Young Volunteers' Training Week

Young Volunteers' Training Week (formerly known as Kids' Week or Kids' Training Week) is an annual working party on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland railways for younger volunteers, aged 13 to 18. It enables them to make useful contribution to the F&WHR while getting a flavour of working there before the age at which they can volunteer for operational departments.

Originally known as just Kids' week, current legislation means that children may be allowed to work only as part of a training programme, so it became Kids' training week. It took its current name in 2016.

Kids' Week was initiated by Eileen Clayton in the late 1980s and she continued as organiser until 2007. The working party is usually run during the first full week of August each year and involves about 40 young volunteers and a similar number of adult volunteers as supervisors and facilitators.

It has been very successful and is always oversubscribed. Many current regular volunteers started through Kids' Weeks in the past.

It is currently organised by Adrian Gray and Howard Wilson and usually takes place in early August.

Over the years the projects that have been carried out by Kids' Week, include work on Minffordd Hostel, work on the new PW/ S&T support building in Minffordd Yard, maintenance of Boston Lodge infrastructure and the building of the memorial there, supply of new fencing and tables for Tan y Bwlch, erecting of the replica mark 2 Quarrymans carriage and the making of many new signs for the railway. Older participants may get to be involved in more advanced work such as the reassembly of Blanche during 2017.

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