Explorers
For 14–18 years Your programme, your way — plus the chance to help lead, for 14 to 18 year-olds.
Explorers is Scouting on your own terms. For young people aged fourteen to eighteen, the section is almost entirely youth-led: Explorers form their own units, elect their own leadership team from among themselves, and decide what their programme looks like with support from adult leaders in the background.
Because they choose it, an Explorer programme can go almost anywhere. One unit might focus on hard expeditions and mountain skills; another on performing arts, campaigning or community work; another on a mix of climbing, caving, sailing, learning to cook properly, first aid, or getting a minibus permit. If the unit wants to do something, the job of the leaders is to help make it possible and safe.
Explorers is the home of some serious awards. It's where most young people do their Duke of Edinburgh's Award at bronze, silver and gold, and it's the launchpad for the King's Scout Award — the highest award a young person can achieve in Scouting, involving expeditions, service, skills and a residential project.
It's also where many Explorers start giving back through the Young Leaders' Scheme: training to help run a Squirrel, Beaver, Cub or Scout section, taking real responsibility for part of a night's programme, and getting a recognised qualification and references out of it. It's genuinely useful experience for college, university and work.
Socially, Explorers matters. Units draw young people together from across the district, not just one group, so it widens the circle right when friendships and independence are changing. Explorers run their own socials and trips, and the unit becomes a place to belong through the years when that can be hardest to find.
You can join Explorers with no Scouting background at all — plenty do — and units are usually happy for you to come along and see what a night is like before committing.
What a term looks like
- A programme the Explorers have planned themselves
- Expeditions, adventurous activities and residentials
- The Duke of Edinburgh's Award at bronze, silver or gold
- Young Leader training and helping in a younger section
- Socials, trips and district-wide events
- Top awards — the Chief Scout's Platinum and Diamond, and the King's Scout Award
Uniform: Beige shirt or Explorer polo with the unit scarf.