Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning

Are you passionate about educating others while sharing your experience of the great outdoors? Join this incredible programme and work closely with Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning providers, including the Outward Bound Trust®, to pursue a satisfying career as a professional adventure practitioner.

The term 'outdoor learning' can often be used to describe specific learning approaches in a school curriculum context. On this course, outdoor learning is approached holistically, with a similar definition to the Institute of Outdoor Learning (IOL*), and encapsulates a wide range of purposeful, inclusive, facilitated approaches that foster learning and development, mainly through outdoor activities.

Develop and enhance your professional skills to create a learning environment through outdoor activities and in nature, offering your learners greater connections to self and others, and a place for increased health and wellbeing, as well as a growing environmental awareness. Follow our unique structure to integrate theoretical knowledge with practice through classroom learning, experiential learning, and research, progressively building your confidence and skills as a facilitator and practitioner.

Use your knowledge, understanding, and skills to plan, prepare, and lead activities in potentially challenging and wild locations, while maintaining strong links to the education curriculum. Learn to become the professional who provides adventures and learning for others, creating experiences that last a lifetime while being part of the vibrant community of outdoor enthusiasts in Fort William, the Outdoor Capital of the UK.

Make the most of links with other programmes in the School of Adventure Studies to broaden your professional skills and expertise, giving you access to a diverse range of careers in many different adventurous settings, wherever your path takes you.

The capabilities we build in our programmes are also life-long skills that transfer into many different future career paths. Unlock your potential and become a future-shaper of the adventure sector.

See our website for further information on this course.

Module outline

Year 1 - CertHE

Core modules are:

• Foundations of outdoor learning (S1)

• Adventure Geography: the Scottish perspective (S1)

• Introduction to professional adventure practice (S1)

• Introduction to sports coaching and leadership (S2)

• Adventure education journeys (S2)

You will also choose one further option module:

• Ecological principles, biodiversity and identification skills (S1 or S2)

• Activity performance and skill acquisition (S1 or S2)

• Adventure markets: products and services (S2)

Year 2 - DipHE

Core modules are:

• Nature and learning (S1)

• Social theory for adventure education (S1)

• Adventure operations and risk management (S1)

• Outdoor learning and teaching practice (S1 + S2)

• Understanding adventure (S2)

You will also choose one option module which may include:

• Work placement: team working and communication (S1 + S2)

• Facilitation and reviewing in outdoor education (S2)

• Technology and social media in adventure practice (S2)

Year 3 - BA

Core modules are:

• Planning international expeditions (S1)

• Investigation: personal and social development in adventure education (S1)

• An anthropology of place: adventure education and cultural perspectives on nature (S2)

• Research skills (S2)

You will also choose two option modules which may include:

• Adventure therapy (S1)

• Geomorphology: reading the landscapes of outdoor practice (S1)

• Climate change (S1)

• Work placement: industry specific skills (S1 + S2)

• International expedition leadership (S2)

Year 4 - BA (Hons)

Core modules are:

• Critical perspectives of adventure education (S1)

• Perceptions of risk and decision making (S1)

• Inclusive adventure (S2)

• Applied adventure education practice (S2)

You will also choose one of the following double-credit research project modules to follow through the year:

• Dissertation

• Professional adventure project (legacy project or major expedition venture)

This outline reflects the modules as currently delivered and is subject to change.