With the changes brought in as part of the Volunteer Experience, the Wood Badge is now optional and available to all adult members.

If you are part way through completing your Wood Badge, you can still carry on to the award if, it will be your first Wood Badge. You will now only complete one Wood Badge as an adult in Scouts though you may be asked to undertake some additional learning if you change your role or take on an additional role. So, if you are currently on the journey, please do carry on. Any learning completed previously would be transferred across to your completed learning in the new system provided that it was validated.

Whilst you only complete one Wood Badge, there are currently two paths to follow:

• A Section Wood Badge for all members who work with our youth Sections in delivering our Programme; Section Team Leaders and Section Team Members
• A Manager Wood Badge for all members who are responsible for leading other volunteers; Lead Volunteers (Group, District and County), Team Leaders (District and County)

Some of the learning is common to both paths such as the completion of Growing Roots others, are separate and ensure that the learner is able to apply the learning in their area of volunteering.

So, the Sectional Wood Badge requires your completion of migrated modules and the Managers Wood Badge, the Independent Learning Units and Skills Areas.

Sectional Wood Badge

This comprises of completing all the Growing Roots learning applicable for your role and then six further areas as follows

• Skills of leadership (Module 8),
• Working with adults (Module 9),
• Growing the section (Module 13),
• Delivering Residential Experiences (Module 16),
• Practical Skills (Module 18),
• International (Module 19).

The learning material for these skills can be completed by self study or a scout course (delivered either in-person or virtually). Details of courses are shown in the Learning Calendar, click HERE

Once the learning is completed and recorded by you (see below under More Information if you are not sure how to do this), you will need to have that learning credited (assessed).

Crediting completed Learning

Unlike the learning in Growing Roots, which is automatically assessed as part of the e-learning, those Skills listed above in blue text require assessment by a member who has a Learning Assessor Accreditation. These are members who have been given this accreditation by the District Volunteering Development Team Lead or District Lead Volunteer to support learners in the District. When you have completed the required learning, you need to indicate that you are ready for this to be assessed (called crediting). If you are unsure about this, look at the following information in the Digital Tools Guide by clicking HERE

This can be undertaken in a variety of ways; face to face meeting, virtual call, telephone, e-mail exchange or by completing an online crediting learning form. These are similar to previous on line validations and are available for each of the six areas Skills of leadership (Module 8), Working with adults (Module 9), Growing the section (Module 13), Delivering Residential Experiences (Module 16), Practical Skills (Module 18) and International (Module 19).

To access this option, click below

The Wood Badge is included within the My Learning area of your membership and accessed by clicking “Wood Badge & Skills” on the top menu.

Your District (County) Volunteering Development Team will be the best people to contact if you are unsure which scheme is right for you.

More Information

If you want to find out how to

• select Wood Badge learning,
• add a Wood Badge to your profile
• complete the Improve Skills and then Submit for Assessment for a particular skill or
• check your progress

click on the image below, this will take you to the learning section within the Digital Tools Guide

My Learning

To learn more about the Wood Badge (Scouts.org.uk), click below.