Does anyone else think the Duke of Edinburgh scheme is deliberately designed as a torment for parents?

[EllenMP]

Just that, really. Who thought this was a good idea for 14 year olds? Do 14 year olds know what volunteering opportunities are available to them? Do they have to pay for the skills lessons they will be needing? Can they drive themselves about to their weekly skills and volunteering sessions? Do they understand what they need to do to document their activities and will they do it without nagging and assistance? Are they able to beg, borrow or steal (and ultimately buy, of course) full camping equipment to be used for two short "expeditions"?

I mean, I'm glad someone is taking my kid camping, because God knows I don't plan to do so, but I feel there must be a simpler way to achieve that. It's not like a Bronze award means so much that it's worth the extra effort. I say at least skip it until they are 16 or so and can manage more of the organising on their own. But then they have exams to worry about and it's one more layer of stress they don't need.

The whole thing is too much like hard work. For me, I mean. But also for them.

I agree that the driving to sessions is a PITA and finding a suitable volunteering slot can be hard unless DC are already plugged into something that can be made to fit. DD volunteered at a weekly creche attached to our church.

Skills - they were already doing loads of extra-curricular so that was easy as was sport/physical.

If they already do quite a lot it doesn't have to be difficult. DS did his Gold but by that time he was pretty independent with all the organising required and was an old hand. He is really glad he did it and post-grad/employers have commented on the achievement.

None of mine have made it beyond Bronze. I've no idea why; they already did activities and volunteering to more than cover the requirements and we're a camping family, but none of them enjoyed it enough to fill out the forms, and I did not want to be the parent who does it for them.
Youngest is on practice expedition today/tomorrow in the rain and has already said they won't be doing Silver.

it's perfectly possible to do the expeditions with a disability

Absolutely. dc1's Gold Group had 2 people qith quite considerable disabilities (different sorts) in it.

PerspicaciaTick - Those groups do still exist / run. Your dd might not have been part of one, but they still happen.

Neither of my two have done it and I'm glad as it sounds very expensive.
Only if you do it through companies who have set themselves up to do this. Not if you do it with your Scouts / Guides / Cadets / some schools who do it well / other Youth organistations

I think it should be compulsory tbh
I completely disagree with "compulsory volunteering" - the "volunteers" are no use to the organisations they are put into, and the dc get nothing out of it. The whole point of volunteering is that you have to want to be there.

It is perfectly possible to do it with a disability and we will support DS to do it. He'll have a great time. However it is just one more thing I have to sort out and yet one more thing he won't get to do with his friends. This compounds the feelings of separation he has.
I have emailed every 'disability specialist' listed on the DofE site within a 200 mile radius, all 8 of them. 6 have so far said they can't help. So yes, it's perfectly possible, just much harder and not something DS can sort out by himself. The story of my life and si many more people with a disability.

Both my DDs did Bronze. It made diddly squat difference to them in their lives. A girl who did Gold didn’t get a single offer from a university. Got AAA at A level. Do it if you love the idea of it. Generally it’s MC and hardly ever done by a knife wielding type of DC. It’s clearly a self selecting bunch that do it and parents join in and love the day out at Buckingham Palace! It means little in the world or work or university application.

The only true advantage is keeping up with the volunteering. This could be beneficial all round but can of course be done without DofE.

I'm not keen. Think it is a middle class tick box for most

I think you are right. I won't be pushing DD1 to do it. If she wants to then fine. It had only just come in when I was at school, and only a few kids did it, mostly boys, and the ones who were in scouts anyway. I wouldn't have minded the volunteering, but the camping and walking would have been anathema to me as a teenager.

I did the bronze and most of the silver but I pulled out before the expedition. Other than running me to my volunteering for the silver my parents did fuck all. It wasn’t required. It didn’t cost anything.

Just strikes me as something middle class parents force their kids into for their personal statement for uni these days. I’ll be doing the same with mine ;)

Whereas mine are going to be doing stuff they actually enjoy and are relevant to the subjects/careers they want to study so that will go in their personal statements, yes even ds spending countless hours watching podcasts or arranging band parts for show scores.

I'm surprised at the negativity. It could be that the experience has changed since I did it back in the 70s. Parents had little involvement then and the participants spanned all backgrounds. I went to private school but we pooled resources with a nearby secondary modern and a local youth club. There was very little cost involved. From memory, it amounted to a contribution to the petrol money for the school mini-bus for the expedition trips.

It was good fun and I gained experience of things I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

I also wonder how much of the parental involvement is really necessary or just typical of how mollycoddled teens are these days with parents having to do everything for them.

There are considerable costs involved now. Even just the kit lists costs well over £100 plus the cost of the practice and real expeditions.

Most of the kids I know do it, via school - Bronze anyway.

Expedition/Camping - we did have to pay out money. The clothes dd needed weren't the type of clothes she already owned really, and we are not an outdoor/camping type of family so didn't have much. We tried to borrow as much as possible. But no, it wasn't cheap to kit her out with the lengthy kit list the DofE website send out. It was also not cheap to attend at dd's school as they didn't use school staff to run it.

Sport - dd did running. It was free and could be done from home. However, she did need to find someone to 'sign it off' for her - we are fortunate that we knew someone who managed a running club elsewhere. Not near us, but he was happy to sign her forms off. Officially she let him know her progress via an app which tracked her exercise and runs. Unofficially - he didn't ask look at it all. She could have easily just not bothered in reality, and it would still have been signed off. She did do it though as she is naturally pretty conscientious and wouldn't feel happy lying.

