With the availability of world travel, many youth members may find themselves away from their home country and involved in Scouting in another country. Some youths may have a strong desire to achieve the top Scout Award available in their home country and should not be prevented from achieving this. As Scouting is an international movement, it is important that their desire is accommodated.
It is important to remember the attainment of the respective youth achievement levels and awards in Scouting demonstrates the effectiveness, flexibility and appropriateness of the Award Scheme regardless of where the youth member currently resides. Every encouragement should be provided to a youth to engage in and complete the respective Award system of their National Scout organisation.
The points below have been developed to assist this process for youth members who are on transfer from another country to work concurrently on two Award Schemes- one being Australian and the other from the country where they were a member. This does not give an Australian Scout the opportunity to complete an Award Scheme of another country if they are not enrolled as a member and attending a scout group on a regular, ongoing basis in that country.
Where a youth member from another country is in transit and wishes to continue to complete the Award Scheme of their country, it is suggested that as part of their involvement in the Australian Award Scheme:
- A personal audit be undertaken by that youth and another member of that section to map out suitable activities based on the requirements of the Award schemes from each country, where ever possible to enable the youth member to achieve the Award.
- This should be negotiated and then developed into a documented individual plan
- The contents of the individual plan should be agreed in principle by both the current unit in Australia and the unit where the youth is likely to return overseas.
- It is the responsibility of the youth member to keep both parties informed about progress towards the plan on at least a three monthly interval
- All activities considered should be undertaken within the appropriate sectional age and time requirements
- For any activity successfully achieved, the youth member should gain recognition for both the Australian and other country Awards, where relevant. A member does not need to do two hikes to satisfy Australian and another countries Award requirements for a 30km bushwalk. This dual recognition is based on the educational principle of recognition of current competencies and experiences.
- Where assessment is done by peers, it is essential that this occurs within the respective section context as at the time of the activity being approved and conducted.
- This means the decisions agreed by one Unit Council (who gave the approval to conduct and run the activity i.e. Australian) should be recognised by the other Unit Council (overseas).
For further information, please contact me or your sectional Branch Commissioner.
Peter Blatch OAM
Deputy Chief COmmissioner Youth Program