About The Outward Bound Trust

Young people growing up in today’s world face ever-increasing pressure. Confidence and the ability to develop transferable skills are the key to enabling young people to fulfil their potential in this fast moving, highly competitive environment.

For some young people, the picture is even more complex – with increasing numbers at risk of disaffection, poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, homelessness and crime.

For more than 60 years, The Outward Bound Trust has influenced the lives of more than a million young people. Through safe adventure experiences on mountains and sea, rivers and lakes, young people develop their potential to take on new challenges, work in harmony with others and solve problems for themselves.

Many of the participants are disadvantaged, and access is being extended further to include more of those young people who have, perhaps, the most to gain – whether they are from the cities, from ethnic minority communities or from deprived backgrounds.

Through outdoor challenges, Outward Bound shows young people the meaning of the greatest sentence in the English language: “I can”

Our history

Kurt Hahn founded Outward Bound in 1941 as a means for training young merchant seamen who faced the demands of hazardous maritime service.

This 'crash course in maturity' proved successful in helping these young men survive if they were torpedoed while crossing the Atlantic with the convoys.

The concept of Outward Bound clearly worked, and young men from commerce and industry were also sent on courses with remarkable results.

Through courses at centres in Wales, Scotland and the Lake District, as well as through local and global projects, Outward Bound has continued to honour its original principle - that of preparing young people for tough challenges in their lives and giving them the self-belief to succeed.