What is Adult Training?

Each week in Hereford and Worcester we give over 8000 young people the opportunity to enjoy fun, challenge and adventure while developing the skills they need to succeed, supported by over 3000 volunteers. We’re talking about teamwork, leadership and resilience – skills that have helped Scouts become everything from teachers and social workers to astronauts and Olympians. We believe in bringing people together. We celebrate diversity and stand against intolerance, always. We’re a worldwide movement, creating stronger communities and inspiring positive futures.

We know that in order to reach our goals, our adult volunteers need support. We offer a wide variety of learning opportunities to help each and every volunteer to do their role to the very best of their ability. Our training team is here to support your learning, and to celebrate as you put it into practice in your Scouting role.

The Scouts offer an award-winning training scheme, helping our volunteers develop practical skills like First Aid and transferable skills like communication and leadership. In addition to the recognised training scheme, we offer further opportunities to continue your learning in areas such as bush craft, activity permit training, Mental Health First Aid and much more. Browse the Learning Opportunities to see what is on offer at the moment.

The Training Scheme

To support adults in Scouting, the Association provides a comprehensive programme of training to build on existing skills and knowledge and develop new competencies. The aim is to provide adults with the skills necessary for them to deliver and/or support the programme for our youth members.

The key to the training scheme is the Training Adviser. Your Training Adviser will support you as you work through the Training Scheme and will sign off the relevant parts. The Scheme is delivered through a framework of Modules. The modules you will need is dependent on the role you are going to undertake.

Each module has two parts:

Learning – You have the opportunity to gain or improve the knowledge and skills that you need to perform your tole. As the training scheme recognises prior learning, knowledge and experience, you may not need to complete training if you already have the skills and knowledge contained in that module from previous experience in the workplace, in Scouting or in other volunteering. The best way to undertake the learning is always a course (on our Learning Opportunities page), as you learn as much from sharing ideas and good practice with your fellow participants as you do from the trainer. However, we do have flexibility in our learning methods, and understand that not everybody will be able to get to the courses. Some learning can be done through e-learning, videos, workbooks or one-to-one which can be found on https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/search/?cat=23,223

Validation – in this part you provide evidence to demonstrate to your Training Adviser that you are able to put the skills and knowledge contained in the Module into practice in your Scouting role. Validation is essential for every module except the mandatory ongoing learning modules.

In addition, there are some training modules that, as a volunteer, we must keep up to date with, especially Safeguarding, Safety and First Aid. We offer regular courses in these across the County (see Learning Opportunities).

If your role is as a Manager or Supporter in Scouting, your Training Adviser will have experience of being a Manager or Supporter themselves. Your Training Courses are available at a Regional level, and can also be found on our Learning Opportunities page.

We know that we have to think outside the box a bit to validate training while we are virtual Scouting.  Scouts Scotland have created this excellent resource which will help you to think about how validation can be done while in lockdown: validation-guides

TA Briefing and Update

We held a Training Adviser update and briefing meeting on 23rd February 2021.  I’m afraid the recording did not work, but the slide deck is available here: TA briefing Feb 21