Outdoor Trailblazer Apprenticeships

December 2016

Over the past 12 months, a number of employers from across the full spectrum of the outdoor learning sector have been exploring how the governments ‘Trailblazer Apprenticeship’ programme may be of benefit. It should be noted that this new skills development opportunity relates only to employers within England.

An ‘employer working group’, with representatives from across the sector and led by Mark Lavington of PGL, produced an expression of interest to develop a new apprenticeship for the sector. This was submitted and approved by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) early in 2016 and permission was gained to develop one standard in the first instance.

The Employer Group has no staffing resource so Mark asked the Institute of Outdoor Learning (IOL) to assist with the project management of the Trailblazer Apprenticeship project. Neal Anderson (IOL Professional Standards Manager) has taken on this role.

The working group has developed a draft ‘Apprenticeship Standard’ for individuals working within the outdoor learning sector. The aim of the Apprenticeship Standards is to state what an individual should be able to do at the end of an apprenticeship. It is not a syllabus and different apprentices will need different training depending on their start point and the requirements (products) of their employer. In simple terms, the apprenticeship standard should paint a picture of what ‘good’ looks like to an employer.

The first draft apprenticeship standard developed focuses on those individuals who are wholly new to our sector and will work in very structured environments.

Once this Apprenticeship Standard has been approved, work will also commence on the development of similar standards that reflect roles at higher levels.

There has been much debate concerning the specific job roles/titles used across the sector. At this stage the employers have called the standard ‘Outdoor Learning Session Deliverer’. This is still open to amendment - when submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) for approval, the occupation title will be set.

Once the standard is approved by the DfE, we will then move on to the next stage which is the production of an ‘Assessment Plan’. This document will describe how the apprenticeship should be implemented, organized and the different areas of skills/knowledge/competence assessed.

What we need to know:

At this point of the project, we need to gain your comments in regards to the Outdoor Learning Session Deliverer standard.


Further background information regarding Governments review and re-booting of apprenticeships (Trailblazers), Project Working Group Members, The Expression of Interest documents and other related information regarding this project can be found at: http://www.outdoor-learning.org/Default.aspx?tabid=390

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* 1. Are you completing this survey representing an:

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* 2. Does the ‘profile’ describe a role that you recognise within the sector?

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* 3. Do the ‘requirements’ describe the skills, knowledge & understanding required for that role?

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* 4. Can all parts of the standard be ‘assessed’?

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* 5. Do any parts of the standard describe activities or processes that are not used within your organization or that are inappropriate/irrelevant for roles at this level?

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* 6. What is covered by your existing training/development for roles at this level that is not in the standard?

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* 7. Is the language and terminology used appropriate? – Care has been taken to use terminology that is sufficiently neutral to enable the standard to be applied across the full spectrum of the outdoor learning sector

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* 8. If you employ people in the generic role of “Outdoor Learning Session Deliverer”, what is their specific job title(s) within your organization?

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* 9. If you would like to, please leave your name and contact email. Thank you.

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