Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award - Final Expedition

Last week 21 students from the college were out in The Snowdonia National Park on their qualifying expedition as part of their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. Throughout their five days and four nights they had to be self-sufficient, in food, clothing and shelter which equates to them carrying approximately 50kg in their rucksacks each day of the expedition.

The students had to conduct a range of activities during the expedition including investigating erosion of footpaths, change of use to the landscape and facilities in the National Park area to name a few as they trekked for eight hours each day covering a total distance of 80 kilometers. .

Each day was challenging and physically demanding students successfully navigated their way from location to location each day and all routes were planned by the students. Each student performed exceptionally rising to the challenge in small groups and working successfully as a team. The students made excellent and informed decisions along their routes and the experience they had gained from their practice expedition really shone through.

The remaining elements of the Award some students need to cover are:

• Volunteering
• Skills
• Physical
• Residential Experience

These elements of the Award are organised independently by the students and can include a range of different projects or activities. Guidance and support is on offer to all the students from the college DofE team.

The Sixth Form College, Birkenhead DofE Coordinator Steve Hafford was overjoyed with the progress the students made during the expedition and how the expedition went overall. “Each group of DofE candidates were exemplary throughout the expedition, all students interacted well and had the opportunity to lead their team during the daily treks”. It was a superb expedition with lots of highs.  The activities and experiences that they gained from taking part in DofE are invaluable to their future and the memories of the expedition will last a lifetime. Enrolling on Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award is an excellent way of enhancing your CV as well as providing life experience and skills that will allow you to shine in any interview and enhance your prospects in employment and University applications.

The Sixth Form College’s Duke of Edinburgh programme is still open to anyone who wants to join whether you are a new or returning student. The next meeting will be held on Thursday 25/09/2013 at 4:20pm in J1, for anyone interested in finding out more information or wanting to sign up. Why not go along and see what you can gain? Or to keep up to date with what our DofE team is getting up to check out the BSFC Duke of Edinburgh blog here or email Steve Hafford at sah@bsfc.ac.uk .

DofE 2014