Firstly, I have completed all the required DofE training, and have access to EDofE myself… however, I’m pretty confident it hasn’t explained how Cadets can sign up to EDofE and how to assign me as a leader?
Secondly, anyone got any good examples of what they got the cadets to do for bronze service / volunteering etc? Back when I was a cadet my rank got me my service, I think my staff cadet got me my knowledge or something similar, so the only thing we needed to do was the expedition!
There are a couple of ideas on the training such as Cadets, running stores, or the canteen, but that is generally limited to a small number of cadets and, let’s just say, we may have some concerns with them not doing it properly!! (And it’s hardly an hour per week like it should be in the regs)
As each Wing does this slightly differently, speak to your Wing DofE Officer on how the Cadets purchase the participant place (some want it via paperwork, others have an MS Forms process). Once the paperwork is complete and payment made, the Wing DofE Officer will purchase the place and allocate it to your Squadron pot for the Squadron DofE Leader to create the participant place. Some Wing DofE Officers create the places too rather than letting Sqn DofE Leaders do it, so again speak to your Wing DofE Officer. They should have a guide to send you on how your wing does it.
When the place is created from your Sqn pot, it will automatically assign the Sqn DofE leaders to that account. When you then login to your edofe account you will see the cadets on your Sqn.
In terms of this, I did my “Volunteering” in my role as Stores Officer on my Sqn, if my memory serves me correctly…the “Skill” was learning the ropes of Adj, and assisting with organisation on the Sqn as a result of that. Mind you, I just scraped my Bronze by the skin of my teeth before turning last year, because I didn’t pick it back up until I was back on the Sqn as a CFAV (uni didn’t offer much that wouldn’t mean forking out a tonne)!
new participants are enrolled via your wing DofE officer. There are costs for licences which are handled at this level. Once they’re in your system and allocated to your Unit you’ll be able to see them in eDofE too.
Upon sign up they will receive a welcome email.
I have a handy little guide to “things an Air Cadet can use for each section”:
For volunteering I have found Surfers Against Sewage for litter picking (dont need to be near a beach), they have their own assessor and provide the equipment. Oxfam charity shop happily take under 16’s. Parkrun’s are always calling out for volunteers.
For skills the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Stem team have some grat 3 or 6 month courses that can be done with their own dofe assessor. We also sometimes use classification training for Bronze Skill.
For Gold residential I used a camp with the ACF. Annual camps can normalltybe tricky to use as you already know people, but I didn’t know anyone in the ACF!
Pretty sure on my gold I used being a FS/CWO, and that was circa 2014 I think, so after the change.
It’s all about how you word it! I listed all the volunteering aspects of being that rank. Teaching, managing NCOs, organising and running camps etc etc.
These days, each sqn only gets a couple of spaces on a camp and so the majority of participants are likely to be unknown to the average cadet (unless they’re really involved at wing level: in which case there are things like RIAT and courses). I used a wing AT camp.
I have found a challenge with my cadets to find a physical and skill. So I have got some cadets who live out in the countryside don’t play any sports or part of any clubs/hobbies apart from cadets really. So struggle to what you get them to do. like ive got another who wants to do running but does it on his own which makes it difficult to provide evidence also nobody to be his assessor as it can’t be family.
Can you not be their assessor for something like this?
We have Cadets who use things like running or mountain biking for their physical. They will come up with a rough plan at the start then use sport tracking apps like strava or garmin to log each activity. They can upload screen grabs of these activities into eDofE meaning you can review and sign off the evidence as they go.
I see lots of awards for verification where Cadets have done physical activities on their own for various reasons. As long as the activity and the goals are agreed in advance there are no issues with a member of Sqn staff being the assessor. Whilst the assessor report is the only thing that is actually needed for an award to be verified, it is really lovely to see lots of evidence added by the participant and it often fills gaps in the assessor report, meaning we don’t have to send it back for query. Apps such as Strava are great for logging activity but equally a long list of dates, times and what they did is just as good.
Whatever the activity, remember it is unique to that person, someone may find getting out of the house and going for a walk a huge challenge so why not use walking? Whereas the next person may go and run 5k without breaking a sweat so their goal might be to train for and run a half marathon.
Have a look at the physical section activities on the DofE website and you will find something they can do.
Likewise for the other sections, the DofE website has lots of resources to help participants find activities.
A common one for skill I see is classifications, what else you can use within RAFAC will depend on what your Sqn can offer.
