Untitled (1920 × 500px) (1920 × 750px) (1925 × 750px) (5)

CAVA Information Packs

We have a variety of packs available for download. These packs will give colleges a better understanding of what it is like to work with CAVA. Please use the drop down menu on the right hand side to download any relevant packs.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at admin@cava.ac.uk.

Membership Information For Providers

Click the image to download the pack.

Click the image to download the pack.

Join our membership

At CAVA, we are driven by our values and passion for Access to Higher Education Diplomas. We are the only Access Validating Agency (AVA) that is solely focused on Access to HE Diplomas. We have a small friendly staff team dedicated to Access to HE: you can pick up the phone and know that whoever answers will be able to help.

We are a non-profit membership organisation: each of our providers joins us as a member and has an equal voice in the direction of the organisation. Together, we work to enable social mobility through lifelong learning.

Benefits of joining our CAVA membership

By joining CAVA, you will become part of our community of members across England. All of our members have a voice on our CAVA Council of Members.

If you are considering offering Access to HE Diplomas or looking to transfer from another Access Validating Agency, becoming a CAVA member will give you:

  • Access to CAVA’s entire library of Access to HE Diplomas and units
  • Support with developing your range of Access to HE Diplomas, whether off-the-shelf or bespoke
  • Our dedicated team of Access to HE specialists, available to offer support via telephone, email, and face-to-face meetings
  • Tailored staff training delivered within your college
  • Subject-specialist external moderator visits
  • Access to CAVA’s annual staff development conference for your Access to HE course teams
  • Access to CAVA’s training sessions to build staff skills 
  • Access to the Members’ area on the CAVA website which includes useful guides, resources, and documents
  • Involvement in CAVA annual special projects, which are selected and agreed on by members. In 2019-20, we organised mental health training for our Access to HE course tutors and ran a marketing campaign across all members to attract new student applications. 

All of the above is included in our annual membership fee – which is reviewed and set by our members annually. 

How to join us

We would be delighted to discuss any aspect of Access to HE with you: whether it is transferring existing provision or realising your ideas by designing totally new provision, CAVA can help. 

  1. Initial conversation to establish your aims for Access to HE.
  2. Meeting to discuss how CAVA operates and how to develop and validate new provision to meet your local needs. You will also be provided with examples of relevant existing CAVA Access to HE Diplomas, a demonstration of our systems, and a schedule of how you would be supported through the process of joining CAVA. 
  3. You may wish to speak with some of our existing members to find out more about how CAVA works from a college perspective.
  4. Apply in writing to join CAVA as a member and complete our Provider Recognition Form.  
  5. Formal approval of application by our senior governing body, the CAVA Board.

If you share our values and passion for social mobility through lifelong learning, we would love to hear from you. Please contact our Chief Executive, Flóra Raffai, to start the conversation. You can email her on f.raffai@cava.ac.uk or call her on 01223 302148.

We look forward to welcoming you to the CAVA membership.

Member stories

Bishop Burton College

I would just like to personally say a BIG THANK YOU to you and your team for the amazing job you have done during these very strange times. I think you made excellent decisions promptly, arranged and implemented fantastic training on completion of new methods and were always available for support and over the phone contact. Once again, thank you.

Hartpury College

I have been extremely impressed by the level and quality of communication received from CAVA throughout these unprecedented times. It has definitely been well received our end and helpful every step of the way.