Training: National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT)

 

Registration will open January 2, 2025!

Description:

The first step in the BSA Youth Leadership Training Continuum is conducted in the home unit. Scouts BSA and Venturers who have 1) completed this training and 2) reached the age of thirteen but are not yet eighteen (for Venturers not yet twenty-one) may participate in the next step by accepting the challenge of the council level National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT).

Unit leaders have the primary responsibility for training their youth leaders. The purpose of National Youth Leadership Training is not to assume that role but rather support it. The NYLT week is filled with activities, presentations, challenges, discussions, and camping in a team and model unit environment. Participants learn and practice valuable skills at home, church, school, work, and the Scouting unit.

The course is designed for youth members 13 years of age.  Since a Scout only takes this course once, we want them to get the maximum benefit from this experience; therefore, it is essential that they be able to handle the demands of this advanced course, which requires maturity, experience, and proficiency in basic camping skills.

At NYLT, a temporary training unit is formed consisting of youth from Scouts BSA Troops and Venturing Crew across the council. This training unit is instructed and led by a highly qualified group of outstanding youth and adult trainers. At the end of this conference, the Scout returns to their home unit with advanced knowledge of leadership skills and patrol/troop/team/crew operation.

Objectives:

  1. Give participants the confidence and knowledge to conduct the troop program. 
  2. Provide participants with a clear understanding of team and personal development and how those elements relate to being a leader. 
  3. Guide the participants through the stages of team development. 
  4. Create an environment of Scouting fellowship and fun guided by the Scout Oath and the Scout Law. 
  5. Give participants the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with Scouts from other troops and teams. 
  6. Have fun and experience Scouting at its best. 

Requirements and Expectations:

  1. At least 13 years of age, but not yet 18 by Day One of the course. (not yet 21 by the end of the course for Venturers.) 
  2. Live by the Scout Oath and the Scout Law at all times. 
  3. The course begins on Day One at 1:00 PM (check-in starts at noon) and ends on Day Six at about 8:30 PM. 
  4. Approval from Scoutmaster of the home troop or Advisor of the home crew (online registrants submit to office form on the website)

Course Overview:

The course models a month in the life of a unit – three meetings (one each day for the first three days) leading to a big outdoor experience (an overnight outpost camp). The course uses the patrol method and presents model Leader Council meetings.

The training unit challenges the youth early in the week to present their "Quest for the Meaning of Leadership" at the end of the week. The challenge is designed to have them go through the four stages of team development. This gives teams and individual Scouts hands-on, practical application of the leadership skills and concepts presented to them during the course.

Throughout the course, the staff models the concepts and skills that are the core content of the course. The focus of the course is to fill the Scout's “Toolbox of Leadership Skills” with knowledge, practice, and understanding of when and how to use these skills.

The course begins with the teams finding their team vision and ends with the individuals refining a personal vision of how to put the skills learned into action at their home unit.