Adventurous Activities plays an integral role in the delivery of Scouting to our Youth and Adult Members in NSW.  Recently, there have been a few questions about Adventurous Activities, Leaders, and qualifications.  These Q and A’s are to help address those issues and concerns expressed by our Members. Please contact your Regional Commissioner Activities if you have any questions.


Q1. Is Scouting still going to be offering "in house" qualifications or are all activity training courses going to be accredited to an external certificate level with an issuing of the Cert of Attainment in specific skill areas?

A1. Scouting will continue to offer “in-house’ qualifications as, I believe, this is all that the vast majority of Scouting members want. The only Activity Training course that will be accredited to external levels will be those that are assessed by a ALT or LT in a formal sense.

Q2. General observations are that not all Leaders are going to want to be doing a statement of attainment for an activity area that they want to take their Scouts on. People would rather just get the "in house" qualification.

A2. Agree see above.

Q3.  If all the training happens to marry to the external Certificate training, all is well and good, as this will cover Scouting from a legal point of view. But do the leaders still require the Certificate of Attainment to run the activity rather than the "in house" qualification?

A3. No the “in-house’ qualification will be adequate. The physical training we provide will mirror the SRO 03v2 outcomes (or future equivalents). The only difference we will have will be the lack of FORMAL (e.g. TAFE like) assessment for in house qualifications. This doesn’t mean there wont be an assessment, it will just be less formal in its requirements.

Q4. What will this mean for those that are currently instructors? Will they be demoted as they do not hold the TAA accreditaion?

A4. The only Instructors are those that have completed the new TT1 (TAADEL301c – Train Small Groups) or equivalent.  At the June Activity Conference we will be discussing a restructure of the levels. It is the intention to make it easier for section leaders to provide core activities to their youth members.

Q5. The current policies are outdated and need to be brought up to the new Adventure Activity Standards that are being introduced into NSW by the Outdoor Recreation Council; when will this be done?

A5. The AAS are an important step forward in the acceptance of adventurous activities to the general community and will reflect best practice and community expectations. The way in which our current activity policies will be discussed at our June conference.

Q6. How are novices being defined? Are they first time doing the activity or have they only done the activity a certain number of times?

A6. This will be decided in June. The current view is that we will recognise novices as being participants not endorsed for the skill.

Q7. Certificate levels 3 & 4 can and do take novices along on trip, but they DO instruct the novices on how to do the activity. The difference here is that they DO NOT ASSESS their capability beyond the scope of the activity that is being done. This is demonstarted by the Adventure Guiding companies that run in the Blue Mountains. They take clients on Canyon trips where the client may or may not have prior experience, they instruct how to abseil and move through the canyon, providing them with and experience (familisation). If Clients want further training/experience to undertake the trip by themseleves they can look at doing training courses that teach them how to safely set ropes and assist othes through the canyon.

A7. This is an interesting point. some qualifications, and the others that I have seen, do not include any TAA subjects or “how to instruct” . However, Scouting will require TAA DEL 301C (or equivalent) for anyone who will be taking novices. This fits in with best practice in the Outdoor Industry (Guide level requires TAADEL301c) and will be confirmed at our June meeting.

Please feel free to contact your Regional Commissioner Activities if you have any questions regarding these activities.