What’s It All About?
The Duke of Edinburgh’s scheme is an award recognised by virtually everyone as a sign that the holder of it is someone special. It was set up ‘to inspire, guide and support young people in their self-development and recognise their achievements’ and continues to do that over 50 years after it was first started.
Find out more at the D of E’s website
Why Should I Do The DofE?
The DofE is a massive part of the Explorer Scout programme. All the work you do for the DofE counts towards the Chief and King’s Scout Awards so you might as well get two awards for doing the same work?
It is internationally recognised by many employers and Universities (it even counts as UCAS points) but most of all its fun!
What Do I Have To Do?
There are 3 stages of the award (Bronze, Silver and Gold) that you can do. You can be a direct entrant at any level as long as you are old enough and we feel you are capable of going straight in at that level (we would recommend working up from Bronze though!).
There are 4 activities you have to do to achieve your Bronze and Silver awards. If you are going in for your Gold you have to do an extra ‘Residential’ section.
Have a look in the attachments section (at the bottom of the page) for programme ideas on what you can do for each section, if in doubt ask one of your Leaders!
More information on what you may need to do for each activity can be found here.
Why Should I Do DofE With The Scouts?
There are any number of reasons why you should choose any provider to do the DofE with, with Scouts we can offer a cheap and high quality way of gaining the award with lots of support, help and guidance on what to do with all of the sections of the Award.
We do many of the activities involved in completing the Award as part of our normal weekly meetings and camps…you might have tried out climbing on a camp you’ve been on and fancy taking it up as a sport, we can put you in touch with the people that can make it happen for you!
Expeditions have always been part of Scouting and we have all the tents and cookers ready for you, we can give you as much training as you need to make it through the assessment too!
How Do I Sign Up?
First you need to get yourself along to an Explorer Scout Unit and become a member if you’re not one already, second you’ll need to register with the Award. You can do this by the County website’s D of E page.