Cool, must be more openings, less competition for spots. If he gets the gig it's pretty much a given that his skiing will improve quite a bit assuming he takes advantage of the instructor clinics offered.
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College grad son. Wants to travel/teach.
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This wasn't a 'weekends only' program but full time , 6 days a week, so they definitely end up with more than L1. They all seemed to be staying in a couple of the hotels on the main drag in Banff, so most definitely funded by 'Bank of Mom & Dad'
My nephew graduated 4 years ago with an engineering degree and took a job in that fiel. Four months later, in late October he called Winter Park on a lark to see if he could get a job in the ski school. At the time he was middle intermediate at best. However, he had many years teaching and coaching kids swimming programs. They said that they could teach anyone to ski well; but his established skills with kids made him a no brainer to hire. When he went in to give notice at his job, they told him that if he could get a high speed internet connection he could work on engineering projects from WP. I started telling people that I had a nephew working two jobs, like most, up at a ski resort. Difference being- one job actually pays a decent wage.
Fast forward three years, including living up there in the summers, and 300+ days on skis, and he's an awesome skier. Unlike many of his colleagues, he took advantage of every early morning teaching clinic he possibly could, as much as 5 times per week. He's PISA Level 2 certified for both adults and kids, and very self confident, even cocky. He made a decision a year ago to go to medical school so moved back to Kansas City to take the prerequisites he was lacking and is applying for next fall. All in all, a positive outcome, I'd say.
Fast forward three years, including living up there in the summers, and 300+ days on skis, and he's an awesome skier. Unlike many of his colleagues, he took advantage of every early morning teaching clinic he possibly could, as much as 5 times per week. He's PISA Level 2 certified for both adults and kids, and very self confident, even cocky. He made a decision a year ago to go to medical school so moved back to Kansas City to take the prerequisites he was lacking and is applying for next fall. All in all, a positive outcome, I'd say.
Ski le gap is a 3 month program at Tremblant, with a mini-gap before Christmas. Lots of the "students" are English blue bloods that are taking a gap year before U. Most come out with their L1 and L2 CSIA certs. Yes Tours runs their program over 2 months I think. The NZ program is the one someone here has taken. You can take only a week or 2 as well.
Tremblant has a weekend program that gets you ready to take the L1 evaluation at the end, as do most western ski resorts. Ski instructors are badly needed everywhere.
Tremblant has a weekend program that gets you ready to take the L1 evaluation at the end, as do most western ski resorts. Ski instructors are badly needed everywhere.
What are his skiing skills? What does he bring to the table as far as other skills?, is he willing to work with kids. Is he willing to learn?
There are many resorts looking for people that are willing to work in their schools. We always need responsible people in the school to support the kids instructors. When kids need to go to the bathroom, sometimes, meeting the instructor at the lift line to take the kids in. Keeping childrens areas ready for meals, helping getting gloves, jackets helmets on and off?
It may not be a glamorous job, or well paid but if they need to get their foot in the door, they have reasonable ski skills, along with good people skills, theres a lot of work out there.(at least in our state, California) With these kind of jobs, there is the opportunity to ski in clinics, shadow classes, just ski on breaks or days off, etc.
If he has pretty good ski skills, then one of the week long clinics with a L1 evaluation may be the ticket. We had 2 people in our L1 exam that studied hard, and passed. They had never worked for a resort. Their Skiing skills were adequate and they (all candidates) were very coachable. Something we really want to see in any instructor.
There are many resorts looking for people that are willing to work in their schools. We always need responsible people in the school to support the kids instructors. When kids need to go to the bathroom, sometimes, meeting the instructor at the lift line to take the kids in. Keeping childrens areas ready for meals, helping getting gloves, jackets helmets on and off?
It may not be a glamorous job, or well paid but if they need to get their foot in the door, they have reasonable ski skills, along with good people skills, theres a lot of work out there.(at least in our state, California) With these kind of jobs, there is the opportunity to ski in clinics, shadow classes, just ski on breaks or days off, etc.
