Training

Thankfully few people require training to learn how to walk but there are a host of associated courses organised by various groups which can help make the walking experience more fun.

At the average walking pace life gets a lot more interesting than when we choose to live faster. Courses which help us know what we are looking at and capture it in words, paint, photographs and music are all known to be popular – remember all those creative people who have been inspired by walking including Wordsworth, Dickens, Elgar and Turner  - but we aren’t attempting to list all those possible courses here you will be relieved to know!

Those keen however to help others walk more might be interested in training to be a walk leader. Natural England’s Walking the Way to Health Initiative (WHI) is England’s largest training provider for health walk leaders and has already trained more than 35,000 volunteers and 400 Cascade Trainers. Cascade Trainers in turn deliver training for volunteers in their local area.

A number of organisations provide training for professionals which include information on how to support people to choose to walk, to walk more often, to walk to more places and to feel safe while doing so. Very few organisations however run workshops or master-class events to specifically talk about walking to share and develop best practice. In the future Walk England hopes to be able to provide such events but if you are interested in such activity locally now please do let us know.