Get Qualified and increase your earning power!
For sporty types, it’s been a wild dream to play your favourite sport abroad and get paid to do it. Well, believe it or not, it’s possible, and winter and summer sports employers are searching for qualified sports instructors to send all over the world!
We have scoped out the biggest and best companies and courses to get you qualified and ensure that you really can mix business with pleasure whilst working abroad. Finding the right course can take hours of time-consuming research, so Working Abroad Magazine has done the hard work for you! We’ve spoken to a number of experienced and well-established organisations that want to offer you the best ways to get a certificate under your belt and then be paid to play.
In fact, why not take it one step further? If you are looking to work abroad, then why not learn to be an instructor abroad?! We have included a range of possible instructor courses located throughout the world, and this is our selection of the best companies to teach you how to become an instructor of an array of sports activities. The most important qualifications remain the same, but you will see the prices and quality vary according to location, package, length and size of the course.
So… where do we start…?
Back To Skool
Where better to look for learning the life of a snowsports instructor than SportSkool; led by ‘headmaster’ and director Phil Purdie, an ex London investment banker turned adrenaline junkie, Phil set up his own ‘skool’ to teach students to become instructors of their most-beloved sports. ‘SnowSkool’ was the first to be established, and it now provides ski and snowboard instructor courses in five exciting locations across New Zealand, France and Canada. The idea of having courses all over the world is not only allows variety of training, but also the time of year, i.e. the NZ course runs from July to September, whilst some France and Canada courses last from January to March. Since the inaugural season of 2004/5, SnowSkool have ensured the certificates of more than 350 people, both male and female and with ages ranging between 17 and 59!
Their courses are open to all applicants, regardless of whether you’re a novice or a seasoned rider, and most importantly SnowSkool boasts a historic pass rate of 100%! The qualifications offered on the programmes (BASI, CSIA and NZSIA) are all recognized on an international footing, and allow eligibility to teach in all of the 39 member states of the ISIA (International Snowsport Instructors Alliance).
Further to their ski and snowboard tuition, SnowSkool also offers the chance for specialist courses such as race training, as well as the opportunity for other extra-curricular qualifications off the slopes, including the UIAGM International Mountain Guides - the highest qualification possible in the mountaineering world. There is also a very good chance of finding employment after the course, through the new jobs section to their website. You must have at least a level 1 qualification to obtain an instructor job, and level 2 will ensure from £150-250 a week - enough to pay rent, buy equipment, groceries and have a decent social life in the most snow-blessed regions of the world.
Clear as Crystal
The Crystal International Academy is supported by the largest ski operator in the UK. Not many other instructor course companies have the backing of a large tour operator, as most tend to be run be smaller family-run companies.
This is advantageous in the workplace as Crystal remains connected to many world class resorts to offer quality instructor programmes. Ski/Snowboard, Scuba, and even Flying Instructor courses are available and range from 2 to 13 weeks in duration. You do get what you pay for in terms of professionalism and a very comprehensive package. Flights, accommodation, food, and ski passes are all arranged by Crystal.
There are various courses available throughout the year in a wide choice of resorts in Canada, USA, Europe and New Zealand. Crystal also offers extra perks with such as full ATOL bonding and financial protection, and a range of on-hand accommodation options to suit every budget. Most importantly, successful delegates of the Academy are given the added opportunity of winter resort work with Crystal Holidays. Many other Crystal graduates are known to have returned to the resort where they have previously trained as an instructor, especially after a 12 week course with the ski school instructors, where you will be considered a potential asset possessing the relevant skills, knowledge and experience of how they operate on a day-to-day basis. Other successful graduates have taken instructor jobs in other countries around the world. Some trainees travel to Lake Louise on the 5 week November course with a work permit, and those who successfully pass can possibly stay on to work out there for a season.
Wages do vary from country to country and from resort to resort. In the Bow Valley area of Canada for example, pay starts from around $9 per hour for CSIA/CASI Level 1 instructors to around $17 for Level 4 instructors (£5 to £8.50).
At the Peak
Peak Leaders is another leading British company that offers courses in Canada, France, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia and their newest addition, Argentina. Standards begin at intermediate level, so you will definitely be surrounded by competent skiers and snowboarders in your training group. Prices are as steep as the slopes from £1600 to £7250, but this includes the big valued certificates, 3 star accommodation and food, plus additional qualifications such as SNSC Alpine Ski/Snowboard Leader, Mountain First Aid, and the optional NVQ leadership awards from the accredited ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management); this being a surefire way to enhance your CV for prospective employers.
