GETTING STARTED The Award Program is open to anyone between the ages of 14 and 24.

"The Prince Makhosini Award" has, according to award organisers, processed 106 young people through the programme since it was reinstated in 2007. Despite the long history of the programme in India, only about 19,000 youth annually participate.

The prestige, scope and awareness of these awards vary from country to country and often – unlike awards programmes in The Award was established in Australia in 1959 on the initiative of Sir Adrien Curlewis CVO CBE (son of Over 775,000 young Australians have now completed their Award and approximately 45,000 are actively participating in the Award program each year, supported by a network of 60,000 volunteers acting as Award Leaders, supervisors and assessors.The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award can be found in over 1,200 locations and institutions across Australia including cities, rural and remote areas, through Government and independent schools, universities, Indigenous communities, refugee support programs, detention centres, community organisations, disability groups and other youth programs.Participation in the Award has been available for many years at India awards the "International Award for Young People" to youth who complete a self-improvement programme based on the Duke of Edinburgh's award model.

Despite the fact that there have been fewer than ten gold medal winners in eight years, there has been an exponential increase of the number of applicants in Korea. It is being increasingly sought to provide a framework for youth-at-risk, providing them with a positive, affirming alternative to the social challenges which they face within their communities. It’s your choice which one and, though you can change your mind later, you should decide which section you want to do for longer at the beginning.

At the 4th forum, held in November 1991 in Hong Kong, Zambia was given a provisional membership of the International Award Association. The programmes are at three progressive levels which, if successfully completed, lead to a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The family settled in Paris, and Prince Philip was educated in France, England and Germany. Over 6 million young people in the UK have taken part in the DofE in the UK since 1956 (8 million worldwide).In 2009, the old system of keeping track of progress through paper Record Books was replaced by the introduction of a major new online system – The Duke of Edinburgh's Award programmes take between one and four years to complete, and they must be completed by the participant's twenty-fifth birthday. According to the Award Programme Foundation, implementation of awards are undertaken by 154 local institutions, including governments, NGOs and universities.

In 2015 the "Prémio Infante D. Henrique" validated with success its international license of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and adopted the international brand with an "Endorsement: Proud to Be the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award in Portugal"In Singapore, the award is referred to as "National Youth Achievement Award". Participation in DofE programmes and the number of awards achieved has grown every year since 1956. In the mid-1990s, the Award got a new lease of life when private schools began to adopt the Award, reporting directly to the International Secretariat in London in the absence of a National Award Authority. There are three levels to the Award:

It reached its peak in 2011, which recorded 3,500 applicants and there are over 6,000 young people, who have completed their awards by 2015. These include: community service, learning a new skill, a residential project, physical activity, and an adventurous journey. The applicants have to be in an age in between 14 and 25 years old.

The Award Programme is not a once off intervention but is a longer term process, taking between 3 and 5 years to complete all three levels of Bronze, Silver, and Gold. At this point, slight name variations arose in different private schools depending on organisers; however, the integrity of the award is still maintained.
As of 2017, roughly 420,000 young people were taking part in Duke of Edinburgh's Award programmes run in nearly 11,000 designated DofE centres – including schools, youth clubs and businesses – throughout the UK.

A single programme for young people aged 14 to 21 was launched in 1969, and extended to those up to 25 years of age in 1980. The President's Award has a full licence to operate the Award in South Africa, from the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation, which oversees Award Programmes in over 140 countries globally, with 25 of these being in Africa.
Bronze timescales. To achieve an award, the participant must work on each section for a minimum period of time, and must be monitored and assessed by someone with knowledge of the chosen activities.

Knowing how long you’re going to do it for will help you to choose your activity and set your goals for each section.It will take you at least 6 months for Silver if you’ve already achieved your Bronze, or 12 months if you’ve jumped straight into Silver.If you didn’t do Bronze, you must undertake a further 6 months in either the Volunteering or the longer of the Physical or Skills sections.For Gold, you’ll need to do your programme for at least 12 months if you’ve achieved your Silver Award, or 18 months if you’ve started at Gold level without doing your Silver – even if you’ve done Bronze.

In 1990, a National Youth Award Committee was elected and operated under the National Youth Development Council (NYDC). President Late Wee Kim Wee at the Istana.In its 33-year history of youth engagement in South Africa, the Award Programme has reached over 150,000 young people in the country.