Young Leaders Coordinator
Recruit, train and look after our Young Leaders — the 13½–18 year olds who help run Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. Whether they're our own Explorers or DofE volunteers from outside Scouting, you're the adult in their corner.
Monday evenings with the sections, plus a few training evenings and weekends a year
Young Leaders are young people aged 13½ to 18 who help our adult teams run Beavers, Cubs and Scouts (and Squirrels once it launches). Some are our own Explorers stepping up. Others have never been in Scouts and come to us through school for the Volunteering section of their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Either way, they bring energy and ideas the younger ones love, and they need an adult who’s looking out for them.
That’s this role. You’d be the one person every Young Leader knows is theirs: the adult who welcomed them in, who checks how they’re getting on, and who takes them through the Explorer Scout Young Leaders’ Scheme — the Scouts’ own leadership training of 11 modules and 4 missions. In Scouts terms it’s a Young Leader Section Team role (older guidance calls it Explorer Scout Leader (Young Leaders)). Here it’s a Group role, working closely with our Explorer team and the District 14–24 Team, who look after the scheme across the District.
What you’d be doing
Finding Young Leaders
- Talking to our Explorers about becoming Young Leaders, and what it counts towards — DofE, the Chief Scout’s Platinum and Diamond Awards, and the King’s Scout Award
- Being the friendly contact for young people from outside Scouts, their parents and their school’s DofE coordinator
- Meeting each new Young Leader, with a parent or guardian, to talk through what to expect and which section suits them best
Training them
- Making sure everyone completes Module A (safety and safeguarding, plus the “Orange Card”) within their first three months — the one fixed deadline in the Scheme
- Running or arranging the other ten modules, from Game On! and Understanding Behaviour to Programme Planning and a first aid masterclass. You don’t need to deliver them all yourself: bring in someone with the right skills, team up with the District, or let experienced Young Leaders run a session
- Taking Young Leaders on dedicated training evenings and the occasional weekend, so the modules happen together, away from section nights, and are good fun
Supporting them in the sections
- Spending Monday evenings around the sections — dropping in to Beavers, Cubs or Scouts to see your Young Leaders in action and back them up
- Helping each Young Leader plan and deliver their four missions (a set of games, an activity, bringing ideas to a planning meeting, and running part of the programme), and signing them off with the section leader
- Keeping section leaders in the loop — what their Young Leader is working on, and how they can help
Looking after the paperwork and the milestones
- Keeping each Young Leader’s progress up to date on our leaders’ tracker
- Helping 16–17 year olds through their free PVG check, which must be cleared before they start with a younger section
- Signing off DofE Volunteering and making sure recognition happens on the night — the badge and woggle, mission strips, and the Young Leader belt
- At 18 (or when a DofE placement ends), talking to them about what comes next — carrying on as an Explorer, Scout Network, or an adult role with us
Who it’s for
This suits someone who enjoys helping teenagers grow in confidence: a teacher, youth worker, coach, mentor or parent, or anyone who’s good at encouraging people and keeping things organised. You don’t need Scouting experience. The Scheme comes with ready-made session plans, and we’ll get you trained up alongside it. It helps if you’re free on Monday evenings in term-time, and can give a handful of evenings and weekends a year for training.
Because Young Leaders are still young people themselves, you’d follow the same safeguarding rules as every leader. That means never one-to-one, with parents copied into messages. We’ll make sure you have that training before you start.
We meet at St Andrew’s Church hall on Bredisholm Road in Baillieston, in Glasgow’s East End. It’s a church hall, but Scouts is open to everyone — all faiths and none. We’re an inclusive group, not a religious one.
We provide all the training you need (including safeguarding and first aid) free of charge, full support from the wider team, and we cover your PVG/Disclosure check.
Want to see the programme you’d be running? Take a look at Young Leaders at the 144th.
Interested in this role?
Apply directly, or have an informal chat first — no commitment.