A “skill”, as far as DofE is concerned, is a hobby or activity that you do regularly, at least one hour a week.
This page explains how to start your skill, what activities you can do, for how long and how to finish. There are lots of opportunities to do skills in groups or individually.
How to start your Skill section
- First, find an adult to be your Assessor with interest in your Skill. Ask them if they can be your assessor.
- Talk to them to agree dates, times and goals. Finding an appropriate assessor for unusual skills can be difficult and might limit your choice of skill… so think early…WHO can I ask to assess me? You may be able to ask your Form Tutor or another teacher.
- Talk to DofE staff if you are unsure about whether your skill counts.
- Submit your activity details for approval on eDofE so that they can be checked before you start anything.
- Keep evidence as a log of dates. If possible find further ways to show that you are making progress e.g. photo evidence of progress to upload to eDofE.
What activities count for the Skill section?
- Music based skills - playing a musical instrument or singing
- Cooking or baking
- Games such as chess, snooker, shooting or card games
- Making things e.g. knitting, woodworking, jewellery
- Gardening (if learning new skills)
- Painting, drawing or photography
- Drama - if you are taking part in the school production you can count this as your Skill
- Learning a new language or other new knowledge (but not what you are studying in school!)
- Bird watching, meteorology etc.
- Online courses (e.g. to learn how to type www.typingclub.com/ or look at the IBM skills builder courses students-auth.skillsbuild.org/signup?type=educator&utm_campaign=Adults_IBMSolus_21112023&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_content=&utm_medium=email ) or cooking courses: beinthekitchen.co.uk/onlinecourses
There are a lot of other options, some of which are listed on the DofE resources page:
A SHORT intensive period of activity squashed into a few days will NOT COUNT e.g. an intensive four day course learning something would NOT count for your Skill. Please ASK before you book anything so that we can advise you before you spend any money on courses.
Remember…
- Sports do not count as Skills. So playing football, hockey, table tennis or doing swimming, dancing, ballet etc etc are PHYSICAL and NOT SKILLS!
- Learning a sport or an aspect of a sport does NOT count as a skill.
- Bike maintenance is a skill, cycling is a sport.
- Canoeing is a sport, canoe building is a skill.
- Life saving is a Volunteering activity, learning to life save on a course is a skill.
How to complete the Skill Section
- Make sure you have completed the correct timescale, including adding any gaps for breaks and holidays so that your total time adds up to the total required to pass.
- Get your evidence together to show your Assessor and upload it to eDofE.
- You can now ask your Assessor to sign up your eDofE report card (which is in the Welcome Pack you received when you signed up). They should write a report on your participation, commitment, progress and achievement. Upload their report to edofe and mark as Assessor Report.
- Alternatively, ask your assessor to use this website www.dofe.org/assessor to type in their report direct to your eDofE account. They will need your eDofE number.