What is the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award?
The reason most people join K2 is to have fun, and to learn a bit at the same time. The great thing is, some of the stuff you do when you come each Monday night, or when you come on camp, will get you Awards that will be really useful when you apply for a job or try to get into college or university.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (usually shortened to DofE) is one of the Awards that you can achieve while you’re a member of K2, and its requirements are the same as the Chief Scouts and Queen’s Scout Awards so you get two for the price of one!
There are three levels of the DofE: Bronze, Silver and Gold.
What do you have do?
The Bronze and Silver levels of the DofE have four sections. These are Volunteering, Physical, Skills and Expedition. The Gold Award also has these four, plus a fifth residential section.
While a lot of what we do in K2 will go towards the Expedition section of the DofE, you’ll also have to do quite a bit outside Explorers for Volunteering, Physical, and Skills, however we will help you find something suitable to do.
Depending on what level you are doing you’ll have to spend a certain amount of time on each of the sections.
More about the sections
The DofE is not about competing with other people, or attaining a certain set level, it’s about improving yourself. So if you pick something you are already good at, you’ll have to get really good, while if you do something you’ve never tried before, you just have to make some progress in the time you are doing the section.
Volunteering
For this section you need to pick something that is of benefit to other people and regularly spend time doing it. You also need to take part in some sort of training that will help you with the volunteering. Whoever you are doing the volunteering for needs to agree how much training you need, in consultation with the DofE requirements.
Click here for a examples of Volunteering activities.
Physical
For this section you need to pick some sort of sport or other physical activity and regularly spend time playing it or practicing. To begin with you need to find an assessor who will make a note of how good you are at the start, and get them to come up with some sort of programme of how much you should improve in the time you’ve got.
Click here for examples of Physical activities.
Skills
For this section you need to pick some sort of non-physical activity, craft or hobby and regularly spend time doing it or practicing. To begin with you need to find an assessor who will make a note of how good you are at the start, and get them to come up with some sort of programme of how much you should improve in the time you’ve got.
Click here for a examples of Skills activities.
Expedition
This is where K2 will give you the most help. For the Expedition section you need to do three things. You need to undertake training that will give you the skills to undertake the expedition, you need to complete enough practice expeditions to show you are ready for the final, you need to complete the final, qualifying, expedition and then you need to complete a debriefing and report back.
You complete the Expedition section – the training, practice, expedition and report back – together in a group of between four and seven Explorers who are all at the same level.
K2 have found the best way to do the training is on a separate weekend, then we have the expedition, then the presentation on a subsequent Monday night.
Timescales
Listed below is the required time needed to be spent for each Section and each level of the DofE.
There should be a regular commitment averaging at least an hour a week.
Bronze
| Volunteering | Physical | Skills | Expedition |
| 3 Months | 3 Months | 3 Months | 2 day, 1 night |
| Plus a further 3 months Volunteering, Skills or Physical | |||
Silver*
| Volunteering | Physical | Skills | Expedition |
| 6 Months | One for 6 months and the other for 3 months | 3 day, 2 night | |
Gold**
| Volunteering | Physical | Skills | Expedition |
| 12 Months | One for 12 months and the other for 6 months | 4 day, 3 night | |
| Plus a 5 day, 4 night residential experience | |||
Direct Entrants
*Participants who do not hold their Bronze Award when starting Silver must do a further 6 months in either the Volunteering or the longer of the Skills/Physical Section.
**Participants who do not hold their Silver Award when starting Gold must do a further 6 months in either the Volunteering or the longer of the Skills/Physical Section.
How do you get involved?
When you enrol, you’ll get a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme Welcome Pack. You get a new Welcome Pack for each level, so when, for example, you finish Bronze you need to enrol again for Silver.
To enrol you just need to fill in this form and return it to us with your payment. If you’re unsure about any of the questions on the form, let us know.
Enrolment fees as at April 21* are £23.00 for Bronze and Silver and £30.00 for Gold. Please send a BACs payment with Name and Level to the K2 bank account.
eDofE
As soon as you’ve enrolled, you’ll get a welcome email from the DofE sent to the address you provided on the form. This will give you your log-in details to access eDofE, the interactive online system that helps you manage your DofE programme.
How to use the eDofE is all explained in your Welcome Pack
Where do you get advice while you’re doing the Award?
You need to tell a Leader what you are doing for each of the sections and get them to agree it is suitable. They will also answer any questions you may have and will arrange your expedition training, practice hikes and the final expedition.
There’s also loads of information on the DofE website – have a look.