Skill - she did drama and singing. It was a class(es) she already went to and had done since being small. She was already going once a week anyway, which she and a friend made their own way too and dh brought her home, as he normally did. This didn't cost us anything extra.

Volunteer - she did hers at the same drama club. She went in an hour earlier to help out at the class for younger children. However, often her drama ad singing tutors would get her to work on her own stuff during that time too, but still signed her off for the volunteer work, presumably as she was willing and able, and there. Again it didn't cost us anything and the same getting there/pick up was already in place.

IMO, much of it at Bronze level is fudged - its really easy to get things signed off as done if you have any contacts or already go to classes. I reckon many children don't do half of what they are supposed to - based on various google searches and friends of friends type experiences.

DD said it was okay but she had no intention of doing it any further.

It isn't really something that's realistically open to families of less well off children in many places though. I know of families where their children just can't attend as they can't afford to the kit list to start with, and dont know people who have them available to borrow. Not all schools provide them with everything.

Round here it is the schools in the more well off areas, the more 'middle class' areas that run it.

www.dofe.org/shopping/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Expedition_Kit_List_Mar2019.pdf

This list is NOT something less well off families are going to be able to afford. Not all schools provide much of the kit, except for the tents and stoves.

The whole point is that they learn to do all of the things you have mentioned themselves.
If you are supporting too much who is really earning the award.
dofE makes me so made - most of the time the kids are so coddled by parents and teachers etc that they haven't really learned anything and don't deserve the award.

I don't think there was a kit list back in the 1970s. As already said, my school provided everything apart from sleeping bags. I now remember that they did provide boots too but I had (and still have) very large feet so none fitted. We just wore normal (for the 1970s) clothes and none of us died.

Mines just completed Gold - off to Buck Palace next week to collect her award/ medal whatever it is they get . School organised the physical ‘ nip up Snowdon’ trip with a 15kg backpack of stuff on your back , for the skill she just progressed in an instrument she already plays and volunteering was spending pretty much every Saturday at a city farm helping with the wildlife aka ‘ shovelling shit ‘ - she loved it though . Had to laugh as she came from the bronze trekking weekend saying ‘ I’m not bloody doing that again ‘ then next minute she’s doing Silver then Gold .

With regard to OP’s question is it torment for the parents the only ‘ torment ‘ / involvement I’ve had is getting her to school for the hiking trips for @5.30/6 am which is three times and then picking her up on her return .

I wish DS had never signed up for this! He doesn't tell me what is going on (says he doesn't know). There seems to be no way to find out the expedition dates and DS hasn't found any volunteering activities. I can see it just being a huge waste of money.

What makes me cross is that I am bombarded with emails trying to get me buy things from D of E but get no information about what's going on.

It's proving to be a real pain in the neck, but I'm still in favour.
It was very difficult to find a volunteering job for a 14 year old. A charity shop agreed to take dd, but then changed its policy. Luckily she then found a job teaching young children. As she's considering becoming a teacher, it's great experience, and good on her CV.
She was completely disorganised over the expedition, which she will learn from.
The worst thing was that she got sunburnt- ignored my advice - and got a tic bite.

My son didn't finish his gold award. He was far too lazy to organise all of it, and as he was 17 or 18 I felt that whilst I was happy to support him I did not want it to become MY problem. However, he absolutely loved the 2 expeditions he did to the Brecon Beacons, and spent a wonderful week on a residential that was very relevant to his choice of degree. So I feel that he benefited hugely from the bits he did, and of course he can still mention those on CVs, UCAS forms etc. DD3 started her bronze and her silver, but both times she had to drop out for health reasons. However, she started volunteering at the local beavers for her bronze award and is still doing it two years later because she enjoys it so much, so again I feel she has really benefited despite not having a DofE award to show for it. I also failed to finish my DofE gold (over 30 years ago) but still feel I did some worthwhile things that have stayed with me (expeditions, first aid course etc).

It sounds good for the kids. Wonder if my dd will be able to do it in the future with diabetes? She saw some kids doing it the other week as was very interested.

My son used his usual rugby training for physical. He litter picked around our village for the volunteering and learnt to cook for the family as his skill.
We have 3 children and had already invested in the kit for the expedition which all 3 will use. (Apart from the walking boots- he won't be shoving his size 10's into his big sister's size 5's!!)

Plus I'll get to send him photos of the lovely meals we're eating whilst he's shovelling down a pot noodle. Really enjoyed doing that with his big sister!!😂😂

@floribunda are you 77+ ? Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme started in 1956

@BubblesBuddy - no, it doesn't influence University Applications, but there are a lot of people in recruitment that recognise the value of it

@Youbumder - University Personal Statements are about your passion for your subject, not about extra curricular activities.

@Cathay123 - that isn't the DofE Organisation's fault though, that is whoever he has signed up with - the school, the youth Group, etc. We had all the dates of the training / meetings / practice / assessment weekends from dd's Explorer Unit before signing up.

@JumpingFrogs - unless he is now over 25, he can still get it signed off. If he has completed the expeditions, that is usually the most difficult thing to organise - the rest is down to him and still do-able.

@Foodtheif - dd's SIlver Expedition Group last year had a lad who had recently been diagnosed with diabetes in it.... still getting used to it and how things affected him...... all went well.... the Leaders just checked in on the group more often, and the others in the Group had done some additional time finding out about how things might affect him and what they should be keeping an eye out for. :-)