The DofE gives you the chance to do something completely new and improve on things you’re already doing. It takes you out of your comfort zone and into a place where you’ll push yourself and have amazing new experiences. You’ll build confidence, resilience, skills for work and friendship groups. And you’ll have a brilliant time doing it.
There are three levels to the award, Bronze Siler and Gold. The level you can start depends on your age. There are different timescales for each of the sections depending on the level you are doing.
There are four sections to each level of the award –
Skills where you learn a new skill or develop an existing one such as playing a musical instrument or designing a website.
Physical where you focus on your health and fitness and have to undertake a period of improvement in an existing or new sport or physical activity.
Volunteering to help others to make a difference to other people’s lives by giving your time.
Expedition undertaken under your own efforts including camping out overnight.
Gold has an additional requirement of a residential stay taking part in a shared, worthwhile activity with people you may not know. Any participants who are also doing their NCS can use this as their residential section so long as they are enrolled for the Gold award when they start.
Except for use in emergencies, phones are not allowed on DofE expeditions. As a major skill you develop on DofE is map and compass navigation, using a phone could be considered cheating, and in extreme cases result in you failing the expedition.
Some expedition providers may allow you to use a phone for taking photos, but only do this with prior permission
If you need to use a phone while out on Expeditions first talk to one of the leaders.
The distance you walk per day on DofE varies between awards. A standard distance to walk is 16km per day on Bronze, 19km per day on Silver, and 23km per day on Gold. Naturally, some groups will do less than this, and others more.
Bronze: A minimum of 2 days, 1 night; 6 hours of planned activity each day.
Silver: A minimum of 3 days, 2 nights; 7 hours of planned activity each day.
Gold: A minimum of 4 days, 3 nights; 8 hours of planned activity each day.
Unfortunately, DofE does not give you UCAS points. However, completion of DofE, especially Silver and Gold, are excellent talking points for your Personal Statement as they display proficiency in a wide variety of soft skills.
Sections on DofE can be backdated by up to 3 months.
Email your leader with exact dates you would like to backdate to and we can change that
You can complete the Silver DofE award without having completed Bronze, however it will take longer. You must complete an additional 6 months in either Volunteering or the longer of the Physical or Skills sections, meaning the Silver award will take at least 12 months to complete.
You can complete the Gold DofE award without having completed Silver, however it will take longer (it doesn’t make a difference if you’ve completed Bronze). You must complete and additional 6 months in either Volunteering or the longer of the Physical or Skills sections, meaning the Gold award will take at least 18 months to complete.
You need to do the same activity throughout the timescale.
Yes, assessors can not be a family member, and must be over 18
Most healthy teenagers and young adults won’t have to engage in specific preparation for a DofE expedition. If, however, you’d like to make the expedition easier for yourself, you can improve your cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance through basic exercise such as running, cycling, swimming and racquet sports. As well as this, more direct training such as long hikes with a heavy pack will increase your fitness for DofE.
No, you can’t. Your Skill, Volunteering and Physical sections must be extracurricular and not something you are required to do (i.e. school). However, you can take up a club at school, even during school hours if it’s extracurricular - for example, you could do litter picking at lunch times.