National Youth
Leadership Training
NYLT is an
intensive, fun week meant for Scouts who are leaders of their Troops. The course
teaches leadership skills in a week-long high energy environment. Backpacking is
part of the course so Scouts are expected to pack all of their gear in a
backpack.
The course models a month in the life of a troop – three meetings (one each day for the first three days) all leading up to a big outdoor experience (an overnight outpost camp). The course uses the patrol method and presents model Patrol Leader Council meetings. Patrols are challenged early in the week to present to the troop at the end of the week their “Quest for the Meaning of Leadership.” While the challenge is designed to have them go through the four stages of team development, it will help patrols and individual Scouts internalize the leadership skills and concepts being presented to them along the way. Throughout the course, the staff will be modeling the concepts and skills that are the core content of the course. The focus of each session is not only knowledge but giving the youth a “Toolbox of Skills” that equips them with the “how.”
Purpose
Scouting
recognizes that Scoutmasters have the responsibility of training their troop’s
junior leaders. The purpose of NYLT is not to assume that role, but to support
it. Some of its objectives are:
- To focus on the concepts of what a leader must BE, what he must KNOW and what he must DO.
- To emphasize immediate application of learning in a fun environment.
- To model a month in the life of an “ideal” troop.
- To provide each participant with a toolbox of leadership skills consisting of key course concepts.
- To operate according to the Scout Oath and Law.
- To have fun!