National Youth Leadership Course

                        Canberra

As you may know, Michael, Jonathan, Sean, Aimee, and Oliver attended a youth leadership training course located in Canberra during January. The course ran from the 7^th up until the 11^th, giving the 14 youth ambassadors from around Australia an opportunity to better their leadership skills. Some such skills include: impromptu speaking, interpreting body language, teamwork, and many other important skills, which were presented to us by volunteers of Toc H and a range of guest speakers including senator Gary Humphries; who opened the course, Toastmasters, Jack Waterford; a journalist, and Life Line.

One such skill gained was confidence when speaking to an audience. This skill was developed through the art of impromptu speaking, role playing, and the advice of the Toc H volunteers.

The Toc H leadership program has enhanced our ability to network, as no-one knew each other prior to the course, however as the week progressed, we all got to know each other through teamwork and co-operation.

Impromptu speaking was, as mentioned before, one of the major topics of the youth leadership program. It commenced in rapid with one of the 14 youth ambassadors being elected at random, who were then given a topic, 30 seconds to think on the topic, and then a minute to speak about the topic. Through this enlightening experience, all youth ambassadors in attendance were able to boost their confidence in public speaking.