Pathways | OECD Toastmasters

Toastmasters Pathways in 3 steps:

1 Toastmasters’ education system is called Pathways.

Pathways contains so-called ‘paths’.

A path is a series of 14 projects across five levels that you follow at your own pace. Examples of projects are learning to ‘negotiate the best outcome’, ‘understanding your leadership style’ and ‘delivering social speeches’. Each project contains at least one speech.

Your path functions as a roadmap in your personal communication and leadership journey and provides you with useful information, instructions and learning tools to help you prepare each project and speech.

2 There are 11 paths to choose from!

In EVERY path you get to practice public speaking, communication and leadership.

In EACH path, you focus on two or more of the following 5 core competencies:

1. public speaking

2. interpersonal communication

3. strategic leadership

4. management

5. confidence

In EACH path you develop a different set of skills related to the chosen focus.

3 Making the right choice

When selecting a path, the abundance of options in Pathways can be somewhat overwhelming.

The Toastmasters International website is the most comprehensive source to find information about Pathways.

The additional resources (see yellow box) are not official Toastmasters International publications but are particularly helpful in selecting the right path for you.

When you have identified your path,

Additional resources

Picking your Path document: this resource, developed by our own OECD Toastmasters members, guides you through the logical steps you must take to choose your path.

Pathways reference guide: access the Pathways Reference Guide, a more detailed resource developed by Mark Snow (an internationally acknowledged expert on Pathways who has completed all paths) to:
- understand the structure of the Pathways programme,
- read detailed descriptions of all paths; and
- compare paths to make an informed decision on which path(s) suit(s) you best!