The Student Room Group

Is It Worth Finishing Bronze and Silver DofE After Leaving School?

I’ve completed my Bronze DofE, including the expedition (walking) section, and I also completed the expedition for Silver. However, the person who was responsible for signing me off has since left the school, and we now have a new instructor.

At the time, I recorded everything for Bronze on the paper sheets we were given. I think I could find those if I had a proper look. I've recently realised that all the information needs to be uploaded to eDofE, but I'm no longer in contact with the people who signed off my Physical section (swimming) and Skills section (LAMDA), as I’ve left the school and my school email has been deleted.

As for Silver, I’ve only completed the expedition—I hadn’t started logging anything else, so I’d be starting fresh with the other sections.

My mum could call the school to ask for help accessing my eDofE account, and I’ve got some spare time now, so I’d really like to get everything sorted and properly signed off. What would be the best way to move forward, especially since I can’t contact my original assessors and is it worth it just to add it to my cv.
Sort of depends, really. From your post history it sounds like you're looking to apply to a lot of entry-level roles and apprenticeships that don't require specific qualifications. I'd say with that context it probably is worthwhile (especially if you currently have a small amount of previous work experience). If you reach a point where you have several years of work experience it starts being less worthwhile including it on your CV.

I think DofE can also sometimes be useful if applying to public sector roles i.e. teaching, working in a library (because volunteering is a mandatory element), as it shows willingness to be engaged with your community - but that's mostly speculation.

Your old school will have general contact details. You may just have to call the front desk reception and explain that you left the school recently - they may be able to give you an email for the assessors you need to contact (as long as you know their names!) - then hopefully they'll get back to you. Your sports section of Bronze could probably be signed off again by someone else as long as you had proper documentation for it, but the expedition would be harder.

Reply 2

Original post
by aspalax
Sort of depends, really. From your post history it sounds like you're looking to apply to a lot of entry-level roles and apprenticeships that don't require specific qualifications. I'd say with that context it probably is worthwhile (especially if you currently have a small amount of previous work experience). If you reach a point where you have several years of work experience it starts being less worthwhile including it on your CV.
I think DofE can also sometimes be useful if applying to public sector roles i.e. teaching, working in a library (because volunteering is a mandatory element), as it shows willingness to be engaged with your community - but that's mostly speculation.
Your old school will have general contact details. You may just have to call the front desk reception and explain that you left the school recently - they may be able to give you an email for the assessors you need to contact (as long as you know their names!) - then hopefully they'll get back to you. Your sports section of Bronze could probably be signed off again by someone else as long as you had proper documentation for it, but the expedition would be harder.


Thanks for the reply. I think I’ll give it a shot since it makes sense I’ve got some spare time, and I’m still in good contact with the school because I resat my Maths GCSE there this June.

For the Silver award, it makes sense to finish it off, and for Bronze, it’s just a matter of getting it signed off since I’ve already completed everything.

I might struggle a bit with the eDofE system, though, because my previous teachers recorded everything on paper rather than online. Hopefully, I can ask someone how to transfer that over, even though the staff who helped me before have now left the school.
Original post
by GGwyneth
Thanks for the reply. I think I’ll give it a shot since it makes sense I’ve got some spare time, and I’m still in good contact with the school because I resat my Maths GCSE there this June.

For the Silver award, it makes sense to finish it off, and for Bronze, it’s just a matter of getting it signed off since I’ve already completed everything.

I might struggle a bit with the eDofE system, though, because my previous teachers recorded everything on paper rather than online. Hopefully, I can ask someone how to transfer that over, even though the staff who helped me before have now left the school.


Sure - best of luck with it.
eDofE may require you to digitise some of the paperwork but there's some pretty good image scanners that can extract text now - so if you scanned the paper and used something like Google Lens to extract the text it shouldn't be too bad. I'm pretty sure it will also let you upload image scans etc... Although it's been a while since my DofE Bronze!

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