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The Duke of Edinburgh Award
Scheme
The Duke of Edinburgh Award is a
voluntary, non competitive programme of practical, cultural and
adventurous activities, designed to support your personal and social
development regardless of gender, background or ability. It offers an
individual challenge and encourages you to undertake exciting,
constructive, challenging and enjoyable activities in your free time.
All awards must be completed by your 25th birthday.
The Award
scheme comprises four sections
within each of the three progressive levels,
namely:
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Bronze Award |
Age 14+ |
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Silver Award |
Age 15+ |
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Gold Award |
Age 16+ to 25 |
The Sections involved
are:
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Service
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- helping other
people in the local community |
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Skills
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- covering almost any
hobby, skill or interest |
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Physical
Recreation |
- sport, dance and
fitness |
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Expeditions |
- training for,
planning and completing a journey on horseback or foot,
by boat or cycle. |
(for the
Gold Award only)
Residential Project |
- a purposeful
enterprise with people not previously known to you.
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What are the benefits of the
Duke of Edingburgh Award Scheme to me?
The Award is widely
recognised by employers and people involved in education.
Some of the benefits to you include developing or
discovering a sense of achievement; new skills and
interests; self-confidence and self-reliance; leadership
skills and abilities; exciting opportunities; friendship;
experience of teamwork, problem-solving and decision-making;
increased motivation; enhanced self-esteem; development of
communication skills; a network of local, national and
international connections; enjoyment.
What about my school/college
work?
Your involvement in this
Award Scheme will require you to manage your free time
efficiently... which no bad thing! Essentially, you should
be looking to complete each award in your free time, for
example after-school or at one of East Lancs Explorer
Scout Units which will include evening and
weekend activities. So... the Award is simply an extension
of your own personal interests and activities, and has a
very open-ended completion time. The Award work fits well
around school, college or other work... so no worries there.
Go on give us a try and see how you get on.
How long will it take me to
complete?
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It takes at least six months for a
direct entrant to achieve a Bronze Award; 12 months for
Silver and 18 months for Gold. Participants can work on
various Sections of their Award at the same time, and it
should be noted that practice and qualifying expeditions
must keep within the expeditions season
(Easter-October). |
How do I find out more?
Contact your local
Explorer Scout Unit to join in the adventure, District
contacts can be found on the contacts pages.
| You will need
a record book...
You will need
to buy a Record
Book which will cost a couple of pounds
(you need to buy a different one for each level
of Award you do), plus I would strongly
recommend that you get yourself one of the
Entrance Packs
(it's a personal organiser file containing heaps
of useful info, activity log sheets, discount
vouchers, an ID card, a CD-ROM 'Virtual Award
Planner' to help you plan your Award...).
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You then
look at each Section of the Award in turn
and decide what it is that you want to do.
The Explorer Scout Leaders will be there to
help if you get stuck. Remember to do what
you do for the right length of time (and,
no, you can't cram it all into a wet weekend
- we're looking for continuous, spread-out
involvement!) |
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