Ok guess now's the time for me to step in.
I just got my jungle hat recently, so I figure I am in a good
position to tell you my experience. I am a battalion scout.
Essentially, this is a platoon of scouts. The structure is like
this:
2 commanders, 1 signaler, a basher and a driver
The ratio of commanders to troopers is 2:3 (very high, guarantee
that you will know your commanders inside out by the time your
course ends)
The scout platoon is under the S2 (Intelligence branch)
It all started back in my BMT, when suddenly one of the instructors
asked me and two more guys to fall in. It happened that we were
going to be interviewed by some unit to be scouts.
The scout PS and (for my case) S4 came to do the interview. Here's
the lowdown on what they told me:
1) Nobody to disturb you outfield (essentially, it is your team
alone out there, and as long as you deliever the goods, they won't
disturb you)
2) Physical training is like hell, but very satisfactory
3) You will be cool (Jungle hat, no more helmet, except for live
firing, and for sitting in the jeep)
4) You will handle cool expensive gadgets (like the NVG,
etc...)
Ok... the response was not very good (they did the interview
en-mass), but I was among the few who put their names down. Those
who didn't ended up inside the platoon with me anyway... (talk
about options 
)
Then when I reported to the unit, we did advanced infantry
training. That meant more section movement drills, and the lot.
Then came the nice part.
Vehicle course. The PS picked, from the whole platoon, 8 people to
go for the motorbike course. The rest went to the jeep course.
Those who went to the motorbike course would end up as signalers...
(and I am one of the 8...) The course was stay-out, which meant I
could go home everyday and drool 
After getting the bike licence, we went for the ISPC (Infantry
Scout Platoon Course), where we were split into our teams and did
training together. It was plenty of fun, and tough too. We had MOI
(Memory of Information) which required us to do A LOT of PT before
memorising a picture. Then they would ask us questions about the
pictures. Get it wrong, and its ONE MORE TIME... 
We also had infiltration training, amongst which included doing all
sorts of crawls, in the mud (the instructors gleefully poured water
to make the thing even more muddy). My team was among the last few
ones to start the thing and the whole path by then looked like it
was a mini canal... Needless to say, we emerged looking like a
Plaster of Paris.
We also had to do everything in full battle order. Not the normal
one mind you, we had even more stuff inside, not unlike the NDP
goodie bag. Stuff ranges from wire cutters, to flags... The
signaler also has the heaviest field pack, because he has to carry
the darned signal set, with batteries everywhere, and is usually
the last one to put his field pack down.
All in all, the course was tiring, but plenty of fun. In fact, the
PS commented that the whole platoon was just plain out of our minds
(which is quite true, if you hear the amount of crap we talk each
time we have nothing to do)
Anyway, the course ended with a 8 day summary exercise, and a trip
up to Elephant hill for the jungle hat presentation ceremony.
Actually, I have photos of it, see my blog
(http://pkchukiss.blogspot.com) for some of it.
I heard that to qualify to be a scout, you need to have a certain
amount of security clearance, something which even now I don't
understand...
And I am PES B, only just passed my IPPT and SOC. Go figure.