Job search assistance is continuously on offer with Peak Leaders and what gives them an edge over some other organisations is the possibility of gaining language tuition in Spanish, French or German - invaluable skills to make your CV that little bit special. Peak Leaders support organisations in New Zealand and North America to stage recruitment days where resorts will come and ‘sell’ themselves to trainees. Peak Leaders also guarantee employment interviews for students that pass the Verbier course in Switzerland. Altitude Futures is another company which bases itself in Verbier, staking its claim as a ski school and not just a Gap Provider, with immediate work opportunities within the Altitude Snowsports School after completion of the course.
Pay for qualified instructors in Verbier tends to jump to 25 CHF an hour (£12). You would get slightly less in Canada due to the reliance on larger tips. Newly qualified instructors can earn 10% commission on sales, and it’s important to note that an instructor’s salary will increase as your qualifications and experience grows and you begin to attract repeat guests.
All Tracks Academy
If your heart is set on taking a course at the crème de la crème of snowsports schools and one of the worlds best resorts, then you might like to consider All Tracks Academy, who run their entire ski and snowboard instructor courses at Whistler in Canada. As a private family-run business, All Tracks Academy implies a more personal approach than some of the bigger organisations, promising small-scale groups that match students together according to ability. 4 - 11 week Instructor courses and 3 week Ski/Snowboard improvement camps are in a hassle-free complete package, including central Whistler accommodation, food, and extra modules in backcountry and avalanche safety training. Yet the prices are competitive, from £2995 to £7995, as the costs reflect Whistler’s notoriously high cost of living. The real perk is that if you learn in Whistler, you can indeed earn in Whistler, as successful students from the Academy are put in touch with an extensive list of contacts and qualified students with an enthusiastic attitude can use help from ski/snowboard directors to find instructor work in Canada or even further afield.
There are many smaller privately owned businesses that are being set up from certified powder nuts that have indeed been there, done that. RTM Snowboarding is a pertinent example of one of these organisations that concentrate on teaching snowboarding techniques in the simplest way possible. Based solely in Courchevel and Meribel in France, a group of highly skilled enthusiasts run far cheaper and also conveniently shorter courses from 95 to 210 Euros over 2 hours to 5 days. Learning with this company may not enable you to immediately become a qualified instructor – yet it is a perfect springboard for getting more into the sport and the background of instructing and taste the snow before making a commitment to take the examinations. RTM’s unique ‘LIFE’ program aims to identify ‘Learners’ from the ‘Explorers’ to ensure students feel at ease when learning the ropes.
Some independent companies appear to offer a more tailored program for candidates looking for a serious career in snow sports. Mountain Lodge is another such company that offers a BASI syllabus package for level 1 and 2 certification; you’d be trained by experienced BASI examiners that ensure that all study topics are relevant to the final exams. Furthermore, accommodation is organised through their ‘in house’ sister company, Skivolution, a Courchevel chalet specialist who ensures a high quality of food and comfortable service. Working potential after getting qualified varies. A Level 1 qualification allows you to work within the UK on dry slopes, snow domes or in a controlled environment like a kindergarten in the Alps. The second level opens up the possibilities of working abroad all over the world. Mountain Lodge also has an agreement with Interski in the Aosta Valley, Italy, where many successful candidates have been transferred straight away to work for the first time as instructors. Candidates from Mountain Lodge have been known to be sent to work far and wide, from Switzerland, Andorra, Canada, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Pay very much depends on the country and the ski school who employs you, but we are told that you are sure to greatly increase your level 1 salary if you achieve the BASI certificate level 2.
Under The Sea
If you prefer melted snow warmed up in a working environment of tropical waters, then how does becoming a scuba diver instructor sound? There are two main qualifying bodies that are widely recognised worldwide. The first and nearest is BSAC (British Sub-Aqua Club), the UK governing body for scuba diving and endorsed by the Sports Council and the Heath and Safety Executive. BSAC offers training for members through a branch, or intensive courses through a BSAC school. Click on the BSAC website (www.bsac.co.uk) to find the nearest course and dive centre to you.
