Hillwalking leader training and assessment support
In order to underpin one of the Region’s strategic aims of encouraging, supporting and facilitating young people to experience more outdoor activities, a Regional Hillwalking Assessment Group has been formed.
This is supported by Bruce Macdonald, Manager of the Regional Activity Permits Scheme and Lawrence Mitchell, ARC (Adventurous Activities). There are 6 people available, as Regional Assessors, to offer training and assessment: Davy Virdee, Richard McLeod, Lawrence Tring, Cat Trebilco, Peter Casebow and Simon Cocker. They all hold at least their Summer Mountain Leader Award – equivalent to a T2 – and are trained assessors. And are very supportive!
The aim is to assist as many leaders as possible to gain their T1 and T2 summer permits, so the Group has decided that there will be no set programme and each applicant’s training and assessment will be catered to each individual’s needs.
New T1 and T2 permits – what should you do?
If you want to discuss getting a permit, you can always email the Group to ask for advice and help as a first step.
You should email hillwalking@sesscouts.org.uk, with your completed application form, providing some background about your experience (a copy of a log book or a spreadsheet of walks over the last few years would be very useful), what permit you want to gain and any timescales (i.e. if you have an expedition you wish to run with your troop or unit). The form is available at https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/search/?cat=26,359,366
The next step would be for one of the assessors to get in touch with you and arrange to meet to talk through your experience, skills and aspirations. This will then help the assessor determine if they would recommend any further training and how to get it, or agree an assessment date. For T1, this assessment would be normally over a day and for T2, it would normally be over a weekend with an overnight wild camp. Depending on numbers, the assessor would try and assess several candidates for each award at the same time.
The different types of permits are:
|
Qualification |
Permit |
|
Hill and Moorland Leader Award (formerly Walking Group Leader) |
Terrain 1 Summer – Leadership (not including remote camping) |
|
Mountain Leader Award (Summer) |
Terrain 2 Summer – Leadership |
|
Mountain Leader Award (Winter) |
Terrain 2 Winter – Leadership |
More details about the different permits can be found at https://members.scouts.org.uk/ac120913
Renewal of T1 and T2 permit – what should you do?
For renewal of permits, the assessor will take into account any previous assessment as well as considering experience gained over the preceding period. So, the first step would be for you to send in your logbook or record of your experience with your application.
The Region is very keen to support leaders who wish to gain their hillwalking permits so that more young people in Scouting can experience and enjoy the great outdoors.
More details of the complete process, including application from and log book template can be found at
Do get in touch, because we do want to support leaders to get their permits!
Simon Cocker, Regional Assessor for Hill Walking and Assistant Leader, Explorers, Braid District