Ski Instructor Course

aodhu

I'm thinking about doing a ski instructor course. I've done a bit of Googling and Peak leaders and Basecamp seem to come up alot. After a bit more digging I came up with The ski academy switzerland (http://www.skiacademyswitzerland.com/ ) Which seems to offer everything that the other two do but at about 2-3K less.

The other think I noticed was that as I googled all the results seemed to be european companies (Bar a few New Zealand ones). Now I know there has to be American and Canadian companies doing this but I can't find any which is a shame at the moment considering the Euro - Dollar exchange rate!!

I'm just wondering has anyone gone and done this and have they any recomendation/thoughts/advice/warnings

Static M.e.

You can also do one in Soldau\Andorra.

When I lived in New Zealand I use to hang out with some people doing the instructor course, it was quite tough but they loved it, as modules they also did some Avalanche training and some heli sking, Its the business.

One thing I remember though is their are different qualifications you can get, some are worth alot more than others and some will only work in Europe others in the states etc.

Again this was mostly me just listening to random conversations but it might be worth checking out.

aodhu

Yup I've heard there's a really cheap one you can do there, the only problem I have with andorra is the height. It's so low that you really can't be sure of the snow! I know a few people who had problems with it.

You're right about the different Qualifications. There are 4 main ones that I've seen: American, Canadian, New Zealand and British. But there's a bit of a cross over. I'm not too worried about the working after the course.

Thanks Static Any comments welcome.

jimdev

I'm a ski instructor.

I did one of the courses in Queenstown, NZ with an independent group of guys (not one of the big companies). They were really good, I highly recommend them
http://www.skiinstructortraining.co.nz/
The nice thing about them is that they run it themselves. One of them was also on the NZ ski instructor alliances committee that came up with the standards for exams and wrote the manual.

A cheaper way of doing it is through the Irish Association of Snowsports Instructors (IASI): they train you in Kilternan for your dry slope instructorship and after a little experience, you can sit your level 2 on snow. That takes longer though.

The costs of these courses seem enormous when you read them. i didn't sign up for the all-inclusive package. I was already in NZ with transport, a lift pass and accommodation sorted so all I paid them for was my tuition and then booked my own exams but I was surprised when all the costs actually added up to more or less exactly what they charged for the all-in package. The only cost that I felt bad about paying was how much money the mountain took out of their tuition fee they charged, since I would obviously have rather seen the money go to them.

the reason there are so many of these courses run out of UK companies is that if you are american/canadian and you want to teach skiing, you have probably lived near a ski hill your whole life and don't need an expensive 6 or 12 week training course - you just sit your level 1 and go work, your ski school will give you free training towards all your other levels. there is no demand. But for Irish (or more commonly British) there isn't the same access to snow so people need to be taken from a more basic level up to the standard.

All of these courses are usually very good since you need really high qualifications to teach instructors (just make sure they actually have their level 4 / instructor examiner cert).

In terms of qualifications, most countries us a system like this:
Level 1 (rookie / apprentice / beginner instructor or for IASI/BASI: artificial slope instructor)
Level 2 (Instructor / certified instructor) - this is what I have
Level 3 (International instructor)
Level 4 (Instructor trainer)

Level 1 and 2 is what these all inclusive packages cover. Some places in Europe (especially France) will not take anything from another country much short of a level 4.

Level 1s from different countries are not recognised universally but often will do. You may spend all your time on the bunny hill with this qualification though. I failed my NZ Stage 1 (equiv of Level 2) and had to start from scratch with Level 1 in Canada because Whistler didn't recognise my NZ CSI (equiv Level 1), although they do now (CSI was very new at the time). BTW, Whistler is an awesome place to go and employ 1500 ski instructors so will hire you with almost no qualification (but you will be teaching minis - 3 & 4 yrs old unless you have a qualification)

Level 2s are very well recognised internationally and will look good in an interview. the exception is France and to a lesser extent Italy and some other european countries.

to get Level 3 you need to spend a couple of seasons actually teaching (just to get good enough at skiing). It has stuff like avalanche awareness and mountain safety/first aid on top of just skiing and teaching exams. Some countries require that you get a second discipline (ie telemark or boarding). Some countries will have their Level 3s teach and examine their Level 1s. Level 3 is recognised everywhere. But the french only let you teach if you have already passed the eurotest (see below) and are pursuing your level 4.

level 4 is near impossible to get. You need level 3 to sit it but the failure rate in most countries is still 80-90%. In europe you also need to pass the Euro Speed test where they take a World Cup skier and send them down a race course. you get one go at getting within 12% of his time. People train for that for years. With Level 4 you can teach Level 2s (and after long enough doing that level 3s and eventually level 4s). With level 4, the world of ski teaching is your oyster. But it takes a minimum of 3-4 years of hard training to get.

Out of all of this I will say that i've heard the BASI (British) exams are quite thorough (the IASI ones are nearly identical), and can vouch that the NZ ones were too but the Canadians seem to have a very easy Level 1 and their Level 2 (although examined in a funny way) was probably slightly easier too. Also I felt that NZ had the most thorough method of training people to actually teach and my training with the lads there is what i think back to when i am actually teaching.

aodhu

Hey jim,
Thanks for that, nice answer, lots of cool info in there.

jimdev wrote:

the reason there are so many of these courses run out of UK companies is that if you are american/canadian and you want to teach skiing, you have probably lived near a ski hill your whole life and don't need an expensive 6 or 12 week training course - you just sit your level 1 and go work, your ski school will give you free training towards all your other levels. there is no demand. But for Irish (or more commonly British) there isn't the same access to snow so people need to be taken from a more basic level up to the standard.

That explains the lack of american courses around the place!