The second, PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors), is highly renowned in the underwater industry, and most dive resorts abroad use PADI to register their courses. You will have to go through a series of stages to get to Instructor level, from Open Water Advanced, to Rescue Diver, to Divemaster and then finally Instructor Development Course (IDC). This can become expensive, yet once you have logged enough dives and achieved your dive card, who can complain about diving every day into tropical waters of exotic coral and a biodiversity of marine life? PADI courses are scattered around the world - you only have to shack up at a dive resort such as Koh Tao in Thailand, Caye Caulker in Belize or the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and you will be inundated with dive resorts offering the opportunity to find more instructors (see www.PADI.com for a list of locations).
You can also check out ScubaSkool, a third branch of SportSkool Ltd. August 2008 sees the opening year of Scuba Diver Instructor tuition in Utila, Honduras and in November, in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. This will be a seven-week programme that to train people from beginner to PADI Divemaster. Crystal International Academy also offers range of European scuba diving courses in partnership with PADI Career Development Centres, located in Egypt, Cyprus and Malta. As for working abroad, salaries are difficult to determine, it hugely varies depending on which country you decide to work in. Salaries are never particularly high; nevertheless, diving all day long for free, and free accommodation and often food and drinks in local bars and restaurants means the lifestyle and perks are second to none. Once qualified as a PADI professional, a whole host of opportunities opens up for employment worldwide: from a dive centre/resort, to the polar opposite of a live-aboard boat, where you can continually explore the depths of fantastic blue tropical seas and meet new people every day.
Ball Games
If you want to work as a instructor in popular team game sports abroad, then we suggest you take advantage of the full range of useful qualifications on offer with sports bodies right here in the UK. Our national coaching qualifications are thankfully well-established and highly regarded by employers around the world. For football, simply see The FA (The Football Association); applications are available online at www.thefa.com/thefa/falearning, as well as national sports centres and at every County FA Centre. The UK's most popular coaching course is typically the FA Level 1 Club Coach, and entry is open to all participants regardless of previous experience. Courses can be taken either directly through the FA, or as part of a college or university course or a variety of NVQs available at Level 2 and Level 3 in Coaching, Teaching and Instructing.
The RFU (Rugby Football Union) (www.community-rugby.com) will help potential rugby coaches; starting with a level 1 coaching qualification gained by completing a 2 day course and induction. Budding Tim Henmans can look to the Lawn Tennis Association (www.lta.org.uk) to develop the necessary qualifications to swing your racket in overseas courts. Cricket is the quintessential English sport, so why not check out the England Cricket Board (www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/coaching), where a well-reputed National Coaching Scheme has been implemented for people wishing to train for a career. Any girls who want to check out netball coaching course dates and venues can call England Netball on 01462 442 344.
Once you have achieved at least level 1 qualification in your chosen sport in the UK, you can use the addition to your CV to apply to sports companies directly overseas. One example is an organisation known as SportLived (www.sportlived.co.uk), who place instructors in the finest parts of Australia and New Zealand and also pay for all types of sports coaching, with rates of $20 - $30 an hour (£8 to £13). For most sport coaches jobs you will also require a basic first aid qualification. We recommend that people attend first aid courses run by organisations such as the St. John Ambulance (www.sja.org.uk).
Volunteer Sports Coaching
Keep an eye out for other large-scale companies offering a diversity of sports courses. Travellers Worldwide is one of the major volunteer coach networks, offering 32 different sports across 16 countries. From Athletics, Cricket, Football, Hockey, Netball, Rugby, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball and many more, the opportunities are endless! The coaching placements are volunteer projects at a local school either part time or full time and you can also go and work at a club in the evening coaching the junior teams and then training with the senior teams. Despite the huge variety of courses on offer, there is an intimate grass-roots aspect of Travellers Worldwide, where the projects aim to provide an invaluable insight into the sporting culture of another country, and to give something back to your adopted community. For example, some projects in South Africa and Kenya run various ‘Travellers Tournaments’ to give children the chance to play sports competitively as well as educate the teachers on how to coach the sports in the future. Louis Rutherford, who taught football in Ghana, believes this is what sets Travellers Worldwide aside from the other gap year organizers. “They provide an authentic experience of Ghana. We aren’t just staying with a Ghanaian family; we eat and drink with them in the evenings and meet their friends and join in their celebrations and football matches. We have been immersed in the culture and the larger organisations can’t offer such an individual experience”. Many more remote countries are involved, such as India, Zambia and China, all looking for sports coaches to become involved with the locals and develop their own sports participation schemes.
