Central England Resources - The Duke of Edinburgh's Award

Participants do not have to join a club or organisation to complete most of their activities. Technology enables young people to evidence what they have achieved, which allows them to do activities from home for little or no cost. They can then be assessed by a DofE Leader who can receive regular updates as to their participation and progress. During Covid lockdown cooking became one of the most popular Skill section activities; giving young people a vital skill for life.

Here are just a few ideas and programmes to help young people achieve their sections:

All of these activities can be completed at home for no / low cost.

Volunteering

Physical

For more ideas visit our main web pages https://www.dofe.org/physical

Skills

For more ideas visit our main web pages https://www.dofe.org/skills

Residential

Please ensure that all residentials are pre-approved using the preapproval form.

We’ve pulled together some suggestions from Approved Activity Providers (AAP) on finding a low-cost DofE Gold Residential

You can also check out some experiences commonly used by young people:

NCS
National youth organisations (eg, Scouts, Cadets) may have opportunities, but remember you still need to be with an unknown group.
University taster weeks
YHA
Free residential volunteering placements with Derby Kids’ Camp
Free residential placements with Revitalise
Go Beyond (formerly CHICKS)
Woodlarks
Faith Groups
Youth organisations

Regional Conference - Youth Without Limits

Our Regional Conference took place virtually in February 2022 to celebrate the launch of our five-year strategy, Youth Without Limits, putting our young people at the heart of all we do.

If you have not seen the strategy launch video yet, please view it here.

The week consisted of many workshops and discussions that covered many topics linked to the new strategy as can be viewed below:

Leaders Without Limits

Focusing on Quality, this session is led by Jackie Bull, DofE Regional Director for Central England. Jackie shares the regional priorities and will provide insight on new initiatives being delivered across the region to support the overall strategy. This session will support DofE leaders to consider how they may adapt and innovate the delivery of DofE programmes to ensure the programme continues to be accessible, relevant, and impactful for new generations of young people. Jackie’s presentation is supported by a number of our fantastic young people reflecting on their own DofE experiences.

Watch here

The DofE Leadership Pathway

Our new strategy places young people front and centre and it’s time to empower our leaders of the future and consider what the next generation needs and wants most. We believe young people have a key role to play in inspiring and supporting other young people to start and flourish on their own DofE journey and we are delighted to introduce our new Young Leaders programme and explain how this can support our Licensed Organisations in their future delivery of DofE. We are delighted to invite some of our Young Leaders to share their personal development and leadership stories. This session is led by the National Young Leader’s Project Lead, Jack Harris.

Watch here

DofE Live: Developing high-quality Volunteering opportunities Watch here

This session explored meaningful volunteering opportunities for young people and how as leaders you can access volunteering opportunities local to your Licensed Organisation. This session presents learnings from an exciting pilot project underway within the region, through which an increased number of high-quality volunteering opportunities have been identified. This has enabled participants to access more relevant opportunities which will have a bigger impact both on them and their local community. The session will also develop practical solutions to finding meaningful volunteering opportunities which in turn will support young people with the completion of the Volunteering section and is led by the DofE Central England project leads, Rob Foster and Georgina Sheward.

DofE Live: How do we ensure DofE remains relevant? Watch here

With the release of our new five-year strategy, Youth Without Limits, Ruth Marvel, CEO of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, takes the time to discuss how our strategy impacts on young people’s futures. Ruth will explore the short, medium and long-term impact that the DofE can have on young people, in a discussion group including some incredible young people.

As part of this discussion, Ruth discussed our new ‘My DofE Journey’ document which will enable centres to support young people to fully reflect on their experiences and the changes brought about by participating in the DofE.

DofE Live: Employability Focus Watch here

After collaborating with over 2000+ young people we developed the policy ideas that they shared to help them live without limits as they recover from the pandemic, the results became ‘Our Future, Unlimited: A Youth Manifesto for the Covid Recovery’. Employability and training were both identified as key focuses for young people.

During the session, we hear from representatives from Further Education, Universities and employers to understand how DofE can support a young person’s employability and enhance their academic and career prospects. We also hear from young people for whom DofE has supported their personal growth, confidence, skills and career development as we place a spotlight on employability.

DofE Live: Who me and the DofE?

Broadening participation and challenging stereotypes to reach more young people than ever before is a key focus for the DofE. This session focuses on how we ensure that we can offer the DofE to all young people and challenge barriers, both actual and perceived, that could prevent this opportunity from being truly available to all.

This session is a facilitated panel discussion showcasing Licensed Organisations that have increased award starts and engaged hard-to-reach young people. We hear from Licensed Organisations who have enrolled whole year groups and have made DofE attractive and relevant, through their innovative approach, to young people who might have otherwise considered the DofE as “not for me”.

In this 1hr workshop session, there will be an opportunity to ask questions, and share challenges, experiences, and solutions through facilitated Q&A and breakout activities.

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