On Saturday the 27th and Sunday the 28th of October the Duke of Edinburgh's Award NSW conducted the first of its new state wide Adventurous Journey and Emergency Response Training Program at Marramarra National Park.

A number of members from Surf Life Saving Central Coast were the lucky coordinators to undertake this mportant new training which is designed to educate and show the need to plan ahead and how to respond to an emergency situation.

The teaching format of the weekend was divided into two parts, with Saturday morning being focused on the pre-planning of an adventurous journey which covered identification of risk, risk assessment, notification, emergency strategy plans and activation of emergency response systems. Training was by way of senario based learning where coordinators took part in several scenarios that highlighted the importance of an informed and prepared base contact to assist in dealing with field based incidents. During the debriefing coordinators were amazed by the potential for disaster and were able to take a number of key important skills and notes away to set up their own crises management system

Day two was spent out in the depths of the scrub in the stunning Marramarra National Park where the Duke of Edinburgh Award training staff demonstrated and explained how to effectively run a safe adventures journey while still offering a unique experience to their participants.Throughout the day coordinators were exposed to 3 different incidents in which they had to respond to and report to their base contact and if needed emergency services. The incidents included an off course group, a serious medical emergency and minor incident that ended with a succesful evacuation.

The training program has been been designed to give coordinators an understanding of how to approach a emergency situation and with the new Award Emergency Response Field Handbook, how to respond to those incidents step by step. The next training session is scheduled for December 2007 at Mulgoa for coordinators from the South West Metro Area Network group.

The New Dukes Training program includes revamped Award Administration Training, 1 Day Basic Navigation and the 2 day Emergency Response Training.

If you're an Award coordinator and would like to take part in any training mentioned above please contact the Duke of Edinburgh's Award NSW 02 9006 3803 or kmcreynolds@dsr.nsw.gov.au