How to Do the Award?
Step 1: Choose Your Award Level
The Award is divided into three levels: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Each level requires a different level of commitment and time, so choose the one that suits you best:
- Bronze: For beginners, it usually takes 6 months to complete.
- Silver: For those ready for a bit more challenge, it usually takes 12 months to complete.
- Gold: The ultimate challenge, usually takes 18 months to complete.
Step 2: Find a Local Award Centre
To start your journey, you’ll need to register with an Award Centre. These can be schools, institutions, juvenile homes and other allocated places. They’ll provide you with all the support and guidance you need. Recently, there are 90 award centres existing.
Step 3: Plan Your Activities
The Award is all about personal growth, so you get to choose activities that interest you. You’ll need to complete activities in four sections:
- Voluntary Service: Give back to your community. This could be tutoring younger students, helping out at a local charity, or organising community clean-ups.
- Physical Recreation: Get active and stay healthy. You could join a sports team, take up dancing, or go for regular hikes.
- Skills: Develop a new talent or improve an existing one. This could be anything from learning to cook, play an instrument, or even learning a new language.
- Adventurous Journey: Plan and undertake an expedition. This could be a hike in the mountains, a cycling trip, or a canoeing adventure.
For the Gold level, there's an additional requirement called the Residential Project. This involves staying away from home and working on a project with people you don’t know.
Step 4: Set Goals and Track Progress
Work with your mentors to set achievable goals for each section. It’s important to challenge yourself but also to enjoy the process. Track your progress using the Online Record Book (ORB), where you can log activities, upload evidence, and get feedback from your mentors.
Step 5: Achieve and Celebrate
Once you’ve completed all the sections, it’s time to celebrate your achievements. You’ll receive your Award at a special ceremony, where you’ll join a community of Award holders from around the world. More than just a certificate, this Award is a testament to your hard work, resilience, and commitment to self-improvement.
Stay With Us
Getting Started with ORB
Logging Your Activities
Getting Feedback from Mentors
Tracking Your Progress
Completing the Award
Guidelines and Policies
Data Protection
Once you register for the Award, you’ll receive an invitation to set up your ORB account. It's an easy and user-friendly platform that helps you keep track of your activities and achievements. Just log in with your credentials, and you’re ready to go!
With the ORB, you can easily log your activities for each section of the Award. Simply choose the section, add details about what you did, and set your goals. You can also upload photos, and documents as evidence of your progress. This makes it easy to see how far you’ve come and what you still need to achieve.
Your mentors play a crucial role in your Award journey. Through the ORB, they can review your logs, provide feedback, and help you stay on track. This continuous support ensures you’re always moving forward and making the most of your experiences.
The ORB provides a clear overview of your progress in each section. You can see at a glance how much time you’ve spent on activities, what goals you’ve achieved, and what’s left to complete. This helps you stay organised and motivated.
When you’ve completed all the required activities and logged them in the ORB, your mentor will review and approve your entries. Once everything is verified, you’ll receive a notification that you’ve completed the Award. Congratulations!
The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award is designed to be flexible and inclusive, but it’s important to follow some guidelines and policies to ensure a fair and rewarding experience for everyone. Here are some you need to know:
Participant Eligibility
- The Award is open to all young people aged 14 to 24.
- Participants can join at any level; bronze, silver or gold.
Activity Requirements
- Voluntary Service: Minimum of 1 hour per week over the required period.
- Physical Recreation: Minimum of 1 hour per week over the required period.
- Skills: Minimum of 1 hour per week over the required period.
- Adventurous Journey: Must include preparation and training, as well as the expedition itself.
- Residential Project (Gold level): Must be a shared, purposeful activity with people you don’t know, lasting at least 5 days.
- Participants’ personal information and activity logs are confidential and protected.
- The ORB platform complies with data protection regulations to ensure the privacy and security of participants’ information.
Participants’ Feedback
Hearing directly from our participants is one of the best ways to understand the impact of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. Here are some stories and feedback from those who’ve embarked on this incredible journey:
Ann Peterson
VOLUNTEERMassa eget egestas purus viverra accumsan in. Maecenas pharetra convallis posuere morbi.
Tony Olson
VOLUNTEERDictum fusce ut placerat orci nulla. At auctor urna nun id cursus metus convallis aliquam posuere eleifend.
Jane Bryan
VOLUNTEERUltrices vitae auctor eu augue. Risus ultric tristique nulla aliquet enim tortor egestas congue auctor.
Dwayt Harder
VOLUNTEERAt auctor urna nun id cursus metus convallis aliquam posuere eleifend. Dictum fusce ut placerat orci nulla.