The National Navigation Award Scheme (NNAS) was launched in 1994 at the Royal Institute of Navigation in London. Since then over 35,000 people of all ages have gained an NNAS award. The Silva Navigation School’s Pete Hawkins was at that launch and has run bronze, silver and gold courses ever since.  In 2014 Pete became a Director of the charity that runs the award scheme.

The NNAS scheme was devised as a non-competitive, personal performance scheme for all ages. It aims to encourage people to navigate confidently in the countryside.

The NNAS courses are not leadership qualifications. They are more a measure of one’s ability to navigate at the stated level.

The scheme continues to be a great success, and with over 350 registered providers of courses many people of all ages have benefited from the skills learnt on an NNAS course.

The courses are run at three levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold as well as a Young Navigator’s award. Bronze NNAS is predominantly map based, silver introduces compass work and Gold is advanced contour-based navigation. The Silva Navigation School adapts the courses to sit the weekend training format.