next it will be anti-terror badges.

Does this mean Scouts will be pooling their pocket money in order to enter the Buy-To-Let market??

Girl? Check! Boy? Check! Ethnic? Check! Good.

Excellent idea and follows on from the excellent Junior Apprentice.

In this day and age it is important to teach the youngsters as early as possible that exploiting others for personal profit and gain, ideally those weaker and more vulnerable, is the way to success, with a motto of 'fuck everyone else, I'm all right Jack'.

If you fail to get this badge you are given the Big Society one instead, where you get to work for nothing trying to repair the damage that the entrepreneur badge holders have caused.

And for a follow up badge, there is the Bankruptcy. This requires you to run up £100s millions of pounds of debt and then pay £500 to get rid of it all.

Next up: Investor Badge, High Risk badge, Trader badge, Banker's badge, Fund Management badge....It wont be long before Scouting will be just as powerful as the Church, with their own banks, golf resorts and their HQ in Canary Wharf

Hopefully this badge will help to encourage a new generation of social entrepreneurs.

I think it is a very good idea to encourage people to turn half an idea into a coherent plan of action, which addresses a genuine need in a compelling fashion and is financially viable.

It really shows the heritage of the Scouts, the history of being at one with the church and the state hasn't gone away but been re-marketed.
It's still an organisation that is top-heavy and authoritarian, still relies on military procedures and terminology.
Is there an 'Empire' badge?

A small child commented recently to me when seeing a Scout camp with everything laid out perfectly and noticed that there is intense rivalry between Patrols (or whatever they are called). The child also noticed the way that leaders appeared to be more like military NCO's, taking out all thier frustations by bellowing at Scouts for not being 'best' at things and how other Patrols were beating them - basically bullying children to try and save face with other leaders.

"I feel sorry for them" said the child.
Wisdom is often found in young people.
"They come all the way to camp and just get miserable"

Just think you ought to emphasize that this is sponsored by Homeserve and will be promoted by a Homeserve Learning and Development officer.

So thats fifty grand plus salary (another fifty grand?) for the soul of a 102 year organisation and lots of extended publicity.

At least this "initiative" won't pollute the minds of any atheists. They're banned you know.

Remember, that's Homeserve

Man, left-wing trolls are the worst.

Entrepreneurs create jobs. Virgin Group employs 35,000 people, and even a small company requires accountants, a sales team, a receptionist, secretary, and office cleaners. Each person is paid according to the market rate for their role.

My experience at Scouts was all about being trained to accept sadism as just 'mucking about' (from Scout masters), abuse (ditto), rope burns, chinese burns, pecking orders, humiliation and diarrhea. In other words it was already perfect training for business, so maybe the poor sods should at least be given a badge for it.

Sweetin

g - those above aren't trolls, by any definition.
Your assertion doesn't address the question whether Scouts should be a place where children are encouraged to be business people. Which does make you more of a troll than the others. Damn, I just fed one…

Entrepreneurs create jobs.

Yeah, in China. At below survival wage rates.

Virgin Group employs 35,000 people, and even a small company requires accountants, a sales team, a receptionist, secretary, and office cleaners. Each person is paid according to the market rate for their role.

And the market rate for their role is in no way anywhere near the value they add or the wealth they create.

And now we will get all the wibbles about risk-takers and giving 120%. And how those with all the wealth already deserve the lion's share of any wealth created.

Life isn't just episode of The Apprentice.

Successful entrepreneurs get to the top of the pile by being evil two-faced sociopaths who would sell their daughter's kidney if it made them enough money. Setting these people up as role models is morally wrong (yes, us atheists do have morals, we just don't need a god to tell us what they are). It is also as useful as telling kids they can be a WAG or a pop star. The failure to success ratio is very, very high. Cue a life of misery because top marks on the entrepreneur badge is followed by by a job in a call centre. Anyway, round our way most teenage entrepeneurs are making money selling drugs in school playgrounds rather than getting badges in the Scouts.

