We're in the process of setting up to offer the young people at our youth club the opportunity to participate in the DofE. as part of that, we've organised for several of our leaders to go on the induction training, but I'd also like to plan for some long term training to get some of our team qualified for the expedition component.
As far as I can see, there are a number of options there, ranging from the Basic Expedition Leader award (which I'd never heard of until we started this), the Walking Group Leader award and the Summer ML.
Most of our team are fairly fit and active, but I'm the only one with any significant hillwalking experience. I'd be interested to know if people had any informed opinions about the value of the BEL over something like the WGL award, and if the BEL is worth pursuing, how you access it, as the MLTS website doesn't have information about it.
The other question is whether it's worth me doing something like the BEL, or would I be better investing the time into he Summer ML - I'd need to invest some time building up a log book and brushing up on my nav, but as I can do it as 'work', I'm not necessarily seeing that as a bad thing.
Of course, the other option is just to buy in the expertise when we need it, but I think that would be missing a significant opportunity in terms of the way we do work with young people.
