Bob-A-Job

For those who thought the Scout Movement was all about tying knots, camping and orienteering – think again.

From last week, Scouts can now work towards an Entrepreneur badge, and follow in the footsteps of all budding businessmen and women who have braved the judging panel of popular British TV show, Dragon’s Den (England’s version of The Apprentice).

Instead of the Dragons’ Den however, Scouts will present a business proposition to a panel of business people from their respective local areas.

The badge will be awarded to Scouts for demonstrating a Mind for Business (a broader initiative by the Movement), after completing one of the following:

• Creating a successful Scouting enterprise as part of a small group.
• Creating a business idea and presenting it to a small panel of relevant people (leaders, parents or local business people).
• Presenting, as a case study, a successful business that they are involved in running.

The Scouting Movement has spent an inordinate amount of time and energy over recent years to debunk some of the stereo-types and myths that linger in relation to modern day scouting.

Apparently ‘bob a job, dyb, dyb, dyb and boys in shorts and big hats’ are all a thing of the past.

In the UK it has released a short assessment of what modern day scouting is about.

http://www2.scouts.org.uk/knot/

At a time of national austerity, good old fashioned character building can only be a good thing for the nation.

In fact the Scout Association provides adventurous activities and personal development opportunities for 400,000 young people aged 6-25, while internationally, there are more than 28 million Scouts across 216 countries.

That’s quite a lot of knots.