The Covid-19 pandemic has been instrumental in shaping the experience Ruth Marvel has had leading the Duke of Edinburgh’s (DofE) Award since taking on the role in late 2019. The history graduate from the University of Cambridge and fellow of the Clore Social Leadership Programme has not only steered the youth development programme safely through the choppy waters of the pandemic but also grown its reach since joining from Girlguiding.
The award, launched in 1956 by the late Prince Philip, now operates in 130 countries and territories across the world and hopes to be offered in almost every mainstream secondary school by 2025. The programme is open to 14- to 24-year-olds, who undertake a series of physical, skills and expedition challenges linked to volunteering to achieve bronze, silver and gold awards.
It feels like the DofE Award has been more visible recently. Is that a deliberate strategy?
Our 2021 strategy was partly about wanting to focus on our impact as a charity – in terms of the impact we have on young people through the programme, but also our ability to use our brand, scale and presence to be able to make the case with parliamentarians for why investing in young people and youth work is so important. Youth work can sometimes be the poor cousin – it’s only when it’s not there anymore that people realise how impactful and valuable it is.
What are the key factors for record levels of participation in the award?
We were absolutely determined to keep the DofE Award going throughout the pandemic. One of my proudest moments as a leader was that we were able to continue to provide some structure, routine, purpose and focus for 330,000 young people when they effectively had the rug pulled out from them.
Our leaders and volunteers saw how important it was to give young people these kinds of opportunities. We saw in some cases whole year groups being enrolled for the award and increases in schools wanting to provide that enrichment and wellbeing support and prioritising social and emotional development.
I’m encouraged that increasingly schools are talking to us about wanting to put wellbeing and young people’s holistic development right at the heart of their offer, and it’s not just about the exam results.
You’ve a stated an aim to reach more young people from disadvantaged groups. What have you done to achieve that?
In 2021, we set a target to reach one million young people by 2026. We’re well on the way to achieving that and I hope we might achieve that slightly earlier than planned. Also, we want to make sure we’re reaching the most marginalised young people who often don’t take part in extracurricular activities or such developmental opportunities. A particular focus has been on young people with additional needs and disabilities, young people from non-white British backgrounds, and those in the most deprived areas. We’re also now working in 40 young offender institutions and are starting to explore whether we can work with young people on probation. We see the impact that the programmes have on aspirations and sense of self-belief, particularly in young people in the criminal justice system.
You’re working on an education enrichment pilot. How does that work?
The pilot is exploring how schools can partner with community and voluntary sector youth provision to be able to offer an enhanced, high-quality and diverse enrichment offer to young people. We are quite unusual in that we have a big presence in schools as well as [with] uniformed youth groups and community youth work. Schools and the community and voluntary youth sectors aren’t often very well connected, yet both provide really important sources of enrichment activity and non-formal education opportunities. The pilot is about exploring what works most effectively and trying out community co-ordinator-type functions to see if we can get the two sides of the coin better plugged together. Hopefully with the outcome that we see improved access to good quality, diverse enrichment and non-formal education activities.
Why is non-formal education so important today?
We ought to be thinking about enrichment as a fundamental entitlement of all young people. The impact that can have on things like confidence and self-belief, communication, problem solving, are skills that prove useful in the workplace, particularly for young people for whom academic work is harder.
We’re keen to see some government recognition of the value of this and to take steps to ensure that it is something every young person is able to participate in.
How have you honed your leadership philosophy?
I’ve always been passionate about the ability of the charitable sector to drive social change. This feels like a wonderful leadership role to have and be able to drive change at the DofE Award and making ourselves as accessible, relevant and impactful as possible.
My starting point for leadership is always about purpose – why are we here and what are we here to do? Working in the voluntary sector [gives] that sense of purpose but the responsibility as a leader is to be able to articulate and be clear about how we are going to have the impact we’re trying to have.
Ruth Marvel - CV
-
Oct 2019 onwards: chief executive, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
-
Oct 2018-Oct 2019: Acting chief executive, Girlguiding
-
June 2016-Oct 2018: Deputy chief executive, Girlguiding
-
Mar 2014-May 2016: Director of strategy and innovation, Scope
-
Sept 2008-Feb 2014: Director of policy and campaigns, Scope
