A “skill”, as far as DofE is concerned, is an activity that will allow you to prove you have broadened your understanding and increased your expertise in your chosen skill. It should not be a physical activity, for example horse riding, as this counts towards your Physical section, however, you could choose to learn about caring for horses.

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 Skills 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.

Rules for the Skills section

  • 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.
  • 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.

Ideas for the Skills 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 - examples for this can be seen linked below.

Typing Club - Learn how to touch type (type without looking) here.

IBM Skills Builder Courses - Different courses such as working with AI, cybersecurity and web development are available here.

Be In The Kitchen - Specialist courses designed for the DofE programme are delivered here and can be completed in your own home.

There are a lot of other options, some of which are listed on the document below:

Frequently Asked Questions - Skills

Check out the link below for frequently asked questions about the skills section. If your question isn't answered here, please do see Mr Robinson.

Skills Section FAQs - The Duke of Edinburgh's Award - This page has all of the FAQs for the skills section.