Young Leaders: a new home on the website, and a stronger programme

Young Leaders are young people aged 13½ to 18 who help our adult team run Beavers, Cubs and Scouts on a Monday night. They plan games, lead activities and quickly become the people the younger ones look up to. We’d love more of them. So this term we’ve given Young Leaders a proper home on the website, and we’re putting more structure behind the programme itself.

What’s new on the website

• A Young Leaders page: 144glasgowscouts.org/young-leaders explains how it works: who it’s for, what you’ll do, the training, the badges, and how it fits your DofE.
• An online application: apply to be a Young Leader in about ten minutes. We’ll ask for a parent or guardian’s details and copy them into everything we send.
• The full role description is on our vacancies page.
• You’ll also find links from the Explorers page and our homepage.

Not a Scout? You can still lead

Young Leaders isn’t just for our Explorers. Plenty of young people ask us about volunteering for their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Being a Young Leader counts as your DofE Volunteering section, one Monday session a week covers the time you need, and one of our leaders can be your assessor. No Scouting experience needed, as we’ll train you. If you love it, you can stay on afterwards as an Explorer.

A stronger programme

We’re working to give every Young Leader a clear, well-supported journey through the Scouts’ Young Leaders’ Scheme:

• Getting started properly: every Young Leader gets the “Orange Card” safety guide and completes the first module, the essentials, within their first three months.
• Training and missions: 11 short modules and 4 practical missions, done with the section you help. Each one is recognised with badges, mission strips and, at the end, the Young Leader belt.
• Keeping track: we now keep a record of each Young Leader’s progress, so nobody misses a module, a badge or a deadline.
• PVG from 16: under Scottish law, anyone aged 16 or over who helps with younger children needs a PVG check cleared before they start. It’s free, and we’ll guide Young Leaders and their families through it. We can begin the process a few months before a Young Leader’s 16th birthday so there’s no gap.

Interested?

Have a look at the Young Leaders page, or go straight to the application form. Explorers can also just have a word with an Explorer leader on a Monday. If you have any questions, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.