Top 3 most popular skills builders
Across guiding and for each section - according to girls and volunteers
We asked volunteers, girls and their parents or carers what they think of our programme, including skills builders.
There’s lots of feedback. All of these findings are from July 2018 (when the new programme was introduced) to April 2023 as part of our programme review.
Download autumn guiding term 2024 programme planner
You can use this planner throughout the guiding term to plan all programme activities for all sections. You’ll find on it lots of programme and Girlguiding links to different events and days happening! We're planning to release a new one every term so look out for more.
Top 3 most popular skills builders across all sections
Girls of all ages shared what skills builders they most enjoyed. There are 3 that came up a lot for every section. In order of popularity, they are:
- First aid.
- Camp which is sponsored by our partner GO Outdoors.
- Innovate which is sponsored by our partner Rolls-Royce.
Keep reading to find out the top 5 skills builders for each section: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers.
What volunteers and girls said about skills builders
Around 67% of volunteers report that their unit typically completes 1 skills builder stage a term. The majority of units deliver skills builder activities as a whole unit or in smaller groups - that’s great!
Skills builders are designed to be done in stages. Doing them once a term gives girls the perfect balance of doing fun unit meeting activities and developing their skills as a group.
It helps me develop useful skills that are transferable into real life situations with the advantage that I gain a badge’ - Guide.
Rainbows and Brownies said doing skills builders was fun, they learnt new things and felt a sense of reward.
I look forward to building new skills and earning a new badge, so I can show others what I have earned and learned to do.’ - Rainbow.
Across Girlguiding, older sections complete more skills builders – around 68% of Guides and 85% of Rangers. Older girls expressed that they liked developing skills and learning new things, but sometimes the activities can feel quite serious or a bit like school.
We've already been working to inject more new and exciting activities into recent unit meeting activities (UMAs) like our animals and music topics, which girls have told us they love. We’ll continue to create new activities and badges that feel exciting to girls and different from school by testing them all with our members.
Read more about what’s next for our programme.
Popular skills builders by section
Interested to know what skills builders are the most popular for your unit’s section? Check them out.
Rainbows
The most completed skills builders for Rainbows (in order) are:
Brownies
The most completed skills builders for Brownies (in order) are:
Guides
The most completed skills builders for Guides (in order) are:
Rangers
The most completed skills builders for Rangers (in order) are:
Ready to put some of these much-loved skills builders into action? Check out our autumn term programme planner for 2024.
Download our autumn 2024 term programme planner
You can use it throughout the guiding term to plan all programme activities for all sections. You’ll find on it lots of programme and Girlguiding links to different events and days happening!
There’s lots of activities in our programme – and volunteers have told us it’s tricky to find them all. We’re hoping this new style of programme planner will help make it easier for you to find activities and plan your term. We’re planning to launch one for each term of this guiding year.
If you have any thoughts or would like to feedback on the planner, please contact [email protected].
We’re continuing to work with volunteers and girls to give them more of what they love. That includes more interest badges coming to the programme in 2025!
Read more about our new interest badges and how you can get involved.
