Help girls achieve their Duke of Edinburgh award

We're always looking for more adult volunteers to help support girls' doing the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) programme.

As a DofE volunteer, you're involved in supporting girls' experiences throughout their award. The award can be a real challenge for girls that pushes them out of their comfort zone and creates new and exciting experiences. 

DofE groups for Guides or Rangers can run at unit, district, division or county level so there’s lots of flexibility as to how you can support them as a leader.

What you can do

Depending on your skillset and interests, here are a few ways you can get involved:

General DofE programme support

A lot of people think DofE is just about the expedition, but that’s just one section. By supporting the programme, you can help girls get registered on eDofE, support them to choose their activities for each section, check in with them as to their progress and make sure they get their assessors to sign off at the end of each section.

Expedition supervisor

No expedition can happen without someone to oversee it. Supervisors train expedition groups following the DofE expedition frameworks and then help them complete their unaccompanied practice and qualifying expeditions.

This role is hugely rewarding, and perfect for those who want to pass on a passion for adventure and the great outdoors. Depending on where you take your groups, you’ll also need the right qualifications in the mode of travel. Check out our expeditions page for more information. There’s also a role description on the DofE website.

Expedition supporting leaders

Fancy helping groups get out there but not sure you’re ready to take sole responsibility as the supervisor? You can get involved in training groups or supporting on the expeditions.

Expedition assessor

Each expedition has be to assessed so they have an accredited assessor to make sure this is fair. At Bronze this can be the same person as the supervisor, but at Silver and Gold this will be a different adult that can be known to the group involved.

This role is perfect if you can’t commit regularly but want some one-off adventure, whilst helping girls get outside and learn new skills. You’ll also need to be familiar with the area or terrain you’re assessing in.

DofE ambassador ­

If you’ve completed a DofE Award and want to inspire other Girlguiding members to do the same, you can help promote the DofE to members. There’s loads of material on the DofE website to help you do this. Your county DofE adviser can link you up with local groups and events you can visit.

There’s training and support available for all the roles involved with DofE.

Check out training for DofE leaders below or chat to your county DofE adviser for more information.

Training for DofE leaders

Girlguiding have access to DofE training to make sure everyone supporting the DofE has the right knowledge and skills.

DofE have an online learning platform so it makes it easy to complete your training whenever you can. There are 3 courses available which also have Girlguiding specific modules.

• Foundations Pathway - this gives you an introduction to the DofE and the different roles. You'll have to do this course to be able to complete any other pathways.
• Delivering the DofE Pathway - if you want to become a DofE Leader or Helper, this gives you all the know-how to get started running the DofE programme in your area. You'll cover the ethos, outcomes, roles and sections of a DofE award.
• Expedition Assessor and Supervisor Pathway (EAS) - this is to support anyone who wants to be an expedition supervisor or assessor. You will understand the responsibilities of each role and the requirements of the expedition section. You'll need to complete the Foundations Pathway first before doing the EAS. If you want to assess expeditions, you'll need to complete a post course knowledge check module and then have Girlguiding and your country or region DofE adviser approve your accreditation.

There's also lots of other courses run by DofE that you can attend - check out the DofE training pages for more information on all their training.

How do I sign up to get involved?

Read the information about running the DofE programme. After that, you can chat to your county or region DofE advisor for more information about how to get involved.