There are many national organisations in the United Kingdom and its overseas territories that have been established to provide services to people under the age of 18.
Activities include sport, hill walking, parade drill, rock climbing, rifle shooting, fieldcraft and other outdoor activities, as well as the study of subjects related to aviation, leading to a national vocational diploma (BTEC in Aviation Studies and others including Teamwork and Leadership).
Week-long trips to RAF stations in the UK and abroad, or camps offering adventure training or music, allow the opportunity for cadets to gain a taste of military life and often to gain some flying experience in RAF gliders.
It is a separate organisation from the Combined Cadet Force which provides similar training within principally independent schools.
Although sponsored by the Ministry of Defence the ACF is not a branch of the British Armed Forces, and as such cadets are not subject to military 'call up'.
The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is a Ministry of Defence sponsored youth organisation in the United Kingdom.
Founded in 1948, its aim is to "provide a disciplined organisation in a school so that pupils may develop powers of leadership by means of training to promote the qualities of responsibility, self reliance, resourcefulness, endurance and perseverance".
The Girls Venture Corps Air Cadets (GVCAC) is a voluntary uniformed youth organisation for girls aged between 11 and 20, It is also a registered charity,[11] and by virtue of its work towards the personal and social development of young people, it is a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS).
The Sea Cadet Corps (SCC) is a UK national youth organisation which is sponsored by the MOD senior service the Royal Navy and open to young people between the ages of 10 and 18 years old.
This in turn leads many young people to continue their involvement with the brigade by joining either retained or full time service.
[22] Members take part in a very wide variety of activities, including providing first aid at major and community events, attending camps, completing awards, participating in competitions, learning leadership and training skills and fundraising.
The Baden-Powell Scouts retain the belief that the essence of the movement should be based on outdoor activities related to the skills of explorers, backwoodsmen and frontiersmen.
It is independent, non-political, non-military, and open to all without distinction of origin, race, creed or gender, in accordance with the purpose, principles and method conceived by Robert Baden-Powell.
The original uniform is still worn today, including the broad brimmed hats, khaki shirts and shorts, making the wearer instantly recognisable as a Scout.
Guiding began in the UK in 1910 as an organisation especially for girls run along similar lines to Scouting for Boys.
For this reason, and for its work aiming for the personal and social development of young people, Girlguiding is a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS).
The Kibbo Kift (archaic Kentish dialect for 'proof of great strength'[25]) has been described as 'the only genuine English national movement of modern times'.
[26] The Kibbo Kift was to be not merely a youth organisation but was to involve all ages and, very daring for the times, it was open to both sexes.
The ideas of world peace and the regeneration of urban man through the open-air life replaced the nationalism and militarism Hargrave had detested in the post-World War I Scouts.
By 1932 the Anglo-Saxon costumes, camping, hiking and woodcraft had been replaced by military uniform, marching and propagandising.
The current stated purpose of The Scout Association is to "actively engage and support young people in their personal development, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society".
[37] Following its inception in Glasgow in 1883, the BB quickly spread across the United Kingdom and became a worldwide organisation by the early 1890s.
The UK's oldest Jewish youth movement, it was founded in 1895 as the Jewish Lads' Brigade by Colonel Albert E. W. Goldsmid, a senior army officer, to provide an interest for children of the many poor immigrant families who were coming into England at that time.
[48] Globally the Pathfinder Club is part of the church's youth ministry, which is the Australian director Gilbert Cangy.
[59] It also describes itself as "pro-equality and anti-environmental destruction", opposing capitalism and supporting an independent Scotland inside the European Union.
Formed in the 1970s as the Young Scottish Nationalists the organisation changed its name to YSI in 1996 when the YSN underwent a complete reorganisation.
The National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs is a rural youth organisation in the United Kingdom.
Over the next decade more clubs opened to provide agricultural education, with the focus on the keeping of growing and living things including calves, pigs, poultry, bees and gardens.
After the death of one of YFC's original founders and greatest inspirations, Lord Northcliffe, in 1922 the Ministry of Agriculture took on development of the organisation.
It describes its values as "amplifying youth voices, systemic change, non-violence, transparency, anti-oppression, inclusivity, diversity and independence.