Is the Duke of Edinburgh award really uni application gold

FASHIONDESIGNER - 10:01  IS THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD REALLY UNI APPLICATION GOLD

The Duke of Edinburgh accolade (DofE) is harder work. After an expedition, you’ll apparently absorb a day in bed, activity abominable and watching hours of telly because you can about airing from your abscessed feet. So, what’s it all for? What absolutely is the DofE and do universities and administration in fact care?
Founded the Duke himself about 60 years ago, it was advised to animate anyone age-old 14 to 24 to yield on a ambit of activities that advance abilities such as leadership, perseverance, aggregation plan and communication. There are three altered levels - bronze, argent and gold - and 5 sections including volunteering, campaign and residential.
Around 112,000 adolescent humans in the UK yield allotment every year, and the outcomes are varied. Some abhorrence it, and never wish to see a covering again. Others anatomy a constant affection for the abundant outdoors. A lot of do it to addition their CV.
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Ollie Wood, 19, from Windsor, is belief zoology at Swansea University, and is one of about 9,000 humans who fabricated it to the gold akin endure year. He thinks the accolade is about far added than just acquirements how to put up a tent, and credits the acquaintance with allowance him to get on to his amount programme. “Some boys at academy alone out forth the way and, in my year, alone three managed to accomplish their gold award. So it fabricated us angle out from the rest,” he says.
“For my brownish skill, I went on a advance to apprentice about befitting chickens. For my silver, I confused on to blanch and started to bear my own. For gold, I started ancestry ducks. I admired alive out the analysis of cross-breeding, aggravating to get altered coloured eggs. These were all we talked about at my interview,” he says.
“When I got my A-level results, I didn’t accept what Swansea asked for. But they contacted me and said they capital me to do the advance as I had apparent so abundant affection for the accountable through my DofE activities.”
Perran Helyes, 18, from Cornwall, did the accolade during his GCSEs because he says it was “drilled into” him that it would be a acceptable affair to accept on his CV. Although he enjoyed the experience, he says he is “not abiding if it was worthwhile”.
“I did able-bodied in both my GCSEs and A-levels, so those after-effects were able to backpack me into university, after the charge for added getting like a DofE award. I did acknowledgment it in a acknowledged job appliance but I don’t feel it contributed to the success. Other aspects of my extra-curricular activity took antecedence in my uni application,” he says.
According to Angela Milln, administrator of apprentice application at the University of Bristol, the accolade is an asset if applying for university. She says: “Students’ bookish abeyant and charge to their called programme of abstraction are the a lot of cogent factors in decision-making, but the DofE accolade can be beneficial.
For example, accomplished bookish grades are appropriate for anesthetic - but we aswell charge our approaching doctors to be able to acquaint effectively. A abeyant architect needs to accept able practical, analytic ability. Participation in added curricular activities such as the DofE accolade can be a admired way of evidencing this affectionate of aptitude.”

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But a agent for the University of Cambridge says that although the accolade does advice applicants to authenticate abilities such as self-discipline, action and time management, it is added important that humans are affianced with their subject.
“We use the claimed account primarily as a ability on which to abject questions at interview. We attending for able bookish focus, as able-bodied as affirmation to abutment absorption in the accountable and attention and accurateness in self-presentation. Above all, we attending for bright affirmation of bookish assurance above the curriculum. We are not absorbed in extra-curricular activities, except area they may authenticate accordant skills, such as time management.”
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University admissions may vary, but in the aggressive alum application market, experts say getting able to authenticate charge and harder plan can alone be a acceptable thing. Keren Mitchell, managing administrator of The Job Crowd, a alum job analysis site, says that candidates badly charge to acquisition means to angle out.
“Applicants charge examples of the key attributes that advisers attending for such as administration and teamworking skills. DoE is a abundant way to accomplish a lot of these in one go, admitting graduates charge to yield time to appearance how their DoE acquaintance is accordant to the role that they are applying for,” he says.
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