If he has pretty good ski skills, then one of the week long clinics with a L1 evaluation may be the ticket. We had 2 people in our L1 exam that studied hard, and passed. They had never worked for a resort. Their Skiing skills were adequate and they (all candidates) were very coachable. Something we really want to see in any instructor.
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The CSIA runs short programs (3 day for L1 and 2+2+1 day for L2) to attain L1 and L2 certification. The L1 is 3 days of skiing/teaching - assessment occurs throughout. The L2 is 2 day ski training module plus 2 day training/teaching/assessment module plus 1 day for getting extra 'educational' points - eg Teaching Kids module. Those programs provide all the technical and teacher training that reasonable skiers and listeners would need to successfully gain their certification.
The pass rates on these course are high. On the L1 course I did 8 of the 9 applicants passed. On the L2 27 of the 28 applicants passed. It can't be too hard as I passed both L1 and L2 on my 1st attempts. However folk have been known to need multiple attempts.
There are several companies that run multi-week courses to provide extra preparation for undertaking those CSIA programs. These may or may not be useful depending on the skier. The shortest I have heard asbout was a 3 week prep course for L1. Typically it's 4-5 weeks preparing for L1 and 5-6 weeks preparing for L2. For some reason there are a few British companies who run these courses and hence they get a high number of young Brits doing a gap year / gap decade.
My observations (from doing a L3 prep course with one of these companies) are that the young folk on those course have a really good time mixing and partying with other like minded young people. And sometimes some of them are sober enough to even attend the ski training. (Actually I'm not really sure if they are sober or not - let's just say they were awake enough to attend training.) The training itself appears to work well. There was one young Brit (about 20 y/o) who had never skied before and finished an 11 week stint as a certified L2.
The courses typically include accommodation for the duration and food for at least part of the week. It's also possible to roll your own mix of accom/food.
Some of the companies offer internships for a season (~16 weeks). The aim is to get L1 certification and then the intern has a guaranteed job in the resort ski school and continues training for L2 part time. Seems the big advantages are the guaranteed job experience and accom continues for the rest of the internship.
Good luck to your youngster. If I was in my 20s again I would probably go this route instead of spending multiple decades flying a desk. My take is that once into the mountains a person with a bit of get up and go will find some business/career that allows them to generate a living and enjoy lots of skiing.
The pass rates on these course are high. On the L1 course I did 8 of the 9 applicants passed. On the L2 27 of the 28 applicants passed. It can't be too hard as I passed both L1 and L2 on my 1st attempts. However folk have been known to need multiple attempts.
There are several companies that run multi-week courses to provide extra preparation for undertaking those CSIA programs. These may or may not be useful depending on the skier. The shortest I have heard asbout was a 3 week prep course for L1. Typically it's 4-5 weeks preparing for L1 and 5-6 weeks preparing for L2. For some reason there are a few British companies who run these courses and hence they get a high number of young Brits doing a gap year / gap decade.
My observations (from doing a L3 prep course with one of these companies) are that the young folk on those course have a really good time mixing and partying with other like minded young people. And sometimes some of them are sober enough to even attend the ski training. (Actually I'm not really sure if they are sober or not - let's just say they were awake enough to attend training.) The training itself appears to work well. There was one young Brit (about 20 y/o) who had never skied before and finished an 11 week stint as a certified L2.
The courses typically include accommodation for the duration and food for at least part of the week. It's also possible to roll your own mix of accom/food.
Some of the companies offer internships for a season (~16 weeks). The aim is to get L1 certification and then the intern has a guaranteed job in the resort ski school and continues training for L2 part time. Seems the big advantages are the guaranteed job experience and accom continues for the rest of the internship.
Good luck to your youngster. If I was in my 20s again I would probably go this route instead of spending multiple decades flying a desk. My take is that once into the mountains a person with a bit of get up and go will find some business/career that allows them to generate a living and enjoy lots of skiing.
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The course is $10k.
