Duke of Edinburgh Award

What is the Duke of Edinburgh Award?

The Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) is a national programme for young people aged 13 to 24. It offers participants a chance to experience adventure, develop skills, teamwork and confidence. The DofE award is attractive to employers and can give a CV the competitive edge.

There are three levels of award: Bronze, Silver and Gold. In each, the participant needs to demonstrate growth in four areas, called sections.

• Volunteering
• Physical
• Skills
• Expedition

Girlguiding is an operating authority for DofE

Duke of Edinburgh Award in Girlguiding Hampshire West

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is available to any Girlguiding member in Hampshire West from the start of year 9. This means that many eligible members will still be attending guides rather than rangers.

Members can start the award at the following times:

• Bronze - from the start of year 9
• Silver - from the start of year 10
• Gold - from the start of year 12 (this is currently being reviewed).

Members can choose which level to join the scheme, as long as they meet the minimum age category for that level. 

Members can choose which level to join the scheme, as long as they meet the minimum age category for that level. 

Who runs the Duke of Edinburgh Award in Hampshire West?

Some ranger units run the award as part of their programme.

We also have a county team that runs a county Duke of Edinburgh's Award group - this means that all eligible Girlguiding Hampshire West members now have the opportunity to sign up. 

Interested Guides, Rangers and Young Leaders are asked to complete the following form to sign up: DofE Enrollment Form Girlguiding Hampshire West, this form is open during August and September each year. If a young member wishes to sign up at any other time please email dofegghw@gmail.com

Information for guides, rangers and parents

The Duke of Edinburgh’s award has 4 main parts, volunteering, skills, physical activity and the expedition.

You will work on your volunteering, skills and physical activity sections independently although the county DofE team are available for advice. This website is a useful resource: https://www.dofe.org/do/your-dofe/

Doing your DofE award with the County DofE group

The County DofE group is made up of a group of leaders and young members from across the girlguiding county of Hampshire West. We support you remotely to achieve your award but come together to do the expeditions. We hope to offer more opportunities to come together as a group in the future.

Joining the County DofE group

• First you need to fill in the enrollment form
  • If you would like to join the County DofE group to do your award then please fill in this form:  DofE Enrollment Form Girlguiding Hampshire West, this form is open during August and September each year. (If a young member wishes to sign up at any other time please email dofegghw@gmail.com)
• Second you will need to check your emails and make the payment
  • Once you have submitted the form the County DofE team will be in touch via email to check you wish to be registered and to take payment.
  • At the moment (2026) the costs are as follows:
    • Bronze award registration: 
    • Silver award registration:
    • Gold award registration:
  • These registration fees do not include the cost of any expedition training or expeditions.
• Third you will need to attend the welcome meeting
  • You will also be invited to attend the welcome meeting. This will be via zoom on 21 October 2026. If you wish to attend the welcome meeting before making the registration payment you can. It just means that you start working on your sections a little bit later. This makes no difference to finishing the award.
• Fourth you will need to decide what you would like to do for each section
  • Each DofE award is as individual as you are. There are many options for what you could do for each section and these will be discussed in the welcome meeting. You need to do each section for a different amount of time depending on which level of the award you are working on:
• Fifth you will need to download the DofE App
  • Download the DofE app to your phone or a parents phone. Start entering details:
    • What activity you will do for each section
    • How long you will take on each section
    • What goal you are setting yourself
    • Who your assessor will be - more on assessors below.
• Sixth you will need to complete the expedition - dates for 2026/27
  • The expeditions are the most well know part of the DofE award. The County DofE group offers one expedition opportunity each year for Bronze and Silver levels. If you can’t make the dates then you can join an independent expedition, ask the county team for details.
  • In order to complete the expedition section you need to do the following
    • Bronze - one training weekend and one expedition weekend.
    • Silver - one training weekend, one practice expedition, one planning afternoon and one 3 day assessment expedition. All of these must be completed in full to pass the expedition section.

Training

The County DofE group offers one training weekend per year. 

Date for 2026/27: 27 - 28 February 2027. You must attend this weekend in full if you wish to do the expedition with us.

