Empowering the next generation by embracing Outdoor Education and Adventure.

Progression and development are at the heart of everything we do, our focus on training begins at the root level, with our outdoor education school trips. We teach children as young as 8 years old about nature, ecology, sustainability and an appreciation for the Great Outdoors – all within an outdoor authentic adventure setting.

We’re blessed with an incredible landscape in Dorset, situated on the Jurassic Coast, which serves as an inspiring backdrop for schools to explore geology, ecology and archaeology. By combining adventure activities with inspiring outdoor locations, we’re able to ignite the imaginations of young people and bring the lessons of the classroom to life in an engaging way. Our Outdoor Education trips for schools are built on a strong ethos of hands-on experiential learning.

Children should be afforded the trust and challenge of being able to self-assess their own risk. Our ‘Challenge by Choice’ rhetoric enables children to independently make decisions about things like: how far they climb, how high they jump from, how to safely use a knife. This is a hugely important aspect of our school trips – giving the power and autonomy to the child (not the teacher).

Comfort Zones

This approach to Outdoor Education often has wonderful outcomes; whereby the quiet child finds their voice outside the classroom, the cocky child may not be quite so bullish in an adventurous situation and where a class full of young children completely flip the roles and support their teacher through a nerve-wracking experience such as jumping into the sea.

By coaxing students (and teachers) out of the comfort zone of the classroom, we’re able to have a huge impact on a child over the space of a 3 or 5-day residential. Confidence grows, resilience builds and children leave with a huge sense of achievement. All our Outdoor Education Residential’s are programmed with plenty of time to enable children to learn, master and progress. Children can learn a multitude of skills including how to Kayak, Paddle Board, build shelters, light fires, cook on a campfire, read a map, tie knots etc.

For many schools we work with, this is the first opportunity the children have had outside of their hometown or city. Every year we have children from inner-city schools who visit us and experience the sand between their toes for the very first time. They marvel at seeing a real-life cow in a grassy field, and have the taste of the salty sea on their lips.

Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards

Making the great outdoors and Outdoor Education accessible for all is a huge part of what we do. In addition, working with school children, we deliver Duke of Edinburgh’s packages from Bronze to Gold. We love supporting secondary schools with their DofE training and expeditions, encouraging teenagers to engage with the outdoors positively.

Our Duke of Ediburgh’s Award Gold Residential, is one of our most successful offerings in which young people spend a week away from home. This 5-day package includes two really important training elements delivered by Land & Wave; an accredited 1-day First Aid Course PLUS a British Canoeing Paddle Safer award. We love arming teens with practical knowledge that can bolster their CV as they go into the world of work or university, plus provide hands-on lifesaving knowledge to keep themselves and others safe.

Interested in taking part in a DofE Award? You can find more info here: https://www.dofe.org/do/

A Career in the Outdoors

Outdoor Instructor Training is a huge part of the Land & Wave offering. We train people to become professional outdoor instructors over a 15-week intensive period. Now in its tenth year, our Outdoor Instructor Training programme is well-regarded as being one of the most comprehensive training courses of its kind in the UK. We strive to offer trainees the most relevant and coveted National Governing Qualifications, which outdoor employers seek out when they are recruiting.

As well as providing over 20 practical qualifications from well known institutions such as Mountain Training, British Canoeing and the Royal Life Saving Society, we also arm our trainees with career skills benefits such as CV workshops and outdoor industry careers evenings. We’re committed to ensuring every trainee graduates with an impressive suite of accredited outdoor qualifications.

Our professional coaches have a fantastic network of outdoor industry contacts and have been able to connect trainees with fabulous outdoor employment opportunities all over the UK and worldwide. We have graduates now working in outdoor roles in Australia, New Zealand, China, Cyprus, Croatia, France and Finnish Lapland to name a few.

We normally recruits 24 – 32 trainees instructors each year. Of these trainees, we employ around 10 – 15 people when they graduate. Every year we have successfully been able to place all our Outdoor Instructor graduates in jobs on completion of the course. Being able to support people through a huge career change is such a privilege. We have the honour of supporting a range of people in different stages of their career.

From young college leavers looking for a practical and valuable alternative to university, through to older adults who are taking a leap to leave a long office-based career to work in the outdoors. We love the individual stories of how everyone got here and it’s amazing to be able to up-skill them to a professional standard.

Short Courses

In addition to our 15-week intensive instructor training course, we deliver a host of shorter courses so people who are time-poor can upskill . Adults can pick from Bushcraft Training, British Canoeing Awards, accredited First Aid options (now also including Mental Health First Aid) as well as a full range of Royal Life Saving Society qualifications such as the National Vocational Beach Lifeguard Qualification or the National Pool Lifeguard Qualification.

Find out more info on our Short Courses here: https://landandwave.co.uk/training-courses/

Our Training courses also include ‘Train the Trainer’ options, enabling people to become Trainer Assessors in a range of awards. It’s all about supporting people through their skills journey, helping them achieve the levels of success they aspire to. We’re proud to employ some of the most engaging instructors in our full time team, including a recently appointed RLSS National Trainer Assessor.

We hope this sums up our commitment to training and Outdoor Education within the outdoor industry. It is our happy place and we’re huge advocates for sharing that with as many people as possible. We’d love to see the outdoor sector become as accessible as possible, drive up the awareness of the industry and see the job opportunities (and wages) also rise as it gets the recognition it deserves.