Women's Outdoor Leadership Course

This is a course for women who want to work as an Instructor , developing young people, within The Outward Bound Trust in the future. If you identify as non-binary or transgender and the purpose and themes of the course resonate with you, we’d love to receive your application.

You should have completed a minimum of one out of three of Summer Mountain Leader Training, Rock Climb Instructor (or SPA) Training, and/or Paddlesports Leader Training (or equivalent) and have significant personal experience / logbook time in another, by the course start date. There is no maximum level of qualification. It is desirable to have 12-18 months experience working with young people in any context.

The course could be for you if:

• You are working your way towards outdoor leadership qualifications and a career in the outdoors developing young people.
• You have completed the core qualifications listed above, want a job with Outward Bound and are keen to be part of a supportive community as you start with The Trust.
• You want to challenge yourself to grow and develop alongside a group of capable women.
• You have passed some or all of the technical qualifications listed above and want to learn more about how you can use these working in wild places to develop young people's confidence, resilience and self-belief.
• You want to experience being led by women further on in their career journey, while sharing your skills and being a role model for others too.
• You have thought about working at Outward Bound and are not sure if you are ready, or it feels like a big step from what you’ve previously been doing.
• You have previous experience in working with young people (e.g. education or youth work), are hoping to change direction by developing technical skills to work in the outdoor context, and would like to gain valuable experience by working at Outward Bound in the future.
• You want to be part of the movement towards Outward Bound and the outdoor sector becoming more diverse, inclusive and welcoming to everyone in society.

Depending on your start point, and aspirations there will be different pathways into employment following the programme.

A 10 week outdoor leadership development programme, based at our Loch Eil Centre. The course will include the opportunity to work on your technical (mountain, rock and water) skills as well as developing your intra-personal (self-awareness) and inter-personal (leadership & group) skills, with our most qualified staff in adventure and psychology. There will also be time working with groups of young people alongside experienced instructors and structured mentoring. Your course lead will work with you as a group and individually over the 10 weeks to ensure you have maximum opportunity to progress and work towards your goals. Outward Bound are investing in this because we want more women and marginalised genders to be motivated to come and work with us in the future, to inspire and enable the thousands of young people who are impacted by an Outward Bound course each year. Outline programme to follow when applications go live.

• Personal adventures and skills development with experienced staff.
• Understanding leadership and psychology of personal development.
• Focused mountain and water skills weeks consolidating the skills you need to lead groups of young people.
• Working on adventures with groups alongside experienced instructors.
• Individualised opportunities to work on your logbooks, gain group experience for the qualifications you’re working towards, upskill, refresh and consolidate in the areas you need to develop.
• Accommodation, food and kit provided for the 10 weeks.
• Career advice, planning and signposting towards relevant roles to progress within Outward Bound.
• The opportunity to contribute to and be part of Outward Bound’s journey to being a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

9^th October 2023 to the 15^th December 2023.

We ask that you show your commitment by paying a deposit of £500 when you register. Upon completion of the leadership programme The Outward Bound Trust will return this amount to you by paying for any outdoor leadership assessment(s), in the 12 months following the course, that you’ll need to gain in order to work as an Instructor at Outward Bound. This is non-refundable. If you change your mind about joining before the course, or decide it is not for you once starting, we will reinvest the money into development of the programme. If finding the deposit is a financial barrier, please contact us to find out more about means tested bursary funding which may be made available.

Shared accommodation will be provided for the duration of the course (max two people per room). Food is provided at the centre from Monday lunch to Friday lunch. Outside of these times you will need to self cater, facilities provided at your accommodation.

Applications will go live on International Women’s Day, Wednesday the 8 March.

You should send a CV to Kate O’Brien at katherine.obrien@outwardbound.org.uk, and click on the link below to fill in the application questions, by 5pm on the 28 March 2023. If you have further questions feel free to email or call ahead of applying. Kate can be reached on 07765221373, during normal office hours.

We will invite successful applicants to an “Is it for you?” day on the 22 April at the Ullswater Centre, in the Lake District. You will be notified if you have been selected for this by Friday 7 April.

If selected, you will need to undergo an enhanced level PVG check ahead of the course starting. The cost of this will be covered by Outward Bound.

During the course we will work with you to identity your career pathway, desired location and timescales. This may involve being signposted towards paid seasonal pastoral contracts, an Instructor Development position, or an Instructor role anywhere in The Trust. See here for more info about working with The Trust and where our centres are based: Why work at Outward Bound?