Adults and young people
How we contribute to our members’ learning journeys is different for youth and adults. Youth members participate in the youth programme; the educational expression of our purpose in action. Delivering the youth programme is the reason Girl Guide and Girl Scout organisations exist, and everything we do should, directly or indirectly, contribute to our youth member’s learning journeys.
However, supporting adult learning and development is an essential foundation to this. By working with adults as whole people and recognising and supporting their personal learning journey alongside the technical training they need to perform their roles, we can support positive role modelling, improved intergenerational collaboration, better teamwork and more motivated and committed volunteer resources.
| Youth programme | Adult learning and development |
| the totality of learning experiences children and young people can access in Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting | the support we provide for adults to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours to be positive role models for young people and carry out their roles in the organisation. |
Youth and adult members also have different experiences of learning and development:
Learning is always a choice. To be a lifelong learner, a person needs to be able to create meaning from their own experiences, both across their lifetime (lifelong) and from the different spaces of their life (lifewide).
How this meaning is created changes at different stages:
The transition from youth to adulthood is not the end of one journey and the start of another but a continuous process. Individuals travel their own path, at their own pace, with huge diversity of experience and development. For our members, Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting is one space among many that impacts their development over time. Our challenge is to be able to identify the specific ways Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting made a difference.
Growing and Learning recognises and acknowledges youth and adult experiences in Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting as part of one learning journey.