CCF or D of E

[Wobbles21]

Year 9 DS has to choose between CCF and D of E. He’s an adventurous boy who all loves sport and being outdoors but not sure which would be better long-term eg university application and which would take up the most time. Any advice/ experience most welcome.

Why does he need to choose?
Many cadet forces do the DofE scheme.
A person who is busy and sporty can often incorporate elements of their DofE award through activities they do anyway - if he wanted to 'choose' CCF and do DofE as well.

University applications don't tend to really be influenced by DofE awards

CCF is once a week after school from year 9 at my child’s school. They also do camps away and competitions. Fantastic experience if you want to learn to load a gun, fly or be on a ship. As a result of ccf my son wants to join the RAF so it is a sausage machine for the military.

DofE is volunteering for x number of weeks, doing a skill for x number of weeks and playing a sport. It involves a couple of weekends away. The commitment at Bronze level is nothing like joining the CCF.

My son did both. So as you can see neither are too bad. Most kids do DofE so universities are not really that impressed by it anymore.

Universities are impressed by grades and commitment to the course.

They wont mind if its ccf or d of e.

Do whatever he wants to!

DS did cadets and that led onto DoE - he was able to combine the activity in cadets and the poppy selling/cake bakes they did as his charitable work.

He’ll be able to do DofE at CCF. If he’s very interested in joining the armed forces or you think the discipline will be good for him then CCF is a good option. Universities won’t give a hoot about CCF or DofE even at gold level. They’re interested in a students’ passion for learning their subject and not much else.

Ok, thanks for all the replies . So in essence universities won’t care about either . His school is quite serious about commitment so they are expected to see one of these out to the end. We just need to work out which is more ‘ him’ .

Yes that's it! See what older pupils who do it have done, which friends are doing which, which tutors do the activity etc, check the commitments for both and go with which he likes the look of and is practical :)

Although universities don’t look at extra curricular interests, employers like to see evidence of commitment to something beyond studying.

For example, on summer vacations my DD volunteered for the National Trust. She was given quite a lot of responsibility within the property and had to learn about the rooms, history of the house, do meet and greet and even revamp the children’s learning area and learn a special talk about the role of the house in WW2. So what I’m trying to say is: look beyond university entrance. Volunteering as required by DofE is never a waste and CCF shows interests and commitment too. Also, the transferable skills and teamwork displayed by doing such activities are always worthwhile. So think about what he would enjoy most and go for it. If he discovers a hobby from either, that’s good too.

I've always heard CCF trains people to follow orders and D of E trains them to think for themselves. Both can be great experiences. However my son did CCF and other than one away trip at a base which he enjoyed and piloting a boat thru didnt do that much. My daughter did D of E Bronze and hated the expedition due to cruel 'team' mates. May just be our school though. Some kids went on and did Silver and Gold, but not many stuck with CCF once GCSEs loomed. A lot more time needed to participate in D of E though.

I've done uni admissions for a top uni and would have to agree with PP that we don't care about ccf or d of e. So he should do what he'll enjoy most.

Universities probably don't care, but I work in a school that offers both and our students get much more* out of CCF than from D of E.

• leadership experience, new skills, opportunities to try new things

My son did both and much preferred DofE

definitely CCF.

DofE is just a test of who can actually get the onerous levels of paperwork completed

If he does Air Cadets he can fly planes, how cool is that?