Creating a single source of truth, learning and support for nearly 40,000 adult volunteers
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award: 'Learning Platform and Pathways'
- Client Testemonial
“I’ve worked with Jason for over six years, building on a Snowfish and DofE relationship that goes back more than two decades. What we do together feels much less like a conventional client and vendor relationship and much more like a genuine partnership.
Jason combines strategic thinking, deep learning design expertise and the technical ability to bring ideas to life. He led us through a rigorous platform selection process, then worked alongside us to create our first learning pathways in just four months, without compromising their quality.
The real difference is that Jason does not simply deliver a solution and leave. He works alongside you, shares his expertise and builds capability within your team. I wholeheartedly recommend him to anyone looking for a true learning partner who will strategise with you, build with you and leave you better equipped than he found you.
Christina Freeman,
Network Training and Development Manager
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
Reimagining adult volunteer learning: From information overload to effective support
When generic, front-loaded face-to-face training was no longer meeting volunteers’ needs, we led a close collaboration with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award’s network learning team to reimagine adult volunteer learning at the DofE by implementing a new learning platform and creating and implementing role-based learning and ongoing support pathways at scale.
Nearly 40,000 adult volunteers help make the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award possible. They perform many different roles, often alongside demanding jobs and family lives, and their knowledge, confidence and judgement directly affect the experiences of hundreds of thousands of young people.
For many years, adult volunteer learning was delivered primarily through intensive regional face-to-face training. This created valuable opportunities for human contact, but the experience varied between locations and often required new volunteers to absorb a huge amount of information before they had begun performing their roles.
Snowfish had already worked with the DofE as a trusted learning partner for many years. We understood the organisation, knew the audience and had seen the strengths and limitations of the existing approach first-hand.
Working closely with the DofE Network Learning Team, Snowfish helped champion and shape a different vision: learning organised around what each volunteer needed to know, understand and be able to do to become effective in their particular role.
Together, we changed the central question from: “What information do we need to give our volunteers?” to: “What do our volunteers need to do, and what will help them do it confidently and effectively?”
From that point onwards, Snowfish and the DofE Network Learning Team worked as one collaborative team. Our goal was not simply to move existing training online. We wanted to create a consistent national learning experience that respected volunteers’ limited time, helped them get started quickly and continued supporting them throughout their DofE careers.
Choosing the right platform
With a clear shared vision, we were ready to find the technology to bring it to life.
Snowfish led the DofE team through a thorough platform-selection process, translating our ambitions into a detailed set of requirements and researching the market to identify a longlist of potential vendors.
Together, we narrowed that longlist to a small number of serious contenders. We then explored and tested functional sandbox versions of each platform using realistic DofE scenarios. This allowed us to look beyond feature lists and sales demonstrations and experience how each option might work for real volunteers and the people supporting them.
We considered how well each platform could deliver role-based pathways, personalised learning, accessible resources and ongoing performance support. Just as importantly, we explored whether it could grow with the DofE’s longer-term ambitions.
The process gave the team confidence that the final decision was based on what the DofE genuinely needed, not familiarity, fashionable features or the most persuasive sales pitch.
Creating the first pathways at pace
Once the platform had been selected, the clock was ticking.
The interim programme of live workshops was coming to an end, and another cohort of adult volunteers would soon need an alternative. We had just four months to implement the Learning Platform and research, design, build and launch its first pathways.
Snowfish led the learning design, working deeply with DofE stakeholders, experienced staff and volunteers to understand the different roles and uncover what people genuinely needed to perform them.
Rather than simply transferring the existing training materials into digital modules, we reorganised the learning around the volunteer journey. Every adult volunteer would begin with shared foundations before progressing into pathways relevant to their particular responsibilities.
The bravest decisions were often about what to leave out—or what to introduce later. Volunteers needed enough knowledge, practical guidance and confidence to get started, without being subjected to the old “firehose” of everything they might conceivably need during their entire DofE career.
The first generation of pathways combined focused digital modules with practical guidance, knowledge checks, facilitated discussions, curated resources and optional SkillBuilders. Volunteers could learn, apply what they had learned and return to the platform when they encountered new challenges.
The first pathways launched on schedule. We had maintained continuity for incoming volunteers while creating a flexible foundation that could continue to grow.
Growing in ambition
As confidence in the Learning Platform grew, so did our ambition for what the pathways could achieve.
The DofE Manager pathway shows how far the model developed. Our research confirmed that there was no typical Manager. Some were completely new to the DofE, while others had decades of experience. Some supported a small school; others coordinated DofE delivery across large national organisations.
Together, we designed a pathway capable of accommodating those very different starting points. The experience adapts around each Manager’s role, organisation, experience and confidence. It combines personalised digital onboarding with practical systems guidance, diagnostic assessment, authentic scenarios, social polling, reflection and action planning.
A regularly updated resource playlist and optional SkillBuilders continue supporting Managers after their initial learning is complete.
The pathway does not try to teach Managers everything at once. It helps them become effective more quickly and makes reliable support easy to find whenever they need it.
Impact that continues to grow
The project has now become much more than a catalogue of online learning. Together, we have created a consistent and scalable national capability for preparing and supporting the DofE’s adult volunteer network.
Tens of thousands of pathways have been completed. Follow-up evaluation, conducted at least six months after volunteers completed their learning, found that 86–96% were applying what they had learned in practice, while 94–99% would recommend their pathway to others.
But the numbers tell only part of the story. Volunteers describe feeling better prepared, more confident in their responsibilities and reassured that trusted guidance is always available when they need it.
As Jacqui Bull, the DofE’s Director of UK Operations, explains: “Regardless of where someone joins the DofE network, they have access to the same high-quality learning experience and support, enabling them to become effective in their role much more quickly.”
The Learning Platform continues to grow alongside the organisation. New pathways, resources and performance-support tools are being added as needs emerge, bringing learning and doing ever closer together.
What began as a response to an immediate training challenge has become an enduring organisational capability, helping thousands of better-supported adult volunteers create safe, consistent and life-changing experiences for young people.
Find out more on the DofE’s Learning for adult volunteers website