Adult Learning
Adult learning is designed to support you as a volunteer, so the learning provided is relevant and tailored to each role. The Cambridgeshire Learning Team recognise there may be learning and skills you have gained elsewhere, and our learning is designed to complement these with further opportunities to enhance your expertise.
Modules available as Self-Paced Learning (eLearning or Workbook)
Can I see a list of the Learning modules available in Cambridgeshire
To see when a particular course is being run in the county click here – if you don’t see a particular course you require you can contact the Adult Learning Team.
| Module & Availability | Description- plus further details from the Scout Association website |
|---|---|
| 7: Scouting for All | The module aims to help participants to develop a general understanding of inclusion topics and how to provide inclusive Scouting for all |
| 8: Skills of Leadership | To provide Section Leaders in Scouting with the knowledge and skills to define what leadership is, plan systematically, lead effectively by demonstrating a range of leadership styles and understand how different leadership styles impact on learning |
| 9: Working with Adults | To provide Section Leaders in Scouting with the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively with other adults and understand how teams work, including the different roles people play and how different personality types impact on teams |
| 10: First Aid | Mandatory Ongoing Learning – to be renewed every 3 years. Also serves as the validation for the Young Leader Module K. This module is either delivered as a single session as First Response training, or is split into two parts; part A covers the theory and part B is the practical validation. The modules aim to cover the skills and knowledge necessary to enable adults to manage an incident and provide basic first aid |
| –10: First Response | A face-to-face session lasting 6 hours that covers modules 10a Theory & 10b Practical |
| – 10a: Theory | A tutor-led webinar covering the theory parts of the First Aid module |
| – 10b: Practical | A face-to-face session lasting about 15-20 minutes – you must have completed module 10a before you attend 10b |
| 11: Administration | To provide information, and an opportunity to consider and learn about best practice when managing the administrative tasks required in your role |
| 12: Programme Planning | Provides section leaders with an opportunity to plan and review a sectional programme including the use of a variety of methods to generate programme ideas |
| 13: Growing the Section | Covers ways in which an adult volunteering with a section can assist their line manager and others to plan for and contribute to the growth of their section and/or group |
| 14: Supporting Young People | To enable adult volunteers working with young people to understand and meet their needs |
| 15: Promoting Positive Behaviour | To enable adult volunteers to proactively promote positive behaviour and appropriately manage challenging behaviour in their section |
| 16: Introduction to Residential Experiences | To enable section leaders and those who may support residential experiences for young people, as part of their role in Scouting, to understand the role that residential experiences play in Scouting |
| 17: Running Safe Activities | To enable adults to plan and run exciting, safe and developmental activities for the young people in their section |
| 18:Practical Skills | For Section Leaders and Section Supporters in Scouting wishing to train, coach or otherwise help young people and adults develop practical skills. It requires participants to gain at least two new practical skills of their own/td> |
| 19: International | To provide participants with a global focus appropriate to their section and an appreciation of the international nature of Scouting |
| e-learning modules | A number of modules are offered as e-learning from The Scouts’ website, including the mandatory Safety & Safeguarding training courses. |
How do I access The Scouts' learning and keep track of my progress
Sign in to scouts.org.uk and go to ‘My learning’ to access all our learning and to view your learning record.
There you can see the learning you need to do, explore other learning you might be interested in, request to be assessed and keep track of your progress.
If you lead a team, you can also see your team’s learning records and create learning reports to check how your team is getting on.
Read the My learning digital tool guide to learn how to do this.
There is no learning requirement. Since they’ve had the right checks, they can volunteer unsupervised with young people, and they can help out once a week (or on four occasions in a thirty-day period) or more frequently. However, they won’t have access to personal data about young people or adults.
They can:
- Attend a camp
- Support a section occasionally without needing supervision (being the only adult with a group of young people).
As they don’t get membership status with Scouts, they won’t get the usual benefits our members receive, such as personal accident insurance.
Their time with us also won’t count as volunteering time towards ‘length of service’ awards.
How does the learning scheme work?
