How to become an Outdoor Instructor?
Do you love the outdoors? Are you a people person? Are you a natural leader and do you want to every day to be different?! If the answer is YES, a career as an outdoor instructor might be a good fit. However from the outside, getting into the outdoor sector can seem difficult, and sometimes expensive.
At Intrepidus Outdoors we have a small but experienced team, that have all made a career in the outdoor sector. This is our advice to aspirant outdoor instructors looking to start their career.
How to become an Outdoor Instructor?
Some people think outdoor instructors have the best job in the world where you spend everyday adventuring with a huge variety of interesting people. From our perspective, those people are correct!! Working in the outdoors for the right person is an amazing career.
But the question we often get asked: “How do I become an outdoor instructor?”
There are a couple of different pathways people take to start a career in the outdoor industry. Let’s go through to see which option appeals to you.
-
Education [University Outdoor Education Degree]
-
Fast Track Outdoor Instructor Programme
-
Up through the ranks Trainee/Seasonal Outdoor Instructor
College/ University Courses
College and university are definitely a popular pathway to go into the outdoor sector. The outdoor, adventure and environmental courses and degrees can cover a huge variety of subject areas within the industry. This includes history, practise, psychological, coaching, management, environmentally, and of course the adventure and risk management side of things.
Taking this pathway can provide opportunities for you to gain a good level of personal experience as well as an academic understanding of the industry itself. These courses can be amazing if you are attending a good university with an established programme. However, it is important to be aware that the academic side of these courses is not for everyone. Therefore, if it is purely experience and qualifications that you are looking for, an education programme might not be the best option. But, if you want a rounded experience that can be a solid foundation for your future, a degree can be great.
Within a university environment, there are other opportunities to gain experience outside the course. When it comes down to gaining other personal experience, you can be pro-active and join clubs and get that continued personal development on your own. This will be fun and help you gain experience to then pursue qualifications.
The courses are all rounded giving you that variety as a whole, giving you different career options within the industry, essentially now giving you a stepping stone to go onto many different jobs. For example teaching qualification, sports therapist, physiotherapy the list goes on, and of course the outdoor instructor pathway.
Fast Track Outdoor Instructor Courses
These are just as they sound, over a short period of time (usually 3-4 months) the course runs with the mindset of giving its clients as much experience as they can get. The aim is to do as much practical as possible and giving you the personal skills and experience needed to gain the qualifications, during the course. The main skill areas are often walking, rock climbing, paddle sport, and biking qualifications.
These courses can be large sums of money. However, they often do include course fees, qualification fees, accommodation and sometimes equipment is provided. There are now many different organisations and businesses that run these types of courses so researching is a good idea. It is worth exploring how the contact time and money are distributed throughout your timeline, and what you finally come away with once finishing the fast track instructor course.
Seasonal Outdoor Instructor
This type of pathway into the industry is very popular due to the fact that people want to work whilst on the job, and not fork out a lot of money all at once to get trained up. A trainee seasonal outdoor instructor role is an entry level job which is mainly young adults starting their career. Seasonal instructors are taught and trained often through in-house training for many companies. You then spend the summer season working and gaining all that professional experience on the job in a wide variety of adventure sports.
Even though going through this pathway doesn’t necessarily give you qualifications that can transfer to other jobs. Working as a trainee seasonal outdoor instructor will give you the opportunity to get paid to work in the outdoor sector and gain experience. This will allow you to then go on to gain professional qualifications in your personal time.
We feel working as a trainee instructor this is a great pathway because you will learn what it is like to be and work as an outdoor instructor, often without the upfront costs or time commitment of the other two pathways. If you then enjoy working in the sector, you then might have a better idea of what you want to do!
Depending on your situation and your preferred means of pathway, being pro-active in this field is the best and only way you are going to be able to gain qualifications. However, being outdoorsy people this comes naturally to us because we LOVE being outdoors and they obviously come hand in hand.
MY Adventure and Intrepidus Outdoors are adventure tours and outdoor experience providers, both based in Edinburgh, Scotland. We specialise in private and open canyoning, coasteering, mountain biking and hill walking tours, and deliver these adventurous experiences across Scotland. We are also a provider of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Expeditions where we run bronze, silver and gold level awards for young people.
If you are looking for additional information about adventures from Edinburgh, we have published a number of blogs:
- The best head torches for adventures in the outdoors here
- High and Mighty- Bouldering in Scotland here
- 6 steps to being happy like a Scot here
- Welcome to Edinburgh- A guide to the Scottish Capital here
- You’ll never get bored in Edinburgh here
- Best Budget Hotels and Hostels Edinburgh here
- Hen Party Adventures Edinburgh: here
- Stag Party Outdoor Adventures Edinburgh Essentials: here
- SUP, A Buying Guide: here
If you haven’t already seen it, check out the our Trip Advisor, Youtube channel, Visit Scotland page and blog to hear about how others found their outdoor adventures with us! Equally, if there is any gear that you would like us to review, drop us a DM.