Depending on the season and availability of courses, some coaching badges can be gained by the Travellers volunteers, including football, rugby and tennis. Gap Sports offers awards for volunteer coaching courses in football, cricket and hockey, as well as a lifeguard instructor qualification course in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This, along with any lifeguard instructor qualification that might be gained in the UK (www.britishswimming.org), practically hands you the permit to work on the sunniest, sandiest beaches and pool resorts across the globe.
The real achievement of such a course has proven to be the experience. If you are toying with the idea of becoming a sports instructor and want to combine a passion of travel and working abroad, then take up sports coach volunteering with companies like Travellers Worldwide and Gap Sports. The fact that you have already had overseas sports experience will attract employers and prepare you for a dream career. Companies are known to employ ex-volunteers who have seen and experienced a different sporting culture and challenge to that of the UK. As a volunteer sports coach with Travellers Worldwide, you will have access to a library of coaching manuals for each sport to help plan your sessions with your students, as well as a year’s free subscription to a coaching website and membership to a community of coaches from over 65 countries, known as the ICA (International Coaches Association).
Flying Fish
Flying Fish is another huge organisation worth mentioning, as it runs more than 70 different sports training courses, with up to 800 taking place over a year. They have been in the business for 15 years, so they should know what they are doing! As with all the major instruction schools, Flying Fish trains and recruits water and snow sports professions, as well as yacht skippers, sailing, diving, surfing, windsurfing, ski and snowboard instructors. Out of their 600 candidates each year, 70% are planning a career in their chosen sport, and 30% use Flying Fish for a gap-year or career break. Courses last from 1 day to 22 weeks, and are suitable for beginners or experts, making Flying Fish a feasible option for anyone! A monthly Saturday Preview Day in central London and Sydney allows candidates to view an audio-visual presentation and meet trainers, training advisers and ex-students to discuss all aspects of the different courses.
The best recommendation for Flying Fish is that a large percentage of their graduates get jobs within the industry thanks to its free full-time careers advice service and recruitment team. Flying Fish believes that demand outstrips supply in all of the big activity holiday employers and wants to help their highly sought-after instructors once they have gained their qualifications. As always with this type of market, salaries once qualified range widely. As a rough guide, super-yacht salaries from deckhand to captain, can range from £1,250 to £7,500 a month including food/accommodation, as well as a rather healthy tax saving. Be sure to also check the detailed information at the UK RYA courses website (www.rya.org.uk/courses).
We are told that starting salaries for qualified sports instructors are be a bit lower than yacht masters; from £125 to £200 a week. BUT most salary packages do include flights, accommodation, insurance, uniform and food, and of course it’s the lifestyle that is the biggest pay cheque in the most exotic locations in the world.
Something new…
Those seeking a modern and original instructor course to kick-start a new career should look no further than Fluid Feeling, one of the leading providers of kite-surf, surf, windsurf and snowkite instructor courses for Gap Years, Career Breaks, Sabbaticals, and also for POTL (Post Operational Tour Leave (POTL) or Forces Resettlement. There are unique programmes in a number of varied exciting countries, from Brazil, Barbados, Cape Verde, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Mauritius, Norway, and Venezuela. This private company was established by two very ‘balanced’ young guys who have been through the entire process themselves, and are fully certified in ski, snowkite and kitesurf instructing. Other creative bonuses can be combined with their instructor courses, such as the opportunity to learn Spanish or Portuguese or volunteer schemes in Brazil to help teach English and put something back into the local community that gives such great conditions for these exhilarating wind/watersports.
These courses are fully focused on getting the most out of the course, whether it is learning a new sport or to improve existing skills to a higher level of instructor standard. A Fluid Feeling course can be used as a life-changing experience, as the emphasis is on providing all trainees with a new extreme sport that they can use for a new career or pastime, rather than just a ‘gap project’ or an annual holiday. Fluid Feeling tries to go further, giving you the chance to add to your course some professional Career and Life Coaching from one of the top Life Coaches in the UK. For anyone who feels stuck in a rut with work in the UK and wants an adventure activity to re-invigorate their life, Fluid Feeling might just be the company for you.
As for reliability and employment prospects after a course, Fluid Feeling are in allegiance with Club Mistral, SKYRIDER centres and the International Kitesurfing Organisation (IKO) - premier names in the global watersports travel industry, and successful instructor candidates can be seconded to them for further training and future employment. Whether it be instructor qualification, learning a new language or general life and career training, all of these tailor made courses will develop your CV and boost your earning potential.
