Welcome to the Careers Scotland Adventure Challenge

In coming months, these pages will offer you all the latest information on what this project is about, and everyone who is involved. Watch this space and see how the project takes shape as more and more people get involved.

So what is it all about?

It’s all about getting young people involved in fun outdoor activities, but with a focus on helping them gain new skills and confidence which should help them become more confident about facing their futures.

What is planned?

We would like to get young people from throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland involved in outdoor activities. This would be delivered as two different formats:

• primary schools orienteering, and
• secondary schools outdoor adventure activities.

This event will be fun, but with a serious purpose.

Primary schools orienteering

What we would like to do is get you and your primary school involved in orienteering. This should take part in your school grounds and will feature exciting challenges and puzzles that will help you learn more about yourself and your school grounds. Schools who wish to take part should have their grounds mapped out as an orienteering course. We should be able to assist if it is not already set up. The mapping of the grounds could also form a class exercise. We are aiming this part of the event at P6 and  P7 – depending on class sizes and facilities available.

Schools and orienteering

Orienteering is a perfect outdoor activity for schools and can be used as an element in the National Curriculum for PE, Geography and Mathematics. It is an activity that can take place in the school playground as well as the countryside.

What does orienteering have to offer?

• challenge and adventure;
• competition with yourself and others;
• use of map and compass skills to solve navigation problems;
• map making;
• exercise for the brain as well as the body.

Secondary school outdoor Adventure Challenge

A selection of participants from various schools will be given the opportunity to take part in exciting outdoor adventure activities.

Throughout these activities, students will discover more about how these relate to their future. They will learn loads of new skills and discover how these skills will help you in their future careers.

It is intended that we develop a suitable programme of outdoor activities such as mountain biking, abseiling, orienteering and water sports - and tie in the experiences, and offer some thought provoking activities in order to illustrate the benefits of having a fulfilling career.

How to use these web pages

Learn more about who else is taking part, see what others have been doing, and let others know what you have learned.

Use our links section to see how Adventure Challenge connects with what others are doing.

Register your interest

If you like what you see and want to get involved, tell one of your teachers and ask them to get in touch with your local Careers Scotland centre. They will identify some participants from your school and we can organise your involvement. Places are limited, so don’t delay. 

And your teachers can use the downloadable entry form here, right, to apply.

Key contact at Careers Scotland - Highlands and Islands

David Fraser
Development worker
Careers Adventure Challenge
Careers Scotland
Highlands and Islands Enterprise
Cowan House
Inverness retail and business park
Inverness IV2 7GF

Tel: 01463 244497
Mob: 07767 291131
E-mail: fraserd@careers-scotland.org.uk

Challenging the challenger

As a development worker delivering the 2007 Adventure Challenge, I have been quick to encourage others to be challenged by outdoor activities to help with their career planning. And then my boss put it to me: "Why don't you do something that would be a challenge to you?"

It's all too easy to ask someone to do something difficult and not do it yourself ... so how could I refuse? With this in mind, I have committed myself to doing something that challenges, excites and even scares me.

I spoke to the guys at the Boots n Paddles outdoor activity company - who offered me a choice between abseiling at Carbisdale Castle, Sutherland, or undertaking a gorge walk in the Meig River near Strathconnon in Ross-shire. On the face of it, the abseil sounded more scary (which I've no doubt it is) - but when I saw some pictures of the Meig gorge (coupled with being told that the local mountain rescue team refuse to rescue from part of it) - It had to be the choice of a crazy individual.

So what did I choose? The Meig gorge walk of course!