High Adventure Outdoor Education Centre

Here’s the outline of what you get on the

 

 

NGB Training

 

Our aim for you is to ensure that by the end of your TRAINEE INSTRUCTOR YEAR you have the following NGB training and assessments.  See our Past & Current Trainee Instructor Profile page to see how this years Trainee Instructor’s are getting on.

* SPA Training (with the MLTE)
* SPA Assessment (you are now a qualified climbing instructor)
* Level 1 Cave Leader Training (with the BCA)
* Level 1 Cave Leader Assessment (you are now a qualified caving instructor)
* 1st Aid Qualified (2 day 1st Aid at work for the outdoors qualification, required to validate ALL your NGB qualifications)
*  FSRT (Foundation Safety & Rescue Training: a pre-requisite of doing the Level 1 Paddlesports Coaching course)
* 1 Star Paddlesports Award (a pre-requisite of doing the Level 1 Paddlesports Coaching course)
* 2 Star Paddlesports Award (a pre-requisite of doing the Level 1 Paddlesports Coaching course)
* 3 Star Canoe Award (getting you ready for doing the Level 2 Paddlesports Coaching course)
* Level 1 Paddlesports Coach Training (with the BCU)
* Level 1 Paddlesports Coach Assessment (you are now a qualified canoe & kayak instructor)
* Level 1 Mountain Bike Training (with MIAS)
* Level 1 Mountain Bike Assessment (you are now a qualified mountain bike instructor)
* Level 2 Mountain Bike Training (getting you ready for doing your Level 2 assessment)
* PCV  Medical (a pre-requisite of taking your PCV Minibus Practical Test)
* PCV Theory (getting you ready to take your PCV Minibus Practical Test)

Click here for the Trainee Instructor timetable.

So,  by the end of the year you will be a NGB Qualified Canoe & Kayak Coach, Climbing Instructor, Caving Instructor, Mountain Biking Instructor.  You will also be 1st Aid qualified and 2/3 of the way to getting your PCV Minibus Driving qualification.  You will also be part way down the road to getting higher qualifications in your Mountain Biking and Canoe / Kayak coaching scheme.  Those that stay on to do the Developing Instructor Scheme will continue with this ‘qualification process’.

 

 

In-House Training

You will also become TRAINED & ASSESSED in: High Ropes Course, Low Ropes Course, Archery, Problem Solving & Orienteering.

Continued Professional Development

In addition to the technical qualifications you will gain during the year you will also have training in ‘soft skills’ areas such as: group management; motivation; conflict resolution; communication; behaviour observation & modification.

The process for leading your own groups will develop throughout the year and will follow the outlined route:

Lead intro’s & evening activities.
In charge of small groups under supervision.
Building confidence with groups & taking in-house sessions independently.
Work towards being able to confidently run a session under supervision.
Able to confidently run sessions.

Pay & Benefits

£300 pcm and board & lodgings, all relevant memberships, log books etc to the different national Governing Bodies and High Adventure Clothing. For any trainees over the age of 25 you MAY also be eligible to receive between £100 – £200 pcm in the form of working tax credits – this is subject to what you did prior to working at High Adventure.

For information about how to apply – please see the ‘jobs at High Adventure’ page for more information.
The Selection Process  involves YOU spending a week (7 days) at High Adventure, please look at the Jobs page for more information, with the positions to start on the Monday of the 1st week in January (after the traditional 2 week Christmas holiday break).

6 Positions each year – 3 male & 3 female

General Information.

High Adventure’s Trainee Instructor Scheme is quite simply the best scheme in the country.  We don’t say this in order to ‘pat ourselves’ on the back though!  The reason we say this is, is in order to ensure that you understand how & why this is the case.  Every year we get people applying for instructor positions, stating that they have been working as a ‘senior instructor’ for the last year at some other outdoor centre.  Then when we ask to see what qualifications they have, they have none, other than some ‘in-house’ assessments and the odd NGB Training.  It is very hard to hear these stories and even harder to have to explain to someone that if they are serious about being in the outdoor industry they MUST get their ‘NGB QUALIFICATIONS’.
This is why we have a Past & Current Trainee Instructor Scheme page.  It is so you can see ‘for real’ how & where our existing trainees are upto in terms of their proffessional development.  Please read their profiles, see and understand that they are actually becoming properly qualified in the various outdoor activities that are so very very important.
In addition to this, we pay our trainee instructors!  They also get everything else included – their board & lodgings, their log books to the various National Governing Bodies and of course the training and assessments as outlined above.  What this means is that every penny our trainee instructors earn is their disposable income.  Don’t mis-understand, during the year at High Adventure our trainee instructors have to work very hard, they literally ‘eat, sleep & breathe’ outdoor education.  This is not a year for the faint hearted.
Due to the popularity of the trainee instructor scheme our developing instructor scheme was created.  We always fill our DI positions from our trainee positions first, which usually means we do not advertise the DI positions externally.
When you are doing your research (which you definitely should do), ask the outdoor centres the devil is in the detail!

“what will I get?”

You need to see & hear them telling you a list of NGB ASSESSMENTS (not just TRAINING’S) and you NEED to be reassured that they will deliver on what they are telling you.I hope this helps, and if you are interested in our trainee instructor scheme then please take a look on our Jobs at High Adventure page.  The bad news here is that we are incredibly over subscribed with applicants.  Because of this we have changed our recruitemnt process and we now offer interviews for the trainee instructor positions to the staff who work for us on our summer camps prior to advertising externally.  This does mean that it is much harder to get onto the scheme if you are applying to us having not worked at the summer camps.

An intelligent question asked by a recent applicant:

Hi Tim,

Thank you for that information I am very keen to do the voluntary work and have just e-mailed Chris Jepson my letter and CV. I have already been online and looked at all the profiles of the current trainee instructors and ready the job spec. I am curious; if I have my three star in kayaking and two star in canoeing would the company still further develop on those skills?

Thank you again,

Steph

Hi Steph

You are asking very good questions, which demonstrate intelligence and more importantly that you are thinking / serious about entering the outdoor industry.

In answer to your question, our aim is to ensure that all the TI’s on the scheme finish the year with the qualifications we have stated on the ‘profiles page’, in instances where our TI’s already have some of the qualifications we do not substitute other qualifications.  The reason for this is 2 FOLD:

1. It helps the TI to focus on the other bits and basically gives them a much better chance of completing the TI year with the outlined qualifications on our website AND
2. We have  DI scheme (the follow on year to the TI year) which then builds on the qualifications gained on the TI scheme.  We would not want to undermine this year by ‘going out of kilter’ with the TI scheme.
3. In addition to this, our TI scheme functions very well because we are able to focus all 6 trainees (7 this year) onto various trainings and assessments and then use our senior staff to put time and effort into the ‘focussed approach’ to the TI’s qualifications.  This would not work if we had a fragmented trainee programme.

I hope this helps to explain where we are coming from.

In terms of further developing your existing skills, we ensure that our TI’s get upto 3* in Canoe along with their Level 1 Paddlesports Coach (the 3* kayak comes in the DI year along with Level 2 Paddlesports Coach).

If you don’t mind, I am going to put your question and our answer up on our TI scheme page, as I am often asked this question and it will help others prior to contacting ourselves.

I hope this helps.

Regards Tim