Exeter teen one of just 31 chosen to advocate for young people as a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Youth Ambassador
A 16-year-old from Exeter has been selected as a UK Youth Ambassador for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE), after finding confidence, new friendships and a love of hiking.
Josh Berry joins a cohort of just 31 DofE Award holders aged 16-24 from all over the UK, who will advocate for young people by sharing their experiences on key issues impacting them. Together, they will make young people’s voices heard by speaking at events, meeting key decision-makers in Parliament and beyond, and feeding into decisions to shape the direction of the DofE charity’s work.
Josh did his DofE through St James School in Exeter, where he was encouraged by his friends to sign up for Bronze. He was initially daunted by the prospect of the Volunteering section, but the experience turned out to be transformative.
Josh said: “I was nervous about meeting new people, but once I started volunteering, I realised how much I enjoyed connecting with others and hearing their stories.”
‘Connecting with others’
Josh volunteered at a Barnardo’s charity shop, walking an hour each way to complete his shifts. He spent most of his time sorting donations and formed a lasting friendship with a fellow volunteer from a different generation.
His Bronze expedition in North Devon was a memorable mix of extremes; scorching heat during the practice and relentless rain during the qualifier.
Josh said: “The rain attacking us was unexpected and definitely tested our group’s friendships. We argued for half an hour, then made up and laughed about it. Hopefully the next one’s less soggy!”
For his Bronze Physical section, Josh started hiking with friends around the local area. When he began his Silver Award, he decided to take this new hobby up a level, and signed up for the Ten Tors challenge, an annual hike across Dartmoor.
Josh said: “I couldn’t believe we’d managed to walk 35 miles across the Tors. Training for it was hard work, but my DofE gave me a lot of extra motivation, and I kept consistent. 2,000 teenagers took part in this challenge and there was a big conga line involved! Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish the challenge due to team illness at the penultimate Tor, but even to get as far as we did felt like a huge achievement!”
Josh credits DofE with helping him discover a love for hiking and the outdoors. Josh added: “Before DofE, I’d stay in bed and rot. Now I want to go walking instead. It’s changed how I spend my time. My advice for anyone thinking about doing their DofE is to throw yourself into it. You never know what you’ll discover about yourself.”
'Throw yourself in’
Josh also represented the DofE at the Conservative Party Conference in October, where he called on politicians to show their support for young people by backing an Enrichment Guarantee – 80 hours of high-quality enrichment activities per year for all young people, as part of the Government’s National Youth Strategy.
Funded by The Gosling Foundation, the Youth Ambassador programme puts young people front and centre as future leaders, involving them in shaping the DofE’s work to benefit other young people.
DofE Youth Ambassadors have met Ministers and MPs, spoken at high-profile events such as party conferences and DofE Gold Award celebrations in Buckingham Palace Garden, represented the DofE at international forums and played a pivotal role feeding into key decisions across the charity.
Ashley Williams, UK Youth Engagement Manager at The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, said:
“Josh has achieved incredible things through his DofE. As a charity, we’re committed to putting young people at the heart of everything we do and give them the opportunity to make a positive, lasting impact on the issues they are passionate about. I am excited to see the impact that our new cohort of Youth Ambassadors will make this year.
“It is a challenging time to be a young person, with cutbacks to youth services, rising living costs, and a mental health and school attendance crisis. Now more than ever, it’s crucial that all young people can access opportunities like the DofE, which let them have fun, grow their resilience and self-belief, and develop vital skills they can’t always get in the classroom.”
A record-breaking number of young people started their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award across the UK in 2024-25, with 572,802 young people actively taking part, 342,412 young people starting their Award – and participants contributing an astonishing 5.2 million hours of volunteering, with an estimated total value of £33.4 million.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award wants to see 1.6 million young people start their DofE by Spring 2026. It has launched ambitious projects to fund schools and community organisations in the UK’s most deprived areas to start offering the DofE, to expand into more prisons and young offender institutions, and to support more young people with additional needs and disabilities to achieve their DofE Awards.
