The Walking Group Leader award is designed for people who want to lead groups in hill and mountainous areas, on non-technical terrain. With a strong focus on navigation, the award provides the leadership skills required to feel confident about taking people out walking. The award also includes expedition organization skills for multi-day trips.
Entry requirements:
- Candidates must be at least 18 years old
- At least 20 quality walking days on appropriate terrain must be recorded in a log book
Training:
Minimum course length is 3 days.- Candidates with substantial walking experience may apply for exemption from training.
Consolidation:
A consolidation period of at least 3 months is recommended to practice skills.Assessment:
Minimum assessment course length is 2 days.Syllabus:
- Equipment usage and care
- Route planning
- Walking and route finding
- Navigation
- Campcraft
- Responsibilities of the Leader
- Group management
- Access, conservation and environmental knowledge
- Weather
- Non-technical river crossings
- Hazards and emergency procedures (not involving steep ground)
- MDT and NQF training and qualification structure and skills
- Scope and remit of the qualification
Scope of the Award:
The Walking Group Leader award provides the opportunity to develop and demonstrate the technical competence in leading groups in hilly and non-technical mountain areas. Such areas may be subject to hostile weather and require an element of self-sufficiency that is reflected in the syllabus.The terrain imagined in this award meets the following criteria:
- Areas accessed and enclosed by well-defined boundaries such as trails, tracks and paths
- Areas of limited remoteness that are easily exited in a few hours, returning to a refuge, lodge, hotel or road head
- Areas where movement on steep or rocky terrain is not required (in either a planned or unplanned situation)
- Areas of limited altitudinal height where the environmental hazards associated with altitude are not a factor