Adventure Schools Instructor

Reporting to: School Adventures Manager
Location: Northwest Region - Ideally 1 hour from Manchester (Travel required)
Salary: £27,144 - £31,803 per year. Starting salary is dependent on experience.
Contract: Two-year fixed term to start as soon as possible.
Hours: 40 hours per week. Monday to Friday, 8:00am- 4:00pm. Travel involved daily to school sites.
Closing date for applications: 09.00, Monday, 12 May 2025

Full job description

We're an educational charity that helps young people defy their limitations, so they become strong, resilient and curious, ready for the challenges of life.

Our new Adventure Schools Programme is a ground-breaking opportunity to reach young people, who may not have the opportunity to experience one of our outstanding residentials.

It may also be delivered as a pre- or post-course to our existing outdoor residential courses, giving young people an inspirational taste of adventure without leaving the school gates.

The Job

As a School Adventures Programme Instructor, your key responsibility is to deliver in school grounds, high-quality 1-day, 3-day, and 5-day adventure programmes with a focus on achieving clear course outcomes.

Using your group facilitation skills, creativity, and enthusiasm to the full you’ll inspire young people to build critical life skills such as confidence, resilience, teamwork, and leadership skills that they can transfer into their education and beyond.

In a typical week, you will mainly work with school-aged groups, KS2 Primary and KS3 Secondary, delivering activities like team-building challenges and problem-solving tasks. You will be trained in using VR technology to support young people in bringing the activities to life. This technology will help create links between the school environment and our amazing locations across the country.

Who we're looking for

Someone with the energy, enthusiasm, and passion for delivering engaging learning experiences. You won’t need experience in leading young people up mountains or down rivers for this role, but you will need creativity, excellent group facilitation skills, and a commitment to making a difference. This will include bringing Outward Bound learning to life in school grounds. You should have the ability to think on your feet and adapt activities when required. Importantly you’ll need to have experience working in schools, community and/or the education sector.

You’ll be passionate about working with young people, helping them to learn and develop in outdoor settings.

Your experience

Proven experience of facilitating outdoor / development activities or learning programs for young people
Experience of working in schools, community and/or education sector
Successfully delivered educational or experiential learning programs in schools, youth groups, or community settings
Practical experience and understanding of framing and transferring learning experiences
Worked with young people to achieve agreed outcomes within specific timeframes.

You’ll also need an enhanced DBS check which Outward Bound will administer.

Download the full job description here

Benefits

Annual Leave of 24 days, plus bank holidays. Annual leave increases by 1 day per year to a maximum of 30 days.

Life Assurance: 3 x salary, covered from start date; includes Employee Assistance Helpline.

8 weeks’ sick pay at full salary in any 12 months.

Long-term Disability Insurance: 2/3 salary less state incapacity benefit after 6 months’ absence for up to 5 years, covered from start date.

Employee assistance programme (Unum): in the form of an app, with easy access to medical and mental health support.
Personal Accident Insurance while at work or commuting.

Health Cash Plan with Medicash

Pension Scheme (currently Standard Life): Auto-enrolment of all staff after 3 months service.

Berghaus uniform items provided and staff discount

Staff bursaries: discounted course fees for family members.

Plus!

Personal Adventures – Outward Bound has a positive attitude to extended/unpaid leave (forward planning is required)

Apply today

If you are interested, please send an email with your up-to-date CV and covering letter of no more than 500 words explaining how your skills and experience fit the Job Description, to Tara King. Tara.king@outwardbound.org.uk.

The closing date is 09.00, Monday, 12 May 2025. Initial Interviews will take place from w/c 26 May 2025 at our Head Office in Hackthorpe, nr Penrith, or via Teams or Zoom if appropriate.

Start date: As soon as possible.