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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

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Session 2: Where learners come from and assessing learners’ needs. Learning methods (60 minutes)

Session 2: Where learners come from and assessing learners’ needs. Learning methods (60 minutes)

Overall objective

Identify the learning or development needs of the people they support and/or assess.

Key messages

Linked to the overall objective for this module above, there are also a number of key messages that learners should understand and take away with them at the end of this session. These include:

1. Learners come from a variety of places and they have varied experience and skills before they come to you. This must be taken into account when deciding on what learning or development they might need.

2. There are other roles that you need to work with in assessing and supporting learners.

3. The first meeting is very important in making an initial assessment and working with the learner to decide on their learning needs.

Learners come from different backgrounds and will have a wide range of prior learning, skills and experience which must be taken into account when assessing their learning needs. For example, a new learner in an Assistant Cub Scout Leader role may have been a District Commissioner previously, may have a job as an outdoor activity instructor, may have just moved up from the Explorer Scout Section having been involved in Scouting since the age of six or may not have done well at school, and been unemployed for several years.

Somebody applying for a Bell Boating Leadership Activity Permit may have several other water activity permits and NGB qualifications, or may have been on a bell boat only a couple of times, with the intention of attending a permit training course. One of the key roles of the Training Adviser, Nights Away Adviser and Activity Assessor is to support adults in  learning, not just to make a summative assessment, so identifying the learning needs has to come first, and then supporting them to do any learning required, before assessing. In some cases this is occurs as a cycle:

While prior learning from the Young Leaders’ Scheme is not directly mapped across as learning for the adult training scheme, it should certainly be taken into account.

Encourage the learner to talk about what they learned in Young Leaders’ modules and how they put this into practice as a Young Leader. This may well be enough to demonstrate enough prior learning and experience that learning is not required for a module.

For the different roles attending this course, learners/applicants are identified in different ways. An applicant will usually apply to or contact a Nights Away Adviser or Activity Adviser directly, while a learner will usually be allocated to a Training Adviser by the Local Training Manager.

Task (30 mins)

Participants work in small groups (if possible in groups doing the same role, but they can all be together if only a small number). Look at the Case Studies (Appendix 4) and decide as a group:

  • What prior learning this learner/applicant may have?
  • What questions you might want to ask to ascertain prior knowledge and skills.
  • What needs might need to be taken into account when considering learning.

The first meeting or contact is an important part of the process. You need to make sure that the learner/applicant understands the process they will be taking part in, assess their learning needs based on their prior knowledge and experience, and make a plan for where they are going next.

Task (15 mins)

Participants work in groups to create a poster with bullet points suggesting what they would need to do at the first meeting/contact.

The following points should be included:

All roles:

  • Choose a neutral place or a place where the learner/applicant will feel comfortable.
  • Ensure that they are not rushed or distracted.
  • Reassure them about the process.
  • Be friendly and approachable – a conversation, not a grilling!

Activity Assessors

  • Find out what experience they already have.
  • Do they have any other activity permits? Have they held this activity permit previously?
  • Are they aware of Scout Association safeguarding policies and how they apply to these activities?
  • Find out why they are applying for a permit, what they hope to get out of it.
  • Find out if they have a log book / suggest that they create a log book.
  • Based on the experience they have mentioned, either:
    • Let them know about any skills courses coming up that might be suitable
    • Arrange a date for assessment.

Nights Away Advisers

  • Find out about what experience they already have – in Scouting and out.
  • Ask some questions about Nights Away experiences that they have been involved with and their role on them. Have they held a permit previously?
  • Are they aware of Scout Association safeguarding policies and how they apply to these activities?
  • Find out why they would like a Permit and what they hope to get out of it.
  • Find out if they have Validated Introduction to Residential Experiences (16)
  • Find out if they are planning any nights away experiences in the next few months.
  • Based on the answers to the above, either:
    • Recommend that they attend a Skills for Residential Experiences (38) training course;
    • Recommend that they attend some Nights Away with more experienced Leaders and put them in contact with some;
    • Discuss an event which they are planning on which you will be able to assess them
      and arrange a pre-event meeting or contact to begin assessment.
      Training Advisers
       Find out more about their experience in Scouting – were they a Young Leader? Have they
      transferred from another role?
       Ask about their job/hobbies/interests/experience outside Scouting.
       Go through the Module matrix/change of role matrix and establish which Modules require
      validation for this role.
       Which modules need to be / would it be a good idea to complete first? Discuss these and
      establish prior learning/knowledge/experience and learning needs for these and which
      learning method would work best.
       Arrange a date for next meeting and a plan of action to complete before this time.

Resources

For this session you will need the following resources:

  • Outline of Young Leader Scheme
  • Document to map across from Young Leader to adult training
  • Appendix 4
  • Paper and pens