NYLT - National Youth Leadership Training

NYLT is a six-day advanced leadership course designed to teach Scouts the tools, techniques, and skills they need to be better leaders – not only in their units, but also at home, in school, and in their daily lives. Led by an exemplary, highly-trained youth staff, NYLT participants work hard and play hard together through group activities, games, and adventures as they experience Scouting at its best.

Why attend National Youth Leadership Training?

In your Scouting career, you will get many opportunities to lead your fellow Scouts through activities, projects, and outings as you advance. How can you make sure you have the skills you need to lead them to success?

NYLT can teach you what you will need to become a better leader. At NYLT, you will learn how to communicate effectively, how to resolve conflicts, and how to work towards a vision. You will work as part of a patrol with your fellow participants, practicing your Scouting skills and growing together as a team. And you will have fun along the way, with games and interactive activities that reinforce different leadership techniques.

NYLT is staffed by Scouts like yourself who have gone through the program and spent months in preparation to teach the course. They will guide you and your patrol through your six days at NYLT, and they make sure that NYLT is not just about teaching you leadership skills, but about giving you a leadership experience that you will never forget. You will be able to take home Scout skills, games, songs, and practices that will make your unit even better. And you might even find that your six days at NYLT is a time of self-discovery, as you set a personal vision and learn how to set goals to fulfill it.

National Youth Leadership Training will bring new skills and greater enthusiasm to your youth leadership.

Scouting recognizes that unit leaders have primary responsibility for training their youth leaders. NYLT is designed to support that role by helping Scouts develop critical leadership skills such as setting goals, communicating with others, and team development.

Using the Patrol Method as a framework for teaching, an NYLT course is not only ideal for training youth leaders at every level, but it can also be a valuable experience for older Scouts and Venturers.

NYLT is taught, run, and organized entirely by a highly trained team of youth Scouts, who not only attended NYLT as participants but also invest more than 300 hours in preparation to deliver each course and make it fun. They will not only teach your youth effective leadership skills, but they serve as an example of what NYLT practices look like in action. Our curriculum aligns our youth leadership training with the adult training offered by Wood Badge, and NYLT is part of the cycle of leadership that starts with ILST and continues with NAYLE.

NYLT teaches leadership skills that will help your child form stronger interpersonal relationships and make better decisions throughout their lives. While this is certainly a Scouting program, the leadership skills your Scout will learn will enhance their life in so many ways outside of the Scouting world. NYLT will give them the confidence to take on anything – at school, at home, or wherever life takes them.

What NYLT requires of your Scout is openness to learning these skills and the maturity to accept them. The course is taught by talented, resolute youth leaders who prepare for six months and serve as an example of what NYLT leadership looks like in action. The outdoor environment provides the backdrop for a mix of presentations, games, and learning activities geared towards Scouts while still having fun.

What is required?

In order to attend a NYLT course, a youth must have the following qualifications by the beginning of the course:

  • Must be a registered member of a Scouting unit.
  • Must have a current Scouting America Health and Medical Record form parts A, B, and C.
  • Participants must be at least 13 before the course starts.
  • Staff must be at least 14 before the course starts. 
  • Members of the Scouts BSA must have achieved the First Class Rank.
  • Venturers and Sea Scouts (male and female) must be at least 14, or 13 and have completed eighth grade, and fall within the maximum age allowance for their program.
  • Must have completed Introduction to Leadership Skills. (What is this training?).

Cost...

  • Fee is $200 per participant if paid by May 17; $225 afterwards.  $75 deposit at time of registration.
  • Staff member fee is $100 per staff member if paid by May 17; $225 afterwards (includes meals and materials).

Get registered...

2025 fees will be posted by October 2024

2026

Apply to be on staff...  

Downloads...

File Name Description
Code of Conduct Download
Personal Equipment Checklist Download