These rules apply to every ArcKit certification level. Awareness is live now. Foundation, Practitioner and Expert are planned, and the rules that only apply to them start when they open.
How to contact us
- Open an issue on GitHub.
- For anything personal, such as a health condition or a malpractice concern, open an issue that just says “private”. We’ll reply and move the conversation to email. Don’t put personal details in a public issue.
- For general questions, you can also ask in the ArcKit Discord.
“Working days” on this page means Monday to Friday, not counting UK bank holidays.
Appeals
You can appeal a result, a decision about access arrangements or a malpractice finding. There are two steps.
- Re-check. Ask us to re-check the decision within 10 working days of getting it. We’ll answer within 10 working days. If we find a mistake, we correct it.
- Appeal. If you’re still unhappy, appeal within 10 working days of our answer. Someone who had no part in the original decision decides. That is an ArcKit Expert, or a co-reviewer from one of ArcKit’s community overlays (its country and sector add-ons). Their decision is final.
Tell us which decision you’re challenging and why.
An appeal checks that we followed these rules and treated you fairly. It doesn’t swap a reviewer’s judgement of your work for someone else’s.
If your appeal succeeds, we repeat the part that went wrong. If the same mistake affected other candidates, we correct their results too.
If we can’t meet a deadline, for example because of illness, we’ll tell you why and give you a new date.
Access arrangements
Access arrangements, sometimes called reasonable adjustments, remove barriers so you can show what you know. They don’t give you an advantage over other candidates.
You don’t have to be disabled to ask. You might, for example, have difficulty reading or writing, a sight or hearing impairment, a physical condition or a mental health condition.
We can offer:
- up to 25% extra time on a timed assessment (Foundation is planned as 60 minutes, so up to 75 minutes)
- the questions or instructions in another format
- at Practitioner and Expert, a video or audio reflection instead of written evidence
- at Practitioner and Expert, moving your review to the next review cycle, free of charge
The Awareness quiz isn’t timed. You can use your own assistive technology, such as a screen reader or magnifier, without asking.
How to ask. Ask before you take the assessment. Open a GitHub issue that says “private” and we’ll move to email. Tell us what you need and why. We don’t need medical details beyond what’s relevant to the arrangement.
If we can’t agree an arrangement with you, you can appeal.
If something goes wrong on the day. If illness, bereavement or something else outside your control affects a quiz, take it again later. For a Practitioner or Expert review, ask to move it to the next review cycle.
Malpractice and revoking a credential
Malpractice means being dishonest to get a credential. It includes:
- plagiarism: using someone else’s work without saying so
- impersonation: someone else taking an assessment for you, or you taking one for someone else
- submitting someone else’s work as your own
- giving false information, for example about who you are or what you did
What happens.
- Anyone can report a concern. Open a GitHub issue that says “private” and we’ll move to email. We keep the name of the person reporting confidential.
- We acknowledge the report within 10 working days. A maintainer with no conflict of interest looks into it.
- We tell the credential holder what the concern is and let them respond before we decide.
- The credential is suspended while we investigate.
- We aim to decide within 20 working days of acknowledging the report. If it will take longer, we’ll tell everyone involved.
If the concern is upheld, we revoke the credential. Revocations will be published in a standard Open Badges 3.0 status list. Until that list is in place, we delete the credential record and its page shows “Not valid”.
If the concern isn’t upheld, the credential stays valid.
Appealing a finding. You can appeal a malpractice finding, but only if we didn’t follow this process or you have new evidence. These are not grounds for an appeal: you didn’t mean to, you have a good record, or you regret it.
Our own mistakes. If we get something wrong, such as marking a result incorrectly, we correct it and tell anyone affected.
Conflicts of interest
The quizzes are marked automatically. Practitioner and Expert reviews will be done by people, so reviewers must be impartial.
- Reviewers declare their interests when they start, every year after that, and whenever something changes.
- A reviewer steps aside from anyone they work with, work for or have trained, and from family and close friends.
- If that can’t be avoided, a second reviewer checks the decision.
- No one decides an appeal or a malpractice case they were involved in.
If you think a reviewer has a conflict of interest, tell us.
Retakes
- Awareness: take it as often as you like. Each attempt draws a fresh set of questions.
- Foundation (planned): you can retake it 24 hours after your last attempt. Each attempt draws a fresh set of questions.
- Practitioner and Expert (planned): these are reviews of your work. The rules for resubmitting aren’t set yet.
Awareness and Foundation are free, including retakes.
Validity and ArcKit versions
- Each credential names the ArcKit major version it was earned on, for example “ArcKit Awareness (ArcKit 6)”.
- Credentials don’t expire after a set time.
- When the next major version ships, new credentials for the old version will carry an end date. Credentials already issued don’t change.
- Specialist tracks, such as “ArcKit Practitioner – UK Government”, will be separate badges linked to the main one. Adding a track gives you a new badge. It doesn’t replace one you already hold.
A credential confirms that you passed the ArcKit assessment at that level. It does not endorse your work or your organisation.
Complaints
A complaint is about our service: for example, a slow reply, a broken page or how someone treated you. To challenge a decision, such as a result, use Appeals instead.
- Raise it in a GitHub issue, or open one that says “private” and we’ll move to email.
- We acknowledge it within 5 working days.
- Someone who wasn’t involved in what you’re complaining about looks into it.
- We aim to give you a full answer within 30 working days. If we can’t, we’ll tell you why and when to expect one.
Making a complaint will never count against you.
Equality
We treat every candidate fairly. We don’t discriminate because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
- We write questions in plain English and try not to assume any particular culture or background.
- The quizzes are online and you take them when you choose, so you can fit them around work, caring, prayer times or medication.
- Awareness and Foundation are free. If Practitioner or Expert charge a fee, students and people in low-income countries will be able to ask for a waiver.
Harassment or discrimination by anyone involved in certification, including reviewers, is not accepted. Report it as a complaint.
Recognising prior learning
Other certifications and past experience don’t exempt you from any ArcKit assessment. Each level tests ArcKit itself, and the quizzes are short and free.
Practitioner and Expert will recognise what you’ve already done, because you submit real work. That can include work from before you applied. It is judged to the same standard as any other submission. For Expert, projects must be under 3 years old and use the current ArcKit major version.
Yearly report
Once a year we’ll publish a short report with:
- pass rates for each level
- the number of appeals
- the number of access arrangements
It won’t identify anyone.
Changes to these policies
These policies are part of the public ArcKit repository. Every change is recorded in the history of this page on GitHub.
To suggest a change, open an issue or a pull request.