Promoting holistic learning with The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award

We are committed to connecting our learners with opportunities to learn, grow and apply their knowledge through lessons inside the classroom and experiences outside the classroom. By offering The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award as a framework for non-formal education and learning alongside Cambridge programmes, educators around the world can provide students with a holistic education through the development of invaluable soft skills. These include leadership, teamwork, confidence and resilience.

By promoting the Award and its world-renowned framework for non-formal education and learning, we can offer our schools new ways to broaden their curriculum and provide opportunities for learners to contribute to their communities and the wider world.

Helping to challenge young people

When the Award sits alongside the Cambridge curriculum, this creates opportunities for young people to develop skills, become physically active, give service to their local community and experience adventure.

About the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award

Open to all young people aged 14 to 24, regardless of background, the Award is genuinely inclusive. It can be a powerful tool to support young people leading particularly challenging lives – such as those with a disability or living in poverty, young parents, refugees, young offenders, and those who are at risk or marginalised.

Just as no two young people are the same, no two Awards are the same. While the Award’s framework remains the same wherever it is delivered, each young person designs and creates their own bespoke programme, unique to them and their situation.

The Award is delivered via hundreds of thousands of youth-focused partners and operators, including schools, youth organisations, exam boards and youth offender institutions. The skills and qualities that the Award helps young people to develop can change their lives, and the lives of others. It grows awareness and understanding. It empowers participants to reach out beyond their situation to build a new future. We want every young person to have this opportunity; to have equal access to the Award.

The Award is comprised of three levels and four sections:

• Bronze – for those over 14 years old
• Silver – for those over 15 years old
• Gold – for those over 16 years old.

Participants complete all four sections at each level to achieve their Award. At Gold level, they also complete a residential project.

“The Award has encouraged me to get more involved in my community. I am developing my leadership skills as well as teamwork.” - Student at Singapore National Academy, Indonesia

Skills and the workplace

In a poll of more than 500 senior managers commissioned by The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in the UK, 98 per cent thought that young people should invest more time enhancing their soft skills. Nine in ten of the business leaders surveyed revealed they are more likely to employ a candidate who demonstrates achievements beyond grades. What’s more, those who show evidence of strong soft skills often progress more quickly in the workplace.

“The Award has been brought up in job interviews and has been a great point of discussion for the interviewer to get to know me better. It motivated me to study and work within the environmental sector, and I now have a degree in Environmental Science.” - Cambridge student in Aotearoa/New Zealand

How schools have implemented both programmes

“We introduced the Award in 2003 to provide students with an opportunity to develop a number of core skills such as leadership, teamwork and confidence. It supports our aim of providing students with a holistic education which complements the academic Cambridge programmes we offer.” - Robyn Pryor, Deputy Principal at ACG Strathallan, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Read more student and teacher stories in the left-hand panel to find out how Cambridge International Schools are successfully running The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award.

Promote the Award in your school

Promoting the Award offers the opportunity for learners to receive recognition for achievement in non-formal learning they may already be involved in, by applying activities to the unparalleled framework the Award provides.

The majority (84 per cent) of Cambridge International Schools offer some type of non-formal education. This is mainly in the form of after-school clubs (83 per cent) and volunteering opportunities (66 per cent). These activities are recognised by the Award framework, meaning learners can easily put them towards achieving an Award.

The Award is currently offered in 130 countries that Cambridge operates in, with over 1 million learners participating globally.

Many of the criteria for becoming a Cambridge International School or an Award Centre are the same which simplifies the application and approval process for those that are already one or the other. Cambridge schools offering the Award will have:

• access to a promotional toolkit exclusively tailored to Cambridge schools
• the opportunity to publicise the school via our website and newsletters.

Duke of Edinburgh expression of interest (DOCX, 54KB)