Professional Accreditation What range and level of experience is needed for APIOL?
We do not specify a number of years of work experience, but you must have:
- worked in more than one context where you have overall responsibility for groups and/or individuals
- experience in challenging environments in the outdoors
- had some responsibility for client liaison, needs analysis and programme and/or expedition design
- had responsibility for implementing programmes and/or expeditions and for carrying the can when they go wrong
- had some responsibility for the work of other staff
- worked with a number of different client groups
- reflected on your experience, on what you have learned, and on what guides you now when you work with groups
- shown some commitment to putting something back into the outdoor field
You need to have worked in/with a range of environments, activities, groups and learning needs.
Here is what we mean by this:
Variety of aim - Academic/Curriculum subject, Sport/Activity skills, Teambuilding/Management training, Self awareness/Personal development, Therapy/Rehabilitation, Health/Fitness, Recreation/Adventure
Broad range of activities - a number of: outdoor pursuits/sports, creative activities (drama, art etc), academic/curriculum based activities, field studies, residential activities, groupwork activities, planning/reviewing/reflecting activities
Range of client groups with different needs - could include:
Age - primary children, secondary children, youth groups, young adults(U25), mixed adults, 50+, senior citizens: Family or other mixed age groups
Needs of group - cultural, physical disability, ESL/Foreign language speaker, learning difficulty, fitness (obesity?),mental health (depression/anorexia), drugs rehab, youth detention, dysfunctional/antisocial/criminal behaviour)
Different Environments
Open country/water - inland/inshore water, woodland/heath, fell/mountain, offshore water, underground
Other outdoor locations - farmland/managed land, urban locations, artificial outdoor facilities (water/rock), outdoor apparatus /structures (Ropes/Runway) school/centre grounds etc.
Here are some examples of experiences which contain the level of challenge and responsibility that we require for APIOL (these are only examples!)
- Managing a group of participants with a wide range of motivations, who have come to your centre for an outdoor based course
- Running a personal development residential with a group of young people, using outdoor based drama/art
- Running a series of outdoor experiences to provide a training programme eg for a Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme expedition training, BCU 2/3* training and assessment
- Risk assessing and managing a primary school group on a canal-side field studies walk (it is outside controlled areas, and needs close management)
- Course directing/co-ordinating a multi-session, multi-staff outdoor programme at the centre where you work
- Running a six session course for over-50s "Learn to rock climb"