ISO 31031: Safeguarding Students, Youth Travellers and Staff Abroad in an Evolving Risk Landscape

Overview

Educational institutions, youth organisations, and travel programme providers have a duty to safeguard students, young travellers, and staff participating in domestic and international trips. As global risks continue to evolve, organisations must adopt structured approaches to travel risk management that protect participants while enabling safe and enriching travel experiences.

This ASIS and CPD-certified virtual training course provides participants with a practical understanding of ISO 31031: Managing Risk for Youth and School Trips. The course is designed to help organisations strengthen their travel risk management programmes by applying internationally recognised good practice for planning, assessing, managing, and monitoring risks associated with youth and educational travel.

Participants will explore the principles of safeguarding, accountability, leadership, stakeholder engagement, and risk assessment, while gaining practical tools to integrate ISO 31031 into organisational policies, procedures, and travel planning processes.

Goal

The goal of this course is to equip participants with the knowledge and practical skills required to develop, implement, and enhance travel risk management programmes for youth, school, educational, and student travel activities in alignment with ISO 31031.

Participants will learn how to identify and manage risks, establish clear roles and responsibilities, strengthen safeguarding measures, and promote safe travel experiences for students, youth travellers, and accompanying staff.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the purpose, principles, and structure of ISO 31031.
• Explain the key responsibilities and accountabilities associated with youth and school trip risk management.
• Identify and assess risks that may affect students, youth travellers, and staff before and during travel.
• Apply safeguarding principles throughout the travel lifecycle.
• Define the competencies required of trip leaders and supporting personnel.
• Understand the role of stakeholder engagement, communication, and decision-making in effective travel risk management.
• Integrate ISO 31031 principles into organisational travel policies, procedures, and governance frameworks.
• Develop practical approaches to monitoring, reviewing, and continuously improving travel risk management programmes.

Participant Pre-Requisites

This course is suitable for professionals involved in educational travel, student mobility programmes, youth travel, safeguarding, health and safety, risk management, and duty of care responsibilities.

No prior knowledge of ISO 31031 is required to attend. However, participants may benefit from reviewing the ISO 31031 standard before the course to gain additional context and maximise their learning experience.

Please note that the ISO 31031 standard document is not included as part of the course materials. The standard is the intellectual property of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and can be purchased separately through the ISO website.

Who Should Attend?

This course is designed for:

• School Leaders and Administrators
• International Education and Student Mobility Professionals
• Study Abroad and Exchange Programme Managers
• Educational Visit Coordinators
• Safeguarding Leads and Child Protection Professionals
• Health, Safety and Risk Management Professionals
• Travel Risk Management Practitioners
• Youth Organisation Leaders
• University Staff Responsible for International Programmes
• Trip Leaders and Expedition Coordinators
• Any individual responsible for planning, approving, or managing youth and educational travel activities

Programme

Understanding ISO 31031

• Introduction to youth and educational travel risk management
• The purpose and benefits of ISO 31031
• Emerging risks impacting educational and youth travel
• Duty of Care and safeguarding responsibilities

Risk Assessment and Planning

• Identifying and assessing travel-related risks
• Evaluating destination-specific threats and vulnerabilities
• Risk mitigation and contingency planning
• Preparing for incidents and disruptions

Leadership, Accountability and Stakeholder Engagement

• Roles and responsibilities within a travel risk management programme
• The relationship between organisational accountability and trip leadership
• Leadership competencies and decision-making responsibilities
• Engaging students, parents, guardians, staff, and external partners

Safeguarding and Programme Implementation

• Embedding safeguarding principles throughout the travel lifecycle
• Integrating ISO 31031 into organisational policies and procedures
• Monitoring programme effectiveness and continuous improvement
• Practical case studies, exercises, and simulations

Active Learning

This training is delivered through a live virtual classroom led by experienced travel risk management and safeguarding specialists.

Participants will engage in interactive discussions, scenario-based exercises, practical case studies, and simulations designed to reflect real-world challenges faced by educational institutions and youth organisations. The course encourages participants to apply learning directly to their own programmes and organisational context.

Duration

One half-day virtual course
4 hours

Certification

This training and ASIS and CPD-certified. Participants who successfully complete the training programme will receive a Certificate of Completion.