Teach young people how to be safe near and in the water – and what to do if anything ever goes wrong. Free downloadable learning resources for water safety workshops and more.
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RNLI Water Safety Young Adults Programme
Our free 1-day course to help 16-25-year old students develop transferable skills and water safety awareness as they prepare to leave education and go to work.
The RNLI Water Safety Young Adults Programme is run by volunteer facilitators during term time at further and higher education settings across the UK and Ireland.
The free programme, which includes a tutorial and a practical workshop, is designed to help students develop and practise a variety of transferable skills in a water safety scenario as they make, or prepare to make, the transition from education to employment.
You can learn more about the programme below. To discuss availability, please get in touch.
Reaching those at risk around water
Statistics show that young people aged 16–25 are at risk around water, whether that’s a river, quarry or coastal area. The RNLI Water Safety Young Adults Programme raises water safety awareness within this highly vulnerable, but highly receptive, group by making it a natural and integral part of the transferable skills development course.
What’s included in the programme?
The RNLI Water Safety Young Adults Programme has two core components - a tutorial and a practical workshop - which are interdependent. The programme takes less than a day to complete and works best when the tutorial and workshop are run on consecutive mornings or afternoons.
The training is conducted face-to-face by a volunteer RNLI facilitator, in either a lecture theatre or a room at the students’ further or higher education setting, depending on the number of attendees.
Risk Awareness and Risk Management Tutorial
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1-hour tutorial
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Transferable skills:
- risk awareness
- behavioural safety
- decision making
- personal responsibility.
The tutorial is designed to help students develop a greater understanding of risk awareness, behavioural safety, decision-making and personal responsibility in the context of staying safe when around inland and coastal waters.
It’s an essential primer for students attending the workshop but is also open to all students on campus as part of a college induction, safeguarding or social event.
Leadership and Teamwork Workshop
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2.5-hour workshop
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Number of students:
Minimum 18 | Maximum 36 working in groups of 6
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Transferable skills:
- leadership
- teamwork
- communication, listening and information sharing
- problem solving, decision making and objective setting
- situation management, including situation assessment and situation awareness
- risk management, including risk assessment and risk awareness
- personal and social responsibility
- media handling.
The workshop is built around the RNLI’s experience in all of the transferable skills listed above, immersing students in a fictional but authentic search and rescue scenario. It gives them a real-world experience of making decisions under pressure and within a team.
Get your students on the map!
This map shows where the RNLI Water Safety Young Adults Programme has been delivered so far - and the breadth of our work to equip 16–25-year-old students with lifesaving water safety awareness and transferable skills.
Select a pin on the map to see the location. You can also browse an accessible list of locations where our programme has already been delivered below the map.
Locations where the RNLI Water Safety Young Adults Programme has been delivered
- Barking and Dagenham, London
- Barnstaple, Devon
- Bedfordshire (various)
- Bicton, Devon
- Bodmin, Cornwall
- Buckinghamshire (various)
- Calderdale, West Yorkshire
- Chelmsford, Essex
- Chesterfield, Derbyshire
- Colchester, Essex
- Crewe, Cheshire
- Doncaster, South Yorkshire
- Dudley, West Midlands
- Durham (various)
- Exeter, Devon
- Havering, London
- Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
- Hull, East Yorkshire
- Keighley, West Yorkshire
- King’s Lynn, Norfolk
- Leicester, Leicestershire
- Plymouth, Devon
- Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire
- Sheffield, South Yorkshire
- South Benfleet, Essex
- Southend-on-Sea, Essex
- Stevenage, Hertfordshire
- Wakefield, West Yorkshire
- Wareham, Dorset
- Coleraine, County Londonderry
- Bishopstown, County Cork
- Cork, County Cork
- Galway, County Galway
- Kinsale, County Cork
- Limerick, County Limerick
- Poolbeg, Dublin
- Deeside, Flintshire
- Rhyl, Denbighshire
Feeling inspired?
If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer facilitator for the RNLI Water Safety Young Adults Programme, please get in touch.
As a lifesaving charity, we believe in prioritising the safety and welfare of our people. And sometimes this means we need to do more to protect the most vulnerable in our society. Learn more and access our Safeguarding Policy.
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Our Water Safety Team are here to help you teach the children in your classroom or youth group how to stay safe, in and around the water.
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