We want all our volunteers to have the skills and knowledge they need to feel confident to keep young people safe and help them gain skills for life.
We organise learning at Scouts in what we call the Learning Tree. It’s made up of:
Growing Roots
The learning all new volunteers need to do within their first six months.
Branching Out
The learning you can choose to do to develop your knowledge further and get accreditations.
Safety, Safeguarding and First Response learning need to renewed every three years.
Click through our interactive Learning Tree (link) to find out more.
How long do I have to complete my learning?
All roles that require learning have 5 months from the date of your appointment to complete the initial modules (Getting Started) – if you are being invested these must be fully completed first.
You then have a total of 3 years from the date of your appointment to complete any remaining modules required for your role.
How can being a volunteer benefit me?
Firstly being a scouting volunteer is great fun! You can help organise or support some amazing activities for the younger members, giving you a chance to help make a positive difference to your own local community.
As a member of scouting you will gain access to a changing range of discounts, designed to support you in your scouting role with everything from camping kit to days out.
Volunteering can help you outside scouting too, especially if you make the most of the learning scheme – in fact is externally recognised as a formal qualification through 3 different routes.
The skills and experiences you gain are invaluable, can enhance your CV and can be a real asset in everything from applying from college / university places to jobs. Not only will you have some great things to include in personal statements and on application forms but also some brilliant examples to use when answering interview questions, plus of course some ideal people to name as referees. Being a scouting volunteer really can help you stand out from the crowd.
Scouting is a national and global organisation, which makes it easy to continue scouting no matter where in the world life takes you and creates an ideal way to start meeting new people in your new community – whether that is when you go to University or move to another country.
Whilst no adult volunteer joins for recognition there is also a Scout Association Awards scheme
How do I book onto a learning course?
Courses are not only a great way to develop new skills, or enhance existing ones, but also to meet other people from across Cambridgeshire in similar roles.
There are some basic “Getting Started” modules that are completed for all roles, with the details varying slightly depending on the role you take.
There is a wealth of online and workbook learning material available, as well as a range of courses. To book onto a course for other leader modules simply take a look at the list of learning modules available in Cambridgeshire and follow the link for the relevant course. You will need your membership number to hand.
If you can’t see a course listed then it may be possible for the Cambridgeshire Learning team to arrange one, especially if you have at least 6 people who require the same course. This includes First Response (Module 10) and Group / District Executive workshops. Simply contact the Training Team to see what can be arranged.
What about learning more practical skills?
There will be lots of practical skills you already have that you can share with the young people, and many you will learn as you scout.
We also have specialist County activity team to help you (or perhaps you would like to join one, to share your skills in these areas) :
- Mountain Activities team – helping volunteers experience hillwalking, mountaineering, climbing and mountain biking ; supporting them to earn relevant permits so they can then take their young people on such adventures too
- Water Activities team – This Unit has 3 main priorities (1) Providing training and assessment opportunities for adults in Scouting who wish to obtain water activities adventurous activities permits (2) Providing a pool of permit holders who are willing to help other Groups and Districts run water activities and (3) Organising and delivering water activities for the County
- Global team – advising on planning and arrangements for Visits Abroad and how to integrate “Global” into section programmes
What is mandatory ongoing learning?
For some roles you are required to keep elements of your learning up to date, usually every 3 years. The good news is there are just 3 modules and it is really simple to do. Below you will find brief details, but as always if you have any questions please contact your Line Manager, Training Adviser, Local Training Manager or the County Training Team.
Safety – this is usually completed on-line . Once complete send the certificate to your Training Adviser who then updates your records*
Safeguarding – this is usually completed on-line . Once complete send the certificate to your Training Adviser who then updates your records*
First Response (Module 10) – all leaders are now required to undergo First Aid training every 3 years to continue in their role . If you have completed relevant First Aid training through another organisation then it may be possible to use this to validate this module, so please contact you Training Adviser for advice.
*It is important that all mandatory ongoing learning is updated in on your Personal Learning Plan record on COMPASS by your Training Advisor, otherwise it won’t appear correctly. If you are not sure who that is please contact the training team.