You don't actually need certification to get a teaching job most places in the East anyway. There are ways to do it for a lot less in the US.
https://easkiandsnowboard.com/resorts/japan/niseko-village/
You don't actually need certification to get a teaching job most places in the East anyway. There are ways to do it for a lot less in the US.
https://easkiandsnowboard.com/resorts/japan/niseko-village/
Sorry I just read more of the thread. You say you are a L1 teaching part time. With that knowledge you should be able to assess his skills . Do you think he’s coachable? Think about the ski skills needed. Think about the tasks. With coaching do you think he can become proficient with those skills.
Gliding wedge, wedge turns, wedge christies, open parallel. Side slip, one legged traverse. These are the tasks PSIA west use. Other divisions probably use others. These however really highlight most the skills needed, and how they are blended in a person’s skiing.
Can he demonstrate and teach these?
Gliding wedge, wedge turns, wedge christies, open parallel. Side slip, one legged traverse. These are the tasks PSIA west use. Other divisions probably use others. These however really highlight most the skills needed, and how they are blended in a person’s skiing.
Can he demonstrate and teach these?
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The Banff stuff is largely just playing at being ski instructors bankrolled by the bank of mum and dad, because going doing instructor qualifications sounds like a more legit reason to get a parental loan or put of a CV for a future "real" job than ski bumming. Most of them never end up teaching in anger. No disrespect to those that do turn into fully committed teaching pros but they'll be the first to tell you they were in the minority on their gap course.
If I was in your son's position and looking to move west I think I'd probably start job hunting somewhere like Reno or SLC for a proper graduate job and get as much skiing as I could in my spare time. Take ski school hiring clinics and try out for part time instructor gigs to gain access to development programmes.
If I was in your son's position and looking to move west I think I'd probably start job hunting somewhere like Reno or SLC for a proper graduate job and get as much skiing as I could in my spare time. Take ski school hiring clinics and try out for part time instructor gigs to gain access to development programmes.
Vail Resorts hires people over the phone.
RM PSIA does Level 1 early in the season. Get certified and you should do fine.
Choose where you want to go and send in the applications over the summer.
RM PSIA does Level 1 early in the season. Get certified and you should do fine.
Choose where you want to go and send in the applications over the summer.
My high school aged son has been teaching kids and L1 adults at Timberline Lodge ski area in Mt Hood, Oregon for the past 2 seasons.They don't require certification to teach kids and L1. It would be a great place to get started. It has a great community. He taught part time so don't know if the requirements for full-time instructor is different.
Here is a different perspective. Given that he loves skiing and he has a business education, and he wants to work "out there", not in an office. You might want to ask in the Patrol Shack here for ideas. Also, the two main US employers in the Ski industry are probably in the need of business people in Ski Resorts. Some of those operate winter and summer, and you probably get to ski regularly on those.
Basically, given that ski instruction is a tough business to make a living off of, I would explore other ski related opportunities with life in the mountains and full employment/benefits year around.
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The issue here is really should the op's son do a $10-12k teaching course in Japan or are there other ways?
All the "he has to be able to do x" to get a job is bs, at least in the East. I doubt it's much different anywhere else in the US. Japan, don't know.
All the "he has to be able to do x" to get a job is bs, at least in the East. I doubt it's much different anywhere else in the US. Japan, don't know.
Yup. Here in California, just call the school, fill out an app or go to a job fair, interview and start working. If your skiing skills are not up to snuff, they will let you know and probably offer to train you. You can probably still work for the school so you can train.
You can always ask in your interview what other positions might be available that would put you on the snow and allow you to train the most if that is what you want to do.
This. Not because it’s challenging to get hired as an “instructor” (pretty much anyone who can breathe without assistance and stand independently on skis will be snapped up) but because, contrary to popular advice, being a low level kid schlepper isn’t a great way to advance one’s own skiing. Much better to be independent and sign up for decent training.
Hey, I actually run the EA course in Niseko (ski trainer and program manager). It's a lot of fun, and a great way to get started in the industry, however I would advise that you check out your sons visa eligibility, as it's not easy for Americans to get a work visa, so we typically work mainly with Brits and Aussies. Feel free to message me if you would like more info.
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I have a friend that recruits instructors for Japanese instructors, I can get you her contact info if you want. She can at least tell you what is needed.
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