In the last analysis, the Scouts is an outdated Edwardian relic of Empire and so has to find some way to be relevant to it's target bourgeois market in the 21st century. Entrepreneurs and the Scouts deserve each other. Just imagine the reaction, though, if the Woodcraft Folk presented badges based on the succesful establishment of a workers' co-operative to meet a perceived demand. There would be headlines like "Commie Kiddies' Brainwashing Badge".

This post is a bit scattergun, but even though this involves two groups of people I detest, it is still wrong on so many levels. But then the Scouts does exist to indoctrinate young people into Cameronista citizenship.

Did I mention the badge was sponsored by Homeserve. I don't think they have yet go the level of free publicity they were expecting.

There are 2 Scouting associations in the UK - The Scout Association (characterised by their pastel coloured outfits) and the Baden Powell Association who opt for a more traditional approach and attire.

Don't have a problem with. At least scouts still are able to take controlled risks and aren't prevented from doing so by the PC/H&S fascists.

Perhaps their ought to be a video game playing badge or even web site creator badge!

I've been in the Scouts for 15 years (since I was 8) - as both a child and adult volunteer. The skills I learnt as a child (team work, responsibility etc) and as an adult (project management, people management, budgeting etc) have been recognised by each of the employers I have been interviewed by for jobs.

They noticed I had been in Scouting and almost the whole interview from that point was about what I had done and the skills / experience learnt - I think it speaks for Scouting to say that I was accepted for each of those jobs!

Now in my mid-Twenties, I've started my own business and know many of others my age who have done similar having been inspired and given the confidence as a result of their time in Scouting... Many household name entrepeneurs such as Richard Branson attribute their success in part to time spent in Scouting.

This new award is a great way to prepare young people for life in the real world - I'm proud to be part of a Movement which provides young people these opportunities.

The guardian and many of the posters above, obviously know very little about today's youth and even less about the Adventure, Fun & Challenge of modern Scouting, such negativity is the blight of today's society.

Given the great work being done by a growing movement to develop active citizens who are an assett to their communities, the above makes very depressing reading.

If anyone is interested here's a link to a video made by a group of Explorer Scouts from Carlisle attempting to dispel some of the outdated perceptions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhIx2GTyPSU

I would expect children to be walking billboards if they/their parents consented to it through the traditional mechanisms of private trade i.e. buying Nike shoes, displaying and therefore perpetuating the mythical necessity of integrating into society through consumerism; but I always pictured Scouts as a 'public' and 'social' organisation .i.e. left wing, and not what seems to be the private manipulation of children's education thanks to Homeserve who's name undoubtedly appears on all the informational booklets, certificates, badges etc aswell as the virtue press attention hence this article I am commenting upon; it reminds me of when Natwest sponsored a term in our school 'educating' us about finance, all I can remember of it is endless worksheets with natwest logos on them and a school assembly where a nice woman from Natwest was telling us the benefits of starting a Natwest account and that we were of the legal age to make our own 'choice' of what account we could open, and it just so happened we had to opportunity to sign up to Natwest after the assembly, lucky us. But I didn't pay for my comprehensive education, and I assume Natwest's cheque helped my school out considerably, but I do remember having to pay a pound or two to attend Scouts; I pity the future Scouts paying to have their time wasted listening about some worthless institution lining Akela's pocket.

Despite some of the comments here, Enterprise is not about capitalism, it is about taking control of your own future, rather than waiting for someone else to give it to you.

One 14 year old girl who leads enterprise activities at her school through London Young Chamber (LYC) summed it up perfectly by saying “Before LYC, I thought business was just about making money. Now I know it’s also about providing opportunities for different people and helping communities”.

The scouts have been leading enterprise activities for so many years now, it is about time there was a badge to celebrate all of their achievements.

Crumbs, I leave to have a spot of lunch and a wall of text sprouts behind my back.
It's time to play... CiF bingo!

- 'China' (that world-leading source for UK-based accountants, salespeople, receptionists, secretaries, and office cleaners)
- self-congratulatory reference to atheism
- derogatory reference to Empire
- 'bourgeois'
- 'Cameronista'
- self-defeating reference to big company (hey genius, google 'SEO')

Actually quite entertaining. Consider yourself Recommended WP.

