Why 12 months?

**Course Start Date: ** October - Mid September

Fact:    The qualifications employers look for require months of consolidation and experience with groups. Fast track courses cannot provide this: it's a one year course for a reason.

Hit the ground running:    Our Outdoor Instructor Training course enables you to walk confidently into your first job as an outdoor professional. There's really no substitute for first-hand experience; giving you time to gain a genuine depth of knowledge and skills to underpin your delivery is our priority.

Course structure

The programme roughly divides into three categories:

Your personal training and development

• You'll be spending time with our experienced team learning the trade of an outdoor instructor - whether that's learning to kayak for the first time yourself, or taking your skills in climbing and applying them to become a better coach.

Work experience with real clients

• This part really sets us apart from many courses - we know that to become a good instructor, you need to have experience instructing real people! Early on in the course you'll be shadowing and assisting qualified instructors, and as you progress and become more confident and qualified we'll give you more responsibility with groups.

Expeditions

• With two residential centres in Devon & The Lake District, you will be spending half the time in each , in addition to expeditions througout the UK , on top of a sport climbing trip in Spain, Winter sports and snowshoeing in Poland, and a summer expedition elsewhere in Europe.

We know what you're thinking, "there must be some hidden costs in here?".   Nope - all flights, transport accommodation and activities are covered in the course fees, except for food. Some of these trips are in because you'll need them for awards such as your Mountain Leader, some are skills based, some will be leading groups, and some are just because we believe there's so much to gain from experiencing other countries, how other cultures interact with the outdoors, and just because it's plain old good fun!

Take a look at the gallery below for a few snaps of the sort of places you're likely to visit if you join the course.

Please see our 2023/24 programme to give you an idea -

2023

Oct 1-15 Devon

Oct 16 - Dec 3 North Wales

Dec 4 - 18 Devon

Dec 19 - Jan 7 Christmas break

2024

Jan 21 - 28 Poland

Jan 29 - Feb 17 Devon

Feb 18 - March 11 Italy

March 12 - May 6 Devon

May 6 - 17 Scotland

May 17 - July 7 Devon (with short expeditions away)

July 7 - 14 Slovenia

July 15 - Aug 5 Devon

Aug 5 - 11 Peak District

Aug 12 - Sept 1 Devon

Sept 1 - 8 North Wales

Sept 8 - Course Finishes