To think this a crazy price for DofE Silver Award

[Fgsvirgin]

School have just sent the letter. (Not a fee paying school.)

It is £420 (plus a £50 deposit).

That seems like an awful lot to me for a trip where you have to provide the transport there and back yourself, provide the food and some of the kit.

The price is set by the third party company organising it and does include training sessions (not an overnight session just a couple of classroom based sessions and one 7 hr walk), the registration fee and loan/hire of the tent, cooking stove thing and coat/waterproof bottoms and sleeping bag if you want. This is what the deposit is for.

Does that not seem a really expensive hike to you?

I suppose I’m comparing it to other school trips where they get a couple of nights away with food and transport for less than £300.

I should have seen it coming when Bronze was £300 but I paid that blindly thinking that is how much these things cost!

If your child did D/E Silver, how much was it?

(I realise the key here is that there is a third party company arranging it so I suppose I’m looking for responses from those who also have experience with third party D/E companies.)

Insane!! All shared equipment provided, and they charged £50 for minibus hire to cover practice and real expeditions. This was at school.

Wow @NotSorry and what do they get for that ?

sorry if naive - but what’s that’s the point of the bronze silver gold

@Blondeshavemorefun

He had piano lessons for the skills
lessons for his sport
did his volunteering with the scouts - but still had to pay his way when he volunteered on their week’s camp
2 x 1 week expeditions (he did canoeing)

the bronze, silver and gold are different age groups - he did gold when he was in 6th form - lots of people start it but don’t finish as it’s a lot of work

And assume get a badge and certificate then . What ?

It isn't about 'getting a certificate' it is about learning new skills.
It is about putting yourself out of your comfort zone.
It is about trying something you probably otherwise never would.
It is about how you grow through doing the award as it was designed to be done.

That seems ridiculous to me.
When I did it, ‘back in the day’ (2001) it was completely free (we could ‘rent’ the kit for about £20).
County youth service ran it.
Of course youth services have been cut to the bone since…

It has never been 'free'. What you mean is the Youth Service used it's budget to pay for you.
Unfortunately, in my LA, the Youth Service was cut by 95% after 2010, because of the gambling bankers, and the 'austerity measures' that each and everyone of us have had to be living with ever since.

PPs keep saying in their day it was “free” but how were things like the “skill” funded - my ds knows people who did driving lessons as their skill - every part of the award can’t be “free”

I calculated the financial and time commitment and thought it worth posting so parents and young people can assess whether they think it’s worth it for them

This is all down to the DofE wanting more funding.
Back in the day a county could hold the licence for £3000. This allowed all schools in the county to run the award. We clubbed together and held area events allowing schools with not many staff/candidates to join together.
Lots of schools ran it relying on using school minibuses for 'free' and the goodwill of staff.
Then DofE realised they could make loads of money if they made each school need a licence.
Each school now pays £1000 each year to hold a licence. Fine if you have 100 kids £10 extra each. Not so fine if you have 10 kids...
There are companies out there that hold the licence and deliver the award. Far cheaper for the schools to pass on the costs to parents.
As a leader, I need to give up a weekend every three years for a first aid course as well as attend training, practice and assessment weekends on different weekends for three levels of awards. I can put bronze and silver practices on the same weekend. That's a lot of time to give up (and not be thanked for!).

I've just supported my daughter's Bronze award through guiding. It cost £20 for two weekends.

Guiding and scouting can buy one licence each to cover the whole of guiding and scouting.

Unfortunately with greed comes consequences and it is affecting the experiences of young people.

Mine taught himself guitar, another friend learnt to speak some of another language via Duolingo, someone else was given an inexpensive old DSLR camera.
There is a list of ideas on the d of e site, many of which can be free.

my ds knows people who did driving lessons as their skill - every part of the award can’t be “free”

Yes, but presumably they would be learning to drive anyway. You can't count it as "cost of doing DofE" if it is something you are spending money on anyway. That isn't a "DofE cost" it is the cost of learning to drive, which, yes you can use as part of your award in the 'Learn a new skill' section, if you want, but can hardly credit it as being part of the cost of doing DofE.