My mum runs a cub scout pack in Blackley, Manchester and my dad is the General Sourt Leader at the group (308th Manchester).

My parents have been doing this voluntary work for over 30 years. My mum manages to run the cub pack on 30p per head a week. For this 30p, they get parties, swimming, wide games, arts and craft, traditional cub scout activities such as knot work and map reading. When i was a child, i got taught how to swim at school for 5 years. By the time my brother got to school, they only provided lessons for 1 term. Some of the families my mum comes across can't afford or don't have the time to take their child to swimming lessons so in some cases what she provides is a great help to the family.

Another observation to counter Elmerphudd's titbit:
My dad was on scout camp and was in a supermarket with the teenage boys he'd taken away. they were in full scout uniform. Some local kids had noticed them and started heckling them. One of the scouts calmly said "when we've finishing here, I'm going absailing, canoeing, and then i'll cook my tea on an open fire. What are you lot doing for the rest of the day?" the local kids didn't reply.

My brother is a scout and left for Japan today. He is joining the national scout camp over there in the foothills of Mount Fiji. After that, he is staying in Tokyo for a few days before staying with a Japanese family. Last year he went to Denmark, the year before that, Switzerland. He's currently raising money to go the Sweden in a couple of years. The cost of these trips are mostly paid for by group fundraising. I believe it's giving children opportunities that would normally escape them, especially in deprived areas.

I get the impression that some of the comments on here were posted by people that have not experienced scouting and i'm afraid some of your views are outdated especially the focus on the military and the church (we have a jewish group in our district).

Since my mum joined facebook a couple of years ago, she constantly recieves messages from former cubs thanking her for the many hours she out in. She has had a lot of them saying that if it wasn't for cubs and what she did for them they would not be good person they are today (a couple believing they would be in prison).

Surely if scouting was as bad as some people make out on here, it wouldn't have so many members. If a child doesn't want to go, they won't, nobody is forcing them and nobody is forcing you. if you don't like it, at least give real reason rather than spouting out rubbish undeducated guesses about what scouting is.

"leaders appeared to be more like military NCO's, taking out all thier frustations by bellowing at Scouts for not being 'best' at things and how other Patrols were beating them - basically bullying children to try and save face with other leaders" - Elmerphudd

I can assure you that my parents have never done that and i find that stereotype quite upsetting.

Do you think that my parents have put hundreds of thousands of hours into working with children just to get a kick out of belittling them? what would be the point of that? no. They have given almost all of their spare time to scouting to encourage child to be confident, kind, honest individuals, giving them an alternative to the pressure that some of their peers put on them to be antisocial or commit crimes.

I'm extremly proud of my parents and scouting. You don't have to be but make a better argument rather then shoot down a movemnt you haven't bothered to look into in more detail.

I have been involved in the Scout movement since they allowed girls to join when I was 8. I joined the cubs, then scouts, then venture scouts then became a leader when I was 19. I have been a leader now for 7 years. I would like to say that from Scouting I have learnt a lot of life skills that I have passed on to another generation of children from all walks of life. As a cub and scout and venture scout I did a lot of things most of my non-scouting friends never had the opportunity to do, and all for very little expense. As a leader I have spent many hours planning, fundraising and supervising so that finance is removed as a barrier so kids can go and enjoy the wider world outside of the room their game console is in. Scout leaders at all levels do not receive a penny for what they do, everything is done through fundraising. Every scout leader I know and have met do what they do for the sake of the kids, not for personal gain or achievement. If anything, being a Scout Leader has cost me money, money which I am quite happy to spend, for example, on a Scout shirt for a child who's mother couldn't afford one, and for treats for the kids at the end of scout term.
I have had my hard work thrown in my face by a small handful of the parents whose kids I have done so much for over the years, but this doesn't bother me, the fact that a child could be missing out bothers me immensley.

I would like to point out to all the nay-sayers who obviously have very little knowledge or experience of scouting that this is a wonderful world-wide organisation.
All but one of the men who have been on the moon had been in the scouts.
The Scout Organisation has it's own NATO representation.
The Scouts were once more trusted to deliver aid to those in need than the Red Cross.

