South Ayrshire young people who were presented with their gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award by His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh recently met eleven young people from South Ayrshire at the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh who have successfully completed the Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
The event gave the Gold participants an opportunity to tell His Royal Highness about the way in which participating in the scheme has changed their lives.
There are two ways of working towards a Gold award. If you are over 16 years of age and have already achieved a Bronze and Silver award you can work over 12 months by completing: a volunteering section; 6 months on physical activity; 6 months skills, plan, train for and complete a 4 day 3 night expedition and also undertake a shared activity in a residential setting away from home for 5 days and 4 nights.
If you choose to jump straight into the Gold award level you will have to complete a further 6 months on either volunteering or whichever one of your physical or skills activities you spent the most time on.
Monique Mahadik, Russell Cathcart, Rachel Offer, Rebecca McPherson, Adam Hunter, Jodie Dodds, Emma Donaldson, Laura Hamilton and Lauren Rogers from Belmont Academy along with Rachel Milloy and Matthew Barr from Queen Margaret Academy all received Gold awards.
Councillor Hywel Davies, Lifelong Learning Portfolio Holder said: "More and more young people in South Ayrshire are interested in taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme. We have established very strong links between the Award scheme, the Curriculum for Excellence and other initiatives in our schools.
"Taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme enables young people between the ages of 14 and 24 to improve their confidence, become more involved in their local community and experience a wide range of activities.
"The Gold award winners are a credit to South Ayrshire and I wish all of them well in the future."
Here are just a few of the comments made by the South Ayrshire young people who were presented with a Gold award:
"It helped me build my confidence and life skills I will need in the future."
"I really enjoyed doing my DofE, it was good fun and I got the chance to experience new things I would never have tried before like hillwalking."
"It helped me gain confidence and experience in team work. I believe doing my DofE also helped open doors to jobs I wouldn't have been able to get before."
"The skills and knowledge I gained through the sailing training and expedition has helped me with my nautical university course. I really enjoyed being a part of the DofE because my team was great and we really bonded well throughout."
"It was really good and I am glad I did it. It has helped me learn how to work as part of a team and I have made some good friends from doing the DofE."
For further information about the Duke of Edinburgh's Award log on to www.dofe.org