BSc Real Estate
• Somto Madueke - Year 2 - MPharm Pharmacy

Watch our introduction to the RED Award: