Scouting for knowledge

A far cry from the campfire – today’s Scout movement has adopted e-learning to broaden the reach and versatility of training adult volunteer members. Peter Muir looks into its implementation…

With 400,000 youth members, Scouting is the largest mixed youth organisation in the UK. It provides opportunities for adventure, team building, and citizenship for young people from every background. 

Widespread throughout the UK, in both remote and urban areas, the ‘Movement’ - as it is often referred to - is run by 100,000 adult volunteers who carry out all of their Scouting activities in their own time: including their own training.

As well as volunteers, Scouting employs some 150 support staff who are either field-based or located at one of the Association’s headquarters sites. 

Training is as important to the Scout Movement as any other large organisation. 

“It is a movement, because it moves forward. As soon as it stops moving, it becomes an Organisation, and is no longer Scouting,” observed its founder Lord Baden-Powell.

“We are an organisation that promotes learning and development,” says head of training Robert Halkyard. “Bringing on board the necessary expertise and nurturing the talent we already have plays a central role in achieving our goals.”

Access to training

The Scout Association has a wealth of training courses available, but the location of some of its members, and their voluntary status, means that attending them is not as easy for some as others. 

The Association identified that it could better serve its adult members by offering some of its training courses in the form of e-learning. “When we started in 2002, ninety-five percent of our training was course-based,” says Halkyard. “But this was proving difficult to access by volunteers with already limited available time of their own.”

“We looked at different ways of delivering training, and e-learning was agreed to be the most favourable.”

Aylesbury-based bespoke training specialists, AdVal Learning Solutions (ALS) have so far developed three programmes for the Association and nearing completion of a fourth: ‘Tools For the Job (Section Leaders), ‘Providing A Balanced Programme’, ‘Essential Information’ and Tools for Job (Managers).

These courses can be accessed online and are also available in CD ROM form: the former utilises audio and slide shows, while the CD-ROM offers higher quality audio and video.

‘Essential Information’ was the first programme delivered. The training is split into four parts: the structure of the organisation; basics of Scouting; training support; child protection information. 

The second of the Scout Association e-learning programmes comprises eight sessions looking at how to provide a ‘Balanced Programme’ to young people. 

It starts by positing ideas that mark teaching environments appropriate to the Programme aims: Rich, Varied and Well-rounded; Fun & Friendship; Challenging; Personal Development; Citizenship; Self-Reliance; Taking Responsibility; Spiritual Development; and Involvement & Achievement. 

To achieve a Balanced Programme, Scout leaders need to build their meeting programmes using criteria under the headings of Programme Zones, Methods, and Underlying Ways of Working. These criteria are different for each Section. 

Example sessions from the course are: The Bigger Picture, Zones & Methods, Making It Happen, Ideas & Involvement, Recognising Achievement, Plan a Programme & Check it, and Mentoring.

The bulk of the initial sessions were aimed at getting the learners to understand what they were trying to achieve in their programme planning, before they looked at how they could make it happen. 

Checking for balance

This culminated in learners using a Balanced Programme checker within the e-learning to build an evening's programme, and then a four-week programme, and have them checked to see if the programmes they had created actually 'balanced'.

The learning concludes with a quiz on the course content, at the end of which learners print out a certificate showing their name, score and date. This data is added to their portfolio to take to respective Training Advisers as part of their overall validation programme.

‘Tools For The Job – Section Leaders’, aimed at new Section Leaders, comprises three sessions looking at the five Scouting Sections and their ceremonies, some roles and responsibilities, and the games and activities used in the different Sections. 
Sections in Scouting cover young people from age 6 up to 25, so although the Sections are the same in principle, they do have their own identity and requirements. Within the programme, learners follow a route specifically aimed at their Section of Scouting, but with the opportunity for them to look also at the other Sections if they wish.

Engaging on-screen

The programme makes much use of onscreen activities to engage the new leaders in this activity-led organisation, particularly in the session looking at games. In addition, the training is enhanced by the use of video; all Sections get to see a video of one of the ceremonies and are given the opportunity to learn something about planning games and activities by use of another video. 

As with many programmes, ALS scripted and shot all of the video content in-house.

The e-learning concludes with a short quiz about the course content, and again learners print out a certificate showing their name, score and date to add to their portfolio for validation.

“The e-learning allows more people easier access to training and offers learners with differing learning styles another option. It also ensures that all learners are trained to the same standard. ” says Howard Jones, one of ALS’s Senior Training Designers,. “The good thing is that the Association is well aware that not all of its training is best delivered by e-learning, so is only offering this delivery method for appropriate courses.” 

The Scout Association’s Robert Halkyard regards this engagement with electronic learning as a success and expects further implementation of the methodology within the Scout Association. “We have a fourth e-learning programme underway with ALS, focused on another Tools For The Job, this time for administration managers.” “And a fifth programme is also being negotiated,” he adds.

He concludes: “Whilst we have faced a major change of mind-set in order to accommodate this new way of learning, our three-year partnership with AdVal has worked well. They have learned about Scouting and we have learned about e-learning.”

“Training users appreciate the quality of the AdVal products, value being able to access training faster, train in their own time and at their own pace. The response has been very positive and we are pleased with the value-for-money the programmes represent.” 

www.adval.co.uk

www.scout.org.uk 

Ends

Issued April 2005 on behalf of Adval Learning Solutions by Bob Little Press & PR (BLP&PR) 

Media contact: Peter Muir BLP & PR tel 01296 715228 email blp&pr@pmpr.co.uk 

Sales contact Oliver Wright AdVal tel 01296 388100 email oliverw@adval.co.uk