Each year, our training team run various courses for both young people and adults. Our training convenor for the NSA is Iain Hamilton.
Please see below training calendar for details of upcoming courses, for more information on a training course, please email our secretary – nsasecretary@boys-brigade.org.uk.
Upcoming Training
Courses we offer – Young People
The course for everyone aiming for the President’s Badge.
BYS isn’t just a tick box exercise on the way to gaining a President’s Badge, it’s a lot more than that and all those that attend should leave with a greater ability to work in teams, particularly importantly in teams of people that they don’t particularly know, meanwhile also gaining problem solving and analysis skills. The course is entirely practical based. Those attending are also given encouragement to become involved in selecting elements of the BB programme themselves and are given the opportunity to have their say about a range of BB issues.
Open to young people who have started their Queen’s Badge. This session covers the skills-based training requirement of the Queen’s Badge and is ideal for any young person about to take on responsibility working with children in a BB group. It is expected that young people complete Skills for Queen’s Badge at an early stage of the Queen’s Badge journey and prior to completing their volunteering within the BB.
The final stage in a young persons journey to gaining a Queen’s Badge.
Demand for this event is gauged by tracking young people as they progress through the various elements in a Queen’s Badge, but also through the survey for confirmation of numbers. This leads each year to a demand for two completion residential events each session. For the last couple of years these have been centrally held at the Cairngorm Christian Centre in Kincraig. There are two events this session run by the NSA.
Courses we offer – Adults
Youth Leader Training is a requirement for all new Officers in the BB and covers all initial areas of training that are likely to be of use to new Officers. It is possible to attend only those parts of course specific to a particular section for those retraining, and more information will be sent to those taking this option. The full course re-quires attending for two full day sessions, with the two sessions usually spaced a few weeks apart
Most participants agree that this course is worthwhile and highly beneficial, and most say that one huge ad-vantage of this is being able to share ideas by meeting in person with other leaders from other Companies all across the north of Scotland.
There is nothing more important than the safety and wellbeing of the young people that we work with.
Safeguarding training is a way of ensuring that we work in an appropriate manner with the children and young people in our Companies both for their benefit and for ours. Anyone completing YLT will cover Safeguarding to a sufficient extent for the Boys’ Brigade to register them as an Officer. We are offering the Safeguarding mod-ules that are within YLT as standalone courses for those wishing to or requiring to undertake Safeguarding training. This is one of those courses that we should all be undertaking regularly as part of our work in the BB even if there’s no formal requirement for it in order that we’re up to date.
There is also the Safeguarding e-module on OBM that can be undertaken at any time and is a prerequisite of this course.
Please contact us for more information at any time regarding Safeguarding training.
This is a revamp of and improvement to the old Captains Training course and is designed for those involved in any part of managing a Company including Captains and OICs
The course has been drawn together form a wide range of resources by HQ staff and volunteers so it is in-formed and constructed around the needs of actual BB leaders and covers the areas that people working in Companies have said needs to be covered.
The aim of the course is to provide leaders with the necessary management skills and resources to undertake the role of Captain or OIC in an effective way, but is also very useful for anyone in the Company who plays some part in the running of the Company. It helps to give confidence, recognise responsibilities, provides knowledge about where resources and support are available to deliver quality youth and children’s work through the BB, understand how to establish and maintain positive working relationships and to identify and manage the development and sustainability of the Company.
This is another very important course that we recommend at least one person in each Company has completed.
It is however fairly impractical to hold in person and expensive due to the relatively low number of people that need to do this every year. However there are a number of excellent online courses that can be done from home that will deliver the knowledge that you need. The courses are a combination of videos, reading and quizzes. Some offer discounts for multiple people doing them, and so if there aren’t enough in your Company to trigger that, it might be worth asking around the Church or other groups in the community to see if they would benefit from this training.
Food hygiene is something that comes up in many areas in BB work from residentials or day trips, to cooking with young people as a programme activity, to fundraising to day trips. And there will be many more. So it is important that ideally someone in each section has a knowledge of food hygiene and through having that cer-tificate is able to demonstrate that knowledge.
We’re suggesting three training providers below, each of which have certificates which are recognised in differ-ent ways and by different bodies. We’re not endorsing any of these, and there are many other providers as well which may be better suited for you. You must do your own research and satisfy yourself that the provider that you go for provides the recognition that you need. Remember, the cheapest and quickest is not necessari-ly the best for you.
Once you’ve completed and downloaded your certificate, send a copy of it by email to BBHQ to have your OBM record updated!! Just start by clicking on the links below or using your favourite search engine.
The Safer Food Group – https://www.thesaferfoodgroup.com/food-hygiene-level-2-versions.php
Virtual College – https://www.virtual-college.co.uk/courses/food-and-drink/level-2-catering
High Speed Training – https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/courses/food-hygiene/level2-food-hygiene-safety-catering
These two courses run together giving everyone attending both qualifications
This is always a popular course and tends to run every second year on average.
The Holiday Leadership qualification is required for any Company wishing to take young people away overnight and staying in a centre or other building. Campcraft is required in addition for Companies wanting to take young people away camping.