Your Residential - Early Careers

Welcome to Outward Bound

We hope you’re looking forward to your Outward Bound programme. Whether you’re here for 3 days or 1 week, this is a truly unique opportunity. You’ll gain confidence, enjoy a shared experience with your colleagues and most importantly, gain the skills to enhance your performance at work.

Your programme will be active and fast paced, based in real wilderness environments that surround our venues. You’ll undertake a variety of challenges in the outdoors with your team, which will be followed by a series of review sessions with your trainer to help you transfer your learning. This is what we call experiential learning. In these sessions, you’ll reflect on your behaviour and how it affects others to support your personal and team development.

Before you arrive, allow yourself sufficient time to think about the overall objectives of your programme and any personal goals you wish to achieve. You may find it helpful to discuss these with your manager or your peers.

On some programmes, you may be asked to complete some work prior to your arrival. You will be briefed on this separately.

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GEt Involved

The more actively you are involved in the programme the more you will gain. It will be mentally and physically challenging, but our experienced outdoor trainers are there to support and encourage you.

At the end of the programme you may be asked to capture your learning and feed back your experiences, sometimes in a group presentation, or through individual action plans. Once again, this will help to consolidate your learning back into your work environment.

Many past Outward Bound participants cite their programme as a life-changing event, so make sure to make the most of your time here.

We work on the principle of ‘challenge by choice’. This means that we encourage you to push yourself out of your comfort zone and take part in activities you may never have done before in order to build your confidence.

However, there may be things that you or a member of your team simply can’t do, in which case, we ask you to respect their decision to take a step back from the activity.

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Our Centres

All of our centres are based in wild and inspiring environments, whether it’s the Lake District, Snowdonia or the Scottish Highlands. Each venue offers a chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life - televisions are kept to a minimum and, mobile phone reception is patchy.

Ullswater, Aberdovey and Loch Eil

At these centres, you’ll be in bunk-style accommodation, sharing with at least one of your colleagues. We consider the whole experience, not just the active sessions, to be a very important part of the learning generated during your time with The Trust. Sharing your experience with colleagues is encouraged and the accommodation is organised to promote this.

Eskdale

If you’re staying at Eskdale, you’ll be in twin
accommodation, or occasionally a single
room. Bed linen and towels are provided and
there are drying facilities widely available.
There are telephones in most bedrooms from
which you can make free UK landline calls,
should you need to phone home.

Eskdale Green is a small rural village with
a general store and two inns. The nearest
cash dispenser is located in the village store, which opens daily.

Wherever your programme is taking place, we provide three healthy, high-energy meals a day and a well-balanced diet with plenty of variety. Both meat and vegetarian options are always available. Please make sure you identify any dietary requirements on your Participant Information Form. Tea and coffee facilities are
also provided.

At all venues we ask you to refrain from
smoking anywhere on-site except at the
designated areas and during agreed breaks.

Your graduate development programme at Eskdale

Your apprentice development programme at Eskdale

Your Outward Bound apprentice programme - Loch Eil

Your Outward Bound apprentice development programme - Ullswater

Our Safety

Our long-standing reputation for safety is one of the most often-stated reasons for using The Outward Bound Trust. We are referenced in our sector as the most experienced in our field. We pride ourselves on this and take our responsibilities seriously.

Click on the link below to see how we manage our health and safety and to access downloadable documents relevant to our courses, such as insurance documents.

Fitness

Your programme will include a variety of high adventure activities, with varying degrees of physical challenge involved. The most demanding is likely to be your expedition (if applicable to your programme). Be prepared for at least a one-day walk with a full expedition rucksack, in a mountainous environment.

The more physically prepared you are the better, however an average level of fitness is all that is required. Most important is plenty of enthusiasm and commitment.

Taking care of yourself and your personal hygiene on an Outward Bound programme is vital. To help you prepare for your experience, please see our factsheet, with tips for female delegates on keeping yourself hygienically safe and well.

Participant Information Form

You will have been asked to complete a Participant Information Form prior to starting the programme. This information helps us to understand any medical issues you may have and how this may affect your participation. We will brief you immediately prior to each exercise. You can then inform us, confidentially if you wish, of any factors we need to take into consideration to accommodate your needs. You should also use the form to let us know about any dietary requirements.

What Next

If you’ve any questions regarding your programme, your first port of call should be your line manager or organiser of the programme. Otherwise, help may be found on our FAQs.

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