Interviewer: How have Adult Leader Training courses changed over the years?
Que: Touche’ wombat tells me that early training courses consisted of several training weekends in basic skills, followed by an extended 8 day course under camp conditions where advanced topics on youth development, association policies, leadership and management were covered.
Interviewer: That seems like quite a number of days.
Que: By the 1950s the 8 day course was delivered in an alternative format of 4 weekends.
Interviewer: I heard that even the names and structure of the course has varied quite a bit. It started as Basic and Advanced courses, and then changed.
Que: In the late 1960s the manner in which scouting was carried out change around the world was modified, with an in-depth
evaluation of the organisation and program, resulting in the “New Design” program. Changes in youth training moved away from the traditional UK system and established an Australian program with Australian themes. The 1st New Design course to brief Group Leaders was run at BP Park, Samford in 1971. By 1988 training of leaders moved from the Basic and Advanced syllabus to a 5 stage training design named “Leadership 1 & 2, Skills Training 1 & 2 and Woodbadge Training”.
Interviewer: That sounds like quite a major shift, and I understand that more recently, with the re-evaluation of the scouting program, there have been more changes, and something called “e-learning”.
Que: To meet with the requirements of a busy working population seeking more convenient delivery of leader training, Scouts Australia, in 2010, presented the theoretical aspects of the leader training course via a CD based and an online e-learning
course supplemented with online quizzes and written assignments. In 2015, Scouts Australia having re-evaluated its curriculum re-designed the programme as a Basic and an Advanced weekend course, supplemented with on-line learning courses covering theoretical topics.