The IKO is a relatively new company, founded in 2001 to alleviate the longing for a leading company for kite surfers worldwide. Some countries (including companies in the UK) have their own governing bodies and may only be recognised at a country level, so if you want to work abroad, look to the IKO as the kite industry’s standard for training. You will need to be competent in kite-surfing manoeuvres before enrolling on an instructor course. If you are a beginner looking for a new challenge, then be sure to register with an IKO-recognised school in the UK, such as the main training centre of Paracademy UK, who can also soon link you with partners abroad.
The IKO training system is also integrated, so if you train as a power kite instructor this leads onto the traction sports instructor training in snowkiting or powerkiting. If you qualified as kite surf instructor you are also able to cross over via an IEC (Instructor Equivalency Course) as long as you have the prerequisite skills in the area. And something as thrilling as kitesurfing instructorship (believe it or not) can be a full-time career nowadays, as Neil Godbold, one of the world’s leading IKO trainers told us. “Payment varies a great deal – there’s everything from commission based, paid only when students are there, to day rates and full-blown annual salaries, so it’s not so different to jobs in other walks of life”. The IKO has built a structure of training that supports all year round work for the instructor: “Maybe it’s just jammy, then again maybe not! It can be hard work and you sure as hell won’t be getting any sympathy from the 9 to 5’s, but then again who cares? You’re a kite instructor travelling the world, living the dream, on the beaches and snowfields everyday - places that most just have to settle for buying into for a couple of times a year on their holidays!”
Yomps
Don’t be afraid to try something new. Yomps offer an interesting ski and snowboard instructor course in Verbier, yet also some fascinating ventures with PADI divemaster courses in Fiji and Venezuela, and finally lessons in Switzerland to become a paragliding instructor! Why not take on a fresh start in a career as an instructor; this is a course which includes 20 hours of French and all flying equipment, lessons and accommodation in a luxury Alpine chalet. You really can reach for the skies with a pilot proficiency qualification that pays off as an instructor. Surf dudes can also use Ticket to Ride’s Zero to TTRide Hero programme to take part in an 11 week action packed adventure in South Africa, learning to surf and ultimately qualify as a surf instructor and surf lifesaver, enabling you to work on surf beaches around the world’s coasts.
Pepper
Those who can’t make your mind up which sport you would like to become qualified in, then consider Pepper, an adventure gap year company which offers a unique tailor-made three month trip traveling all over South Africa. Travel as a group choosing your own mix of courses and activities which give you brand new skills and qualifications. The first three weeks in Cape Town gives you the option of a RYA Yachting Course to gain RYA Day Skipper and Competent Crew certifications, which will allow you to go on and charter and work onboard yachts across the seven seas. Or if you have steady feet, the boardriding programme combines surfing, wakeboarding and kite-surfing in world class conditions. Your itinerary then takes you along the coast sampling other sports such as bungee diving and ocean safaris, after arriving in Durban you can spend the next three weeks learning PADI Scuba Diving courses right up to Divemaster qualifications. Surfing Camps and Community projects are also available during your time in South Africa. The final two weeks of the experience is spent in two game reserves in the north of South Africa, where short courses such as photography and tracking of the Big 5 dangerous animals, to count towards the FGASA 1 Field Guiding qualification for those that might like to pursue a career in the wildlife industry. The total experience begins at £4,270 and sets off in September and January each year. This innovative course allows you to have a taster of a number of sports whilst ensuring that you walk away from it with reputable qualifications you can use to work abroad. Johnny Prince from Pepper explains that the types of people that apply are those that “thrive on our spirit of wanting to experience as many ideas, places and activities as possible. They are people that are looking to experience something different and willing to venture into the unknown”.
There you have it – proof that Sports Instructor courses are definitely the ‘in-thing’ to enrol on. Energetic, ambitious and sport-loving people are sought after in the world’s most enticing destinations. Shop around; find the company and tailor-made course that suits you best. Be sure to look at testimonials from ex-students, normally posted on links on the website homepage. Choose between a big organisation and a smaller privately-run company, and make sure the qualifications you earn are reputable and your experience is worth it. Salaries always vary according to the sport, facilities and of course the country you are instructing in. Although you need the official certificates to get the job, the biggest pay cheque of them all is without a doubt the thrilling lifestyle that comes with it. Whether your playground is snow, water, land or the sky, companies at home and abroad are eager to take you on and give you the qualifications you need to begin a career where you really will enjoy going to work every day!
To see this article in full, pick up the latest issue of WORKING ABROAD Magazine
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