• Bronze
  • After doing your training weekend you will need to do your expedition assessment.
  • Date for 2026/27: 10 - 11 April 2027 - This is 2 full days from 8.30am on Saturday - 5pm on Sunday. You will need to attend the whole weekend to pass. This will be in the New Forest National Park.
• Silver
  • After doing your training weekend you will need to do 2 more expeditions and 1 more planning afternoon.
  • Practice expedition date for 2026/27: 9 - 11 April 2026 - This is 2 evenings and 2 full days. You will arrive at 5pm on the Friday and finish at 5pm on Sunday.
  • Planning afternoon for 2026/27: 9 May 2027 - This is one afternoon where your group comes together to reflect on what went well (and what didn’t) in your practice expedition and to complete your paperwork for your main expedition.
  • Assessed expedition for 2026/27: 23 - 25 July 2027 - This is 3 full days walking and 2 nights camping. You will arrive at 8.30am on the Friday and finish at 5pm on the Sunday. You need to attend the whole weekend in order to pass. This will be held in Purbeck, Dorset. 
  • The assessed expedition will also contain the expedition presentation as part of the weekend.

Assessors reports

Your assessor can be anyone, as long as they are not a family member.

Ideally they would be the person running the activity, or the leader for the activity. You will need to ask their permission to use them as an assessor before you start. 

If you can't find someone, or you are doing an independent activity then you can ask your guide/ranger leader to be your assessor.

In order to get the section marked as 'completed' you must have a completed assessor's report written by your assessor. This is in addition to any evidence you have uploaded.

What you need to do:

1. Finish the section and pull together the evidence that you have done it. This should demonstrate that you have met the goal that you set for yourself.
2. Share this evidence with the person you said would be your assessor (this cannot be a family member) - usually the person running the activity or your guide/ranger leader.
3. Ask them to write an assessors report for you and give them:
   •  Your eDofE number 
   • The level of award (bronze/silver/gold)
   • The section of the award (physical/skill/volunteering)
   • The link to the online assessor report webpage https://www.dofe.org/run/assessors-report

Information for leaders who have a young member in the County DofE group

The County DofE Group are here to offer the DofE award to all young members across Hampshire West.

What do we ask of unit leaders

We ask that you share the flyers with the information about each academic year at the beginning of September with all eligible young members - this means anyone in year 9 and above regardless of section - guides as well as rangers and young leaders.

That’s it! We would be really grateful if you could check in every now and then with any of your young members to see how they’re getting on. You know them best, so if you think there is something we should know, please email the team on dofegghw@gmail.com

What to do if you’ve been asked to be an assessor

Sometimes one of our members might ask their leader to be an assessor for one of their DofE sections. This is most likely to happen when they are completing a section independently, such as baking. 

Much like you would sign off an interest badge, you don’t necessarily need to be skilled in the topic, but show an interest in how they have challenged themselves and whether they have met the goal they set themselves (you could also provide guidance on whether a goal is appropriate!).

We would appreciate your support in assessing DofE sections.

How to complete an assessors report:

Thank you for agreeing to be an assessor for one of our young members. When they have completed the section they will come to you asking for an assessor report. You then follow these steps:

1. Visit this online assessor report webpage: https://www.dofe.org/run/assessors-report
2. Enter their (assessors) email address, along with the participants eDofE number, level and section of the award.
3. Then answer fill in the assessor questions:
   • Are the dates submitted by the participant correct?
   • What progress did they make towards their goals?
   • What did they achieve/what skills did they learn?
   • How frequently did they take part in this activity?
   • Their name / job title or position / email address

All assessor reports will be double checked by a member of the County DofE team. The usual reason for not approving assessor reports is when the dates submitted by the participant do not match the dates on the assessor report - so please double check these carefully.

Offering DofE within your unit for your young members

We welcome units that wish to run DofE in their unit. If you are a Ranger Leader and interested in offering DofE to your girls, please contact the Duke of Edinburgh Adviser at dofegghw@gmail.com.

Volunteering with Girlguiding as part of the DofE award for those not already in Girlguiding

Young people volunteering with Girlguiding as part of their DofE Award who are not currently members of Girlguiding, have the role ‘Young External Volunteer’ in GO added to the unit by the Division Commissioner. The starting age for this role has been lowered from 14 to 13 now that many young people start their Bronze Award at 13. The upper age limit is now 18 – young people over 18 need to be assigned an adult volunteering role. Girls who are Guides and are completing their volunteering for their DofE Award will be registered as a Rainbow or Brownie helper on GO with the unit. Girls who are Rangers will be registered as a Young Leader with the unit they support but may only stay in this role for the period of time they need to complete their DofE volunteering. DofE volunteers must be on GO for the unit they support.

Here are some useful links

• Duke of Edinburgh – http://www.dofe.org
• DofE and Girlguiding – https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/what-we-do/rangers/the-duke-of-edinburghs-award/
• Getting started on your DofE award – https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/what-we-do/rangers/the-duke-of-edinburghs-award/get-started-on-your-dofe-award/