Approved Activity Providers (AAPs) are commercial and charitable organisations whose opportunities the DofE has approved as meeting our sectional conditions and can count towards achieving a DofE Award.
AAPs provide entire sections, including training, supervision, assessment and Assessor reports. Find out what activities our AAPs offer on the Opportunity Finder.
Please note that the AAP licence does not guarantee the suitability of an AAP in terms of health and safety or its financial stability. Licenced Organisations working with AAPs have their own process for checking the suitability of the AAP’s programme when it comes to health and safety requirements for their young people.
It’s the participant’s parent/guardian/carer responsibility to check the safeguarding and health and safety policies the organisation has, if a participant is engaging directly with an AAP.
For more information, please email us at AAP@DofE.org.
Basic information
Before submitting an initial interest form, please check that your organisation is eligible for a licence. An organisation can only be licensed as an AAP for up to three sections.
To become an AAP, your organisation needs to:
- Be UK registered
- Have financial accounts for the past 12 months
- Be able to submit personalised Assessor report when a DofE participants has completed their Section with your organisation
For Physical, Volunteering and Skills sections, your organisation needs to:
- Offer activities that are accessible nationwide, either in person or online
- Offer activities that meet the section requirements, including timescales
For Residential section, your organisation needs to:
- Offer activities that meet the Residential section requirements
For Expedition section only, your organisation needs to:
- Offer activities that meet the Expedition section requirements
If your organisation meets these requirements, you can submit an Initial Interest Form. When you submit the form, please state which sections of the Award you want to be licensed for.
Submit an Initial Interest FormA member of our team will send you an application pack to complete if your organisation is suitable.
To learn more about the DofE Award and whether your opportunities meet the requirements for a Section, please read section 4 of The DofE Leaders’ Handbook. This will provide you with all the information you need.
As part of your application, the team needs to see that your programme meets programme delivery standards.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is the UK’s provider of the DofE, so we can only licence UK-based organisations.
As an organisation, we’re part of a wider body that offers DofE worldwide called The International Award. If you’re based outside the UK, you can find the Award entity in your area online.
If you wish to deliver any part of the Expedition section, your organisation needs to become an AAP. This is due to the increased responsibility Expedition providers have.
If your organization already holds a licence to deliver the DofE programme, you do not need to be an AAP unless you would like to deliver activities to young people not connected to your organization.
If you want to offer Volunteering, Physical, Skill or Residential opportunities, an AAP licence is optional.
To check if your activities meet the programme requirements for the DofE Award, please read our section requirements. Please do this before advertising opportunities to DofE participants so you’re not advertising something that might not count towards the Award.
If you want to market your opportunities to DofE participants independently, please add our statement to your marketing:
“This activity may count towards your Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Skills/Volunteering/Physical section. Please check with your DofE Leader before booking [attending].”
This is to make sure participants know that the suitability of the activity is subject to approval from their DofE Leader.
We ask that no other DofE trademarks are used alongside this.
Participants may ask you for an Assessor report after they’ve done their section with you. Find out what the report should contain and how to submit it on the Assessor Portal.
We provide many benefits for AAP licence holders, regardless of the section(s) you wish to offer:
- AAP DofE logo: The AAP licence provides a quality ‘kite mark’ for your DofE activities
- Pre-approved activity programme(s): We approve that your programmes meet the DofE requirements for the relevant section(s). This means it’s more likely that participants and DofE Leaders will engage with your DofE programmes
- Website: We’ll include you in our AAP directory. You can also advertise your opportunities on our Opportunity Finder
- Marketing opportunities: You’ll have access to paid marketing opportunities within the DofE commercial marketing campaigns
- Support: We’ll support you to create and develop new DofE programmes
- Press release template: We’ll help you to advertise your new partnership with the DofE
- Contact: Direct contact and support from the AAP Team
- Training: Training courses are available for AAP staff members
You can submit an AAP application at any point throughout the year. Please note, our team only process applications during the following months of the year:
- January (deadline for submission is 31 December)
- April (deadline for submission is 31 March)
- August (deadline for submission is 31 July)
The DofE charges AAPs a one off application fee and an annual licence fee. The application fee is only charged if your application is successful. These prices are dependent on which licence you require and the annual turnover of your organisation.
For the Residential and Expedition sections there is also an additional per participant fee.
