Applied Ability Awards - Mentors Notes

The items below give you the key elements of the AAA process; tell you about the exam day; show the exams set over the last 12 months exams; keep you up to date with AAA news and developments; and allow you to ask questions or provide feedback.

Preparing for the Exam

Here is a quick reference guide for completing your Scans & Plans, with essential documents in bold – click on each to read or download:

Step 1	Mentors Procedure - a quick overview; do read before doing anything else.
Step 2	Now review the AAA Foundation Chef Syllabus and AAA Chef Syllabus and decide whether your candidate should attempt the Foundation Chef or the Chef level exam.
Step 3	Together with your candidate, you can now fill in the combined Skill Scan & Action Plan to enroll for either the AAA Foundation Chef Exam or the AAA Chef Exam. At this point you will be deciding which exam point to target - early March and May or late September and November. For a fuller explanation of the aims and measures of the Awards, see Appraisal Criteria.

That's it for the paperwork! And having downloaded and filled in your Scan & Plan, please make sure you give a copy to your candidate and keep one for yourself before posting the originals to us in the one envelope - the address is at the bottom of the form.

Now all you have to do is guide your candidate through the agreed Action Plan, adapt or add if you need to - whatever will get him or her exam-ready in time. Remember that your candidate can watch Skills Demonstrations or take practice Knowledge Tests whenever they want by logging into the Tests & Demos area in the menu to the left. And you can see a record of this activity by logging into the same area as a Mentor, using your own Username and Password.

Filling in the Skill Scan & Action Plan

This is a 10-minute video showing a Mentor and Candidate taking a common sense approach to completing the only paperwork required for AAA exams – the combined Skill Scan & Action Plan, which in this case is for AAA Foundation Chef (the AAA Chef version is identical in format).

Together Mentor and Candidate cover the key points to bear in mind and provide a simple guide to the process, which you can readily adapt to the particular needs of your own candidate.

Their conversation is best viewed with a print-out of the Foundation Chef Scan & Plan to hand - you can download a copy under Step 3 above. Click here to mount the video in a new window, and then click on the AAA logo to start viewing.

Taking the Exam

Exam Day Timetable - how the day breaks down assuming an Exam with the maximum 14 candidates.

Exam Day Notes - it's most important you read these notes carefully in the month prior to the exam, and ensure your Candidate has done so too and will meet the stated requirements.

Past Exams

By way of illustration, below are the exams that were set in 2008 and 2009 the later exams include the skill displays sought by the Examiners. As you can see, the exams at AAA Foundation Chef level are task-driven, and Candidates don't know in advance what the tasks will be. The Chef exam is recipe-based and the recipes are sent out two weeks before the exam. The actual recipes are not given here, just the top sheets for the exams plus from November 2007 the skill sets the Chef Examiners expect to see demonstrated. (Note, the recipes can be supplied if for example you'd like to mount your own mock practical exam.)

	2008	2009
Foundation Chef Exam	March	March
	May	May
	September	September
	November	November

Chef Exam	March	March
	May	May
	September	September
	November	November

Knowledge Tests and Skill Demonstrations

The 'Tests & Demos' area - in the menu on the left above - subdivides the AAA syllabus against matching Knowledge Tests and Skill Demonstrations, and gives the Mentor a record of the tests taken or films viewed by each Candidate. Once your Candidate's Scan & Plan has been received and registered, you will be able to login for this service via 'Tests & Demos', as can the Candidates for either AAA Chef or AAA Foundation Chef. There is also a preview for Guests, which anyone can access at any time.

Questions or Feedback

Should you have a question or comment on any aspect of the AAA please let us know. In addition, once your candidate has taken the exam, we would welcome any suggestions you may have.