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Skills for life

The John Muir Award promotes real world experiences and provides valuable recognition of achievement through a nationally recognised certificate.

Working towards an Award can provide opportunities to solve problems, work as part of a team and build confidence in leadership – developing the attributes that can help people move towards positive destinations.

For an overview of how the Award can contribute to transferable skills development, see Employability and the John Muir Award 

Girls in Trees - Kat Martin - narrow

Case Studies

See below for inspiration on how the Award can help participants to develop skills in various settings, including: 

  • Volunteers at Place Woodland achieved their Conserver Award through building their skills and connecting with nature.
  • Tomorrow’s People’s support for young adults facing barriers to employment to engage, achieve, build positive experiences and raise self-esteem 
  • Working Without Walls course helping young people develop woodcraft and enterprise skills through connecting with wild places in their local community
  • Brighton Housing Trust’s use of the Award as an accessible framework for developing practical skills and improving personal wellbeing for adult learners 
  • Supporting social and personal development through immersion in wild places at Venture Scotland, creating opportunities to get active, build skills and develop resilience
  • Employment training in a horticultural setting for adults with learning difficulties at Royden Park, framed around the Award’s ethos of appreciating and caring for wild places
  • Using the Award to help bridge the gap between life inside HMP Craiginches and in participants’ own communities, focusing on building confidence, giving something back and preparing for life on the ‘outside’
  • Seahouses Youth Project’s support for young rangers, promoting personal development and skills building through progressive involvement in all three levels of the Award.
  • How Giraffe use wild places to help unlock skills, confidence and employability potential for people facing barriers to mainstream opportunities.

The John Muir Award fits perfectly with our aims of getting people outside and active but also gave the guys something really useful for their CVs, showing commitment and newly acquired skills as they were actively seeking employment.

-Mick Dunn, Shropshire Outdoor Partnerships