Educating Adventures Instructor Internships: What you should know (Review) June 20, 2009
Posted by Sharny in : Essay, USA Trip, Work, World , 1 comment so farI wanted to write this post in order to give people in my position of a little over a year ago the information that I would have liked at the time, or at least what I would have liked before arriving at the training. I am not in any way affiliated with Educating Adventures, I’m writing this completely freely and because I’d like people to have a bit more information about what they’re getting into, an apposing viewpoint if you will although I make no bones about how amazing my season was and the major part that Educating Adventures played. I also have to say that this is just what I experienced and may or may not be what they do in following years, I doubt it would change that much though.
Presumably you’ve already been browsing through EA’s information and are trying to find a bit more about it, you conscientious consumer you. As far as I know, EA still have the monopoly on what they offer, a training course followed by a job offer. Plus they offer their course at a much lower rate than the many other competitors that have longer training programs but no work. Much cheaper in fact. Of courses, the EA course is a