Wood Badge is a training course for Scouters which finally results in their receiving a certificate, a small neckerchief, a leather slide, and two small wooden beads on a leather thong. ... Baden-Powell designed it so that Scouters could learn, in as practical a way possible, the skills and methods of Scouting.

The beads were first presented at the initial leadership course in September 1919 at Gilwell Park. The origins of Wood Badge beads can be traced back to 1888, when Baden-Powell was on a military campaign in Zululand (now part of South Africa).

Boy Scouts of America fully adopted Wood Badge in 1948 at the Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation.  In 1958 due to demand the program was expanded to local councils.