His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh met young people in Musselburgh today, where he learned about the key life skills they are developing through DofE programmes.

DofE participants from Teens+ welcomed The Duke to their regular Tuesday cooking session at Fisherrow Community Centre. Teens+ supports young people with additional needs to develop skills for independent living and work. During the visit, they presented him with a special DofE apron in celebration of the charity’s 70th anniversary year.

After donning the apron, The Duke joined in the activities, helping the young people to decorate cupcakes, complete with 70th-anniversary-themed cupcake toppers.

Carina Hodgson, 23, is doing her Gold DofE Award at Teens+. When asked what her favourite thing about meeting The Duke was, Carina replied: ‘Seeing his decorating skills! He was very neat.”

Talking about her Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Carina said she’d enjoyed doing cooking the most, for her Skills section. She said: “I love cooking. I like doing the chopping and dicing. Since the World Cup, my key worker has given me a challenge – every Friday we do a ‘lucky dip’ where we pick a country and then make a dish from there. Last week was Spain and we made paella.”

Carina has been doing kickboxing for her Physical section and is helping at a local food pantry for her Volunteering section. She added: “I’m looking forward to my Gold expedition. Although on my Silver expedition the weather was mixed – it started off sunny, but by the third day it poured! I never thought I’d complete it to be honest. I felt proud and relieved to get to the end. Even with blister plasters, I still got blisters!”

Following the cake decorating, The Duke chatted to young people about the skills they have learned through their DofE, including cooking, diamond art, money management and communication skills.

Participants have also contributed to the local community through their DofE activities, by volunteering at food banks, charity shops and community cafes.

Teens+ have been delivering The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award since 2024, and in that time, 61 young people have started a DofE Award. Simon Pearce-Madge, Head of Service and founder of Next Steps, an extension of Teens+, said: “Our trainees are really enjoying taking part in The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and were very excited to meet His Royal Highness today. At Next Steps and Teens+, creating an environment where people with Additional Support Needs can reach their full potential has become central to what our services provide – and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is a key part of that. We have witnessed some incredible achievements that will have a lifelong impact on the people who access our services.”

Giving back to the community

Today’s visit shows the many ways and places for young people to experience a life-changing DofE programme – strengthening young people’s connection to their community and developing essential skills that set them up for work and life.

During the visit, The Duke made a special certificate presentation to Caitlin Nightingale, manager at Next Steps, who was instrumental in facilitating the delivery of DofE to the participants attending today’s visit. In the last year, between April 2025 and March 2026, DofE participants at Teens+ gave 650 hours of volunteering to their community – worth nearly £5,000 in paid working hours.

Following the certificate presentation, participants presented The Duke with a 70th anniversary themed fleece, in honour of the charity’s anniversary. On receipt of the gift, The Duke said: “That’s fantastic – although we don’t need it just now with the weather we’ve been having!” The Duke also congratulated staff on how they’ve adapted the DofE Award for participants with additional needs and encouraged them to give everything a go.

Attending the visit today, Ruth Marvel OBE, CEO of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, said: “It’s been brilliant to meet the young people here at Teens+ today who, thanks to the skills they’ve developed through their DofE Award, are moving towards more independent futures and securing meaningful opportunities in their community.”

“Seven decades of DofE delivery has shown us how transformative the Award can be for participants – including young people with additional needs – and their wider communities. In the last year, young people in Scotland gave over 370,000 hours in volunteering, helping them to build resilience, develop essential skills and grow in confidence – something we’ve seen in bucketloads today here in Musselburgh.”

Over 19,000 young people started their DofE in Scotland in 2025-26, with over 33,800 actively taking part. Participants gave volunteering hours worth a total value of £2.9 million in support of others, in the same period.