National Youth Leadership Training
Specific information for the 2012 NYLT
What is National Youth Leadership Training?
National Youth Leadership Training is a week long outdoor experience for present and future youth troop leaders, designed to help a Scoutmaster in his responsibility to train his Scouts in being better troop leaders and in maintaining a youth-run Scouting Program. The National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) Program replaces the course previously known as Junior Leader Training Conference (JLTC).
The course focuses on teaching advanced leadership skills in a team-building atmosphere based on the patrol method. Participants will be regularly challenged to accomplish activities and projects using the leadership skills taught in the course.
We set the example with a Youth-led troop as all the teaching is done by a Youth staff. Adult Staff will be present as support.
The experience and fellowship received by being with a patrol of Youth Leaders from other troops and led by a quality Youth Staff is significant for the participants. Our objective is for the participants to return to their troops with enthusiasm and ideas that will help make their job a lot easier and improve the troop’s program.
What is the curriculum?
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 to.”
Major Aims of NYLT
NATIONAL YOUTH LEADERSHIP TRAINING has six major aims:- to give participants the confidence and knowledge to run the troop program,
- to teach and practice key leadership skills and relate these skills to the Scout's troop responsibilities,
- to give Scouts the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with other Scouts,
- to give each Scout a varied experience and new skills, with emphasis on the patrol method, in a fun atmosphere,
- to create an atmosphere where Scouts will experience "Scouting at its best," and
- to enhance the relationship between the participant and his home troop.
Is NYLT a week at summer camp?
No. Although there is an emphasis on fun, NATIONAL YOUTH LEADERSHIP TRAINING is a leadership training course in an outdoor environment. There are no rank advancement opportunities during the week. The purpose of this course is to develop leadership skills that Scouts will use in their home troop and throughout their lives.
Who should attend NYLT?
- Youth in a position of leadership (Senior Patrol Leader or Assistant Senior Patrol Leader) or will be a candidate in the near future.
- Be First Class rank before attending.
- Must be thirteen years of age before the first day of NYLT.
- And have the enthusiasm and desire to participate in this learning experience.
