Here at Ashton Sixth Form College you have the opportunity to complete your Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. Many participants describe it as a life-changing changing experience through adventures, caring for others and being creative. It's all about pushing personal boundaries, gaining new skills and meeting new people. The award will help you develop skills highly sought after by universities and employers as well as providing you with incredible experiences outside of your normal college routine.

Expedition Section - Everyone knows about the expedition and I'm sure it's one of the main reasons you will consider taking part. You get to have a proper outdoor adventure with a 4 day / 3 night expedition in wild country. You will spend time having training days, then undertake a 3 day / 2 night practise expedition before finally completing your qualifying expedition. Here at Ashton Sixth Form College we offer you a choice of whether you walk or canoe - please visit our Expedition page to learn all about what is involved.

Physical / Volunteering / Skill Sections - There is more involved than just the expedition as you have to complete physical, volunteering and skill sections where you will regularly spend a least 1 hour per week for each part improving yourself and improving life for others. It helps you get fitter, learn new skills and help others. You are able to make your own arrangements for these sections and complete them yourself. You will appoint your own 'assessor' who will monitor your progress and make sure you are achieving what you set out to originally. You do have to arrange this yourself, but you can use things you already do - if you are already in a running or football club this can be used for your physical section and their may be volunteering opportunities in addition. If you are planning to learn to drive, this will cover your skill. So it may not be as daunting as it first sounds.

Residential Section - Additionally, you need to arrange a 5 day / 4 night residential where you need to take part in a worthwhile activity with people you don't know. This is something you will arrange for yourself and again lots of suggestions available on our canvas page once you've enrolled onto the programme.

It may sound like it will take a little effort to achieve your Gold award but this is what makes the Gold award unique and why employers like to see it - you are proving your dedication to both bettering yourself and others - it proves something about you outside of your education and you will be in a very small percentage of people who have this in their CV.

At Ashton, we offer two pathways to the Gold Award; Fast track and Direct Entry.

Fast track is a 12 month programme for students who have already achieved their Silver Award.
Direct Entry allows students who have not yet completed Silver Award to go straight to achieving their Gold Award by following an 18 month programme.

The timescales are shown below as to exactly what is involved to complete your award.

Volunteering	Physical	Skills	Expedition	Residential
12 months	One section for 12 months and the other section for 6 months		Plan, train for and undertake a 4 day, 3 night expedition.	Undertake a shared activity in a residential setting away from home for 5 days and 4 nights.
Direct entrants must undertake a further 6 months in either the Volunteering or the longer of the Physical or Skills sections.

Our Duke of Edinburgh programme is run in house here at Ashton Sixth Form College with both our co-ordinator and expedition leader based on-site. It is run as non-profit, keeping the price as low as possible for you. The Gold programme currently costs £250. This includes purchasing your Gold place from DofE, the costs of running the expedition training and qualifying expedition (which takes place outside college hours), the cost of the mini bus and petrol and the cost of the expedition equipment which is largely provided for you. We are pleased this is still significantly cheaper than most other colleges in the area. There is an additional fee of £60 if you choose to canoe (which is spent directly on hire of canoes, trailor and additional safety equipment). Not included is campsite fees, gas and food costs - this is because at Gold level you must plan your own campsites, food requirements and gas requirements and your own budget, although we will of course help you to do that.

DofE - Canoe 1.JPG

“My DofE has made me realise I can be whoever I want to be.”
Jay, Gold Award holder

Benefits you will gain include:

- A sense of achievement

- New skills and interests

- Self-confidence and self-reliance

- Leadership skills and abilities

- Exciting opportunities

- Experience of teamwork and decision making