The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE)
- Work with the Step Up To Serve team on a call to action to the 30,000 extra adult volunteers who would be needed to join our partner organisations in order to support that volume of participants.
- Grow the availability of the DofE programme so that by 2020 there will be 500,000 young people participating.
We are growing the number of centres offering The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) year on year, having increased the number of organisations we license to run the DofE for young people by 41% between 2014/15 and 2015/16. By increasing the number of opportunities for young people to do their DofE, more young people take part in social action through their volunteering element.
With the vast majority of UK secondary schools and academies and a wide range of other organisations choosing to run the DofE, 253,005 young people started a DofE programme in 2015/16, more than any other year in the Charity’s history.
Peter Westgarth, CEO
““Hundreds of thousands of young people volunteer across the UK every year as part of their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE). This not only has a positive effect on their communities, but also on the lives of the young volunteers themselves. In a recent survey by the CIPD, HR professionals chose the DofE as the most recognised volunteering programme a candidate can reference when applying for jobs; a DofE Award is seen by employers as a valuable asset because of the skills and attributes it demonstrates that young person has to offer such as team working, resilience and drive. It’s this double benefit that is so fantastic about the Volunteering section of the DofE and why many young people continue to volunteer after achieving their Award””