Think before you mouth off and offend people who are willing to dedicate their spare time to changing lives and communities for the sake of everyone, whether they join in or not.

I can't help feeling that a lot of people have totally missed the point!

As a parent of two (a boy and a girl) who are both proud Scouts, I would wholeheartedly embrace any new initiative, which will help young people in their future development.

As far as I can see, this new badge does not intend to turn our children into 'raving' business tycoons, and I think the majority of posts so far reflect a sector of society's dislike of a TV programme more than that of Scouting!
Scouting empowers young people with knowledge and experience to take on into later life, and is provided in a fun, exciting way. Why else would the movement have in excess of half a million UK members?

There is no doubt that young people are increasingly looking towards an uncertain employment future - gone are the days of apprenticeships and work for all. Many of our youngsters will need to leave education with the skills and confidence to make their own way - often through self-employment, and initiatives like this can provide a structured introduction into running their own business.

I know for a fact that many leaders in Scouting give a tremendous amount of their time and energy providing fantastic opportunities for our young people, only to be criticised by those who have a very-much outdated view of what Scouting is about.
There are now seldom few organisations that provide (or are able/willing to provide) fun and adventure for youngsters, together with a very necessary element of risk managed in a responsible and safe way.

If you speak to any parent of a child involved in Scouting you will find that on the whole - their child is a happier, more polite and more sociable person for that involvement. With Scouting numbers in the UK at a 22-year high the organisation must be doing something right, and I for one congratulate (and thank) the thousands of adults who give their time up freely every week to provide fantastic learning experiences for our children.

I'm 16. I'm a girl. I'm a scout and im proud of it!

I don't understand why so many people seem to be against the idea of this badge, you guys are looking waaaay too deep into the meaning of it and you've let your imaginations run wild.

All scouting does is provide opportunities to young people, (and leaders) who haven't had chance to take part in adventure, fun and challenge. I have had some absolutely awesome adventures in the scouts and i've only been part of the movement for 2 years. If I wasn't part of the scouts I would have never gone to Switzerland and abseiled down a 30ft crevass after a hike across a glacier. If I wasn't a scout I wouldn't have met all my new friends, I wouldn't have had the confidence to do presentations to local neighbourhood forums and to fellow class mates to help riase money.

Many people have a completely outdated view on scouting with the "knots", "dib dib dib, dob dob dob" "campfires" etc. I have many friends who are jealous of the amazing stuff i've done and im going to be taking part in, in the future.

Scouting has given me many different opportunities to test me through many different mediums which in return have made me the person i am to day... determined, enthusiastic, sociable etc i wouldn't change it for the world!

This badge is yet another NEW fun, interesting, challenging way of developing the young people of today. Not everyone likes camping and the scouting movement tries to offer many different opportunities that appeal to all, and which like "russ1985uk" has said, "I think it speaks for Scouting to say that I was accepted for each of those jobs!".

Scouting is awesome. Thats all you really need to know.

Some bold statements by people who probably know very little about the Scout Movement today. Some of you would would be better informed by visiting a local group or visiting the Scout Website to see what we offer young people today. I have been involved in Scouting for over 40 years and watched it progress to what it is today. Rach16 is spot on with her remarks and I support all the Scouts who have commented in support of this.

There are not many organisations which represent all walks of life and run on a shoe string but still manage to offer quality activities. Perhaps we should consider some of the leaders for this award as well.

Oh dear, I see the trolls are out in force again. Those that think that scouting is about empire and militarism might like to look up Baden Powels comments following the First World War. Modern scouting provides masses of opportunities for young people to fulfill their potential, learn new skills be they traditional or modern, learn self respect, respect for others as well as leadership and team work. What is wrong with all that?

In the last 12 months my scouts have learned mouth to mouth/CPR, been white water canoing, raised thousands for charity, been to the ballet, been horse riding, skinned and cooked rabbits, looked after themselves and their kit on dozens of nights away and generally shown a lot more intelligence than some of the ignorants who post on here.