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Motivational intervention courses for long-term unemployed participants aim to increase self esteem, self confidence and motivation so as to improve employment options and/or outcomes for participants. In New Zealand, such programmes administered by Outward Bound and the Army (Limited Service Volunteers) involve intensive spells of disciplined instruction, outdoor education and vigorous physical activity. This book evaluates these two outdoor motivational intervention programmes to determine their outcomes and identify the processes involved in producing them. This book advances understanding of experiential education through the use of qualitative, interpretive research into how course outcomes are achieved, moving beyond simply measuring outcomes. The means-end method used links course attributes to consequences and to the end values that participants attribute to course experiences. This knowledge can be used by providers of motivational interventions to design courses that target particular outcomes by focusing on the specific attributes that have been identified in this study as being important in producing such outcomes.

Motivational Intervention: How outdoor education can be used to motivate unemployed youth