Former Bridgwater & Taunton College (BTC) students recently attended the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Gold Award celebration event in London.

Attended by Prince Edward, The Duke of Edinburgh, at Buckingham Palace, the event celebrates the outstanding achievement of being awarded the DofE Gold Award.

Founded in 1956, the Duke of Edinburgh Award is a registered charity that seeks to develop essential skills for life and work.

Anyone between 14 to 24 years old can do a DofE programme at one of three progressive levels, each leading to a Bronze, Silver or Gold Award.

Bradley Croucher, Maddie Brinkley, Alice Wilkin and Megan Bates were all awarded a golden badge or brooch prior to the event, acknowledging their hard work and dedication to the programme.

The scheme entails succeeding at five different sections: Volunteering, Physical, Skills, Expedition and Residential.

In order to consider these sections ‘complete’, participants must complete various activities, from volunteer work in a charity and consistently playing a sport, to completing an unaccompanied expedition and undertaking a shared activity in a residential setting away from home.

Cath Clark, DofE Coordinator, said,

It was wonderful to see our ex BTC students receive their Gold DofE Award at Buckingham Palace last month. All four of the college students have completed all three levels of the Award starting off at their secondary schools and then continuing at college.

Their commitment throughout their Award at times has been particularly challenging with COVID, studying, part time jobs and other commitments but their ‘reward’ was eventually to complete their five sections of their Gold Award and receive their certificate and badge at the garden party with Prince Edward, The Duke of Edinburgh.

A fantastic achievement by our students which as the DofE Coordinator for the College I am very proud of.

If you’d like to get involved, or are just interesting in finding out more about The Duke of Edinburgh scheme, please visit www.btc.ac.uk, email student.union@btc.ac.uk, or come to one of our events.