Duke of Edinburgh: their website says that they give “all young people the chance to develop skills for work and life, fulfil their potential and have a brighter future”. However, is this really the case?


In the current economic climate, we are constantly hearing about how hard it is to find jobs. Yet we often forget how this affects youths, causing them to lack motivation and confidence in themselves. Programmes like DofE once helped young people to rediscover their confidence, but now they are just another sign of the failing economy, and opportunity disappearing.


Recently, Waltham Forest, amongst many other boroughs across the country, has faced cuts from the government to public services such as the Youth Service. Consequently, the Outset Centre in Walthamstow which runs the Duke of Edinburgh award (DofE) has been limited to organising only the Bronze DofE expedition, which is a part of the most basic level of DofE. To achieve their Bronze award, a young person must spend 3-6 months completing the physical, skill and volunteering sections of the award, as well as going on a 2 day expedition. As the level increases (up to Gold), these time frames get longer, and for the Gold award there is an additional residential section, which takes place over the course of a week. Unfortunately, the cuts have meant that many young people in Waltham Forest interested in completing the award at any level have had to be turned away, including everyone wishing to do DofE at Silver or above.


“The whole idea of this year’s motto was to inspire a generation, and now that they’ve taken it away from us, it’s really upsetting” said one DofE hopeful. “Now that they’ve cut DofE, there’s another thing that we can’t put on our CV, and another thing that will make it harder for us to get into university, or to get future employers interested in us” said another, who after being inspired by Bronze, was turned away from Silver.


Looking around at the sad faces of many DofE hopefuls, one could certainly see a mutual sense of disappointment amongst them. The majority of the hopefuls said that they had wanted to do Silver/Gold DofE to help them get into University, or that they had really enjoyed completing their Bronze, and had desperately hoped to do Silver. Sadly, they all had to be turned away because of the cuts.


So, is the government making the right decisions when it comes to cutting funding for the Youth Service? Is it right to take away young people’s opportunities in order to save money? Any question involving government spending causes disagreements, but very soon, some of those questions will have to be answered.