YOUNG people in North Lanarkshire who have been taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards met Prince Edward this week. 

The visit involving The Earl of Wessex and Forfar took place at the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility in Motherwell on Thursday.

Around 60 young people were present at the event where they demonstrated a range of activities including musical orienteering, first-aid, games, camping and outdoor cooking.

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The royal, a Trustee of the awards and a Gold Award holder, visited North Lanarkshire as it has one of the strongest community-based Duke of Edinburgh Awards activity in Scotland.

Liz Fergus, community learning and youth work manager, said: “The Earl of Wessex and Forfar was genuinely interested in our approach to delivering the programme and the ways in which we support our young people.

"His Royal Highness asked us about the challenges we faced in keeping the programmes going throughout the pandemic.

“The Earl also congratulated us on our recent success in winning the Youthwork Team of the Year at the Youth Link Awards.”

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Glasgow Times:

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In the past two years in North Lanarkshire, there have been 363 new young people taking part in the awards programme and there have been 145 full awards achieved.

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Laiba Khan, a pupil at Braidhurst High School who has recently completed her bronze award and is now going for silver, said: “The Earl asked us about the games we were taking part in and if they were very competitive!”

Shiza Ali, a pupil at Taylor High School, added: “The Earl asked us how we enjoyed taking part in the bronze award and if we were enjoying the expeditions.”

Another group of pupils were able to share their experiences of an overnight canoeing expedition on Loch Lomond and of camping on one of the islands on the loch.