The President’s Award
About the Award
Not all learning happens in the classroom – and the skills that shape your future often come from real world experience.
The President’s Award is a leading youth development programme in South Africa designed for young people aged 14 to 24. It helps youth build confidence, leadership skills, and practical experience that prepares them for work, study, and life.
Through a structured journey, participants take part in:
Why it matters
This isn’t a competition. It’s a personal journey that challenges participants to discover and develop themselves at their own pace.
The President’s Award gives you a clear, proven path to do exactly that.
Award Levels
Bronze
Your very first Award, and a brilliant place to begin. Build the confidence and habits to keep growing.
Silver
A bigger challenge, with deeper skills and a tougher team adventure. Where your confidence starts to shine.
Gold
The full journey, plus a residential project. The highest level, where you become truly world ready.
Award Sections
The Award is made up of four sections at each level, with a fifth one completing the Gold Level. Participants are challenged to engage with each section for a minimum of one hour per week under each level.
Voluntary Service is about making a meaningful contribution in your community, influencing change and shaping the world you want to live in. Look for an activity that’s meaningful to you. You can volunteer alone or in a team, in person or online.
- Social enterprises
- Charities
- Not-for-profit organisations
Skills is about developing personal interests and practical, social skills. Keep learning and get better at your activity throughout the section. From podcasting to playing an instrument, fine art to web design, cookery to learning to drive, the possibilities are wide open.
- Cooking
- Playing an instrument
- Learning a language
- Acting, drama and theatre
- Life skills
Physical Recreation is about improving your fitness and building a healthy lifestyle through activity. Choose any sport, dance or fitness activity, anything that needs a sustained level of energy and physical effort. You can use general fitness instead of a specific sport, like jogging or the gym, or do a mix.
The Adventurous Journey is about developing initiative and a spirit of adventure and discovery. You’ll plan, train for and complete a journey as part of a team, on foot, by bicycle, boat, canoe, kayak, wheelchair or horseback.
- Agree on a team goal
- Plan your journey
- Do a practice expedition for Silver and Gold
- Complete your qualifying expedition
- Be self-reliant throughout
- Give a final presentation
Unique to Gold, the Residential Project sees you spend five days and four nights away from home on a shared activity with people you have not met before. It is a chance to broaden your horizons, work with new people and build real independence.
Hear from our Award holders
The Award means a great deal to me because it has taught me things that most people only learn much later in life. It has prepared me for many challenges to come in my adulthood. The values I learnt while doing the Award and still live by are leadership, appreciation of community and self-belief. My number one goal/purpose is to make a positive difference in the world.
While doing the Award, I learned that hard work and determination can get you through anything and never give up when things seem tough. I have scoliosis so I found the Adventurous Journeys challenging and I found balancing schoolwork, the President’s Award, and social life difficult. Through the Award, I have found my passion for outreach, making lifelong friends and the achievements of completing each level.
I would like to see change in our society. We need to transform our communities and to have less crime. The President’s Award can break the cycle of crime in communities by creating opportunities for youth to be engaged in positive activities like sport, service, adventure and skills development which can change their lives. If it changed me, in prison, I know it can change young people in the community as well.
Recognition and impact
As you complete each level of the Award, you receive an official certificate and badge recognizing your achievement.
In South Africa, these certificates are endorsed at a national level, including recognition associated with the Office of the President under Cyril Ramaphosa. Globally, the Award forms part of a wider network of youth development programmes aligned with The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Foundation, making it respected by employers, universities, and institutions around the world.
Becoming World Ready
Achieving an Award will give you skills, confidence and an edge over others when you apply for college, university or a job.
Beyond your academic achievements, universities want to see evidence of so called ‘soft skills’ that you have developed through extra-curricular activities, such as communication, commitment, leadership and teamwork. Your President’s Award is a fantastic way to demonstrate these skills in practice.
71% of business leaders and 63% of young people asserted that formal education alone is not enough to equip young people to be world ready.
Theory of Change
For the thousands of young people who take part in developing themselves through the Award each year, the benefits of achieving The President’s Award at any level are endless. The Award is about helping you along the path to a productive and prosperous future. As many of our participants say, it’s life-changing experience.
You’ll also make a difference to other people’s lives and your community, be fitter and healthier, make new friends and have memories to last you a lifetime.
Global Award Alumni Network
We are excited to share that South Africa has launched its Alumni platform on the Global Award Alumni Network. It is a global networking platform for people that have completed their Bronze/Silver/Gold. One of the benefits is that registered Alumni will also have access to available opportunities such as internships, scholarships, employment, etc.
