Inside the rubric
What AEA Awards judges actually look for
AEA Awards judges look for four things: a real business problem, a coherent learning design, proof it ran at scale, and a result with a baseline. Reputation, budget size, and production quality are not scoring factors.
The four scoring themes
On AEA Awards panels the four themes are: (1) Strategic alignment — why this program existed this year. (2) Design quality — practice, not content dumping. (3) Implementation — managers, operations, inclusion, and Arabic or English delivery where relevant. (4) Impact — a metric that moved.
What is rewarded and what is penalized
Judges penalize unnamed data sources, global templates with a regional logo, vendor brochures, and entries in the wrong category. They reward constraints overcome (shift work, bilingual cohorts, nationalization), honest caveats, and learner work samples.
Blind-friendly drafting helps. Lead with the program mechanics before the brand story. Organization names are verified later; the first read is the evidence. Read the category criteria and the judging process page, then stress-test your draft against the four themes above.
Frequently asked questions
Do famous brands score extra points? +
No. Brand is not a criterion. Thin evidence from a famous employer still fails.
How important is innovation? +
Innovation matters when it served the outcome. Novelty without results does not win Innovation categories.
Will judges interview us? +
Shortlisted entries may receive clarification questions. Plan for a data owner to respond quickly.
Where is the full rubric? +
Category-level criteria are on each award category page. Process integrity is described on the judging process page.
Do we need a video? +
No. Optional media can illustrate. Scoring is driven by written evidence and a baseline metric.
2027 cycle
Register your interest before nominations open on 20 October 2026
AEA Awards is the MENA Learning & Development benchmark. Leave your details and we will remind you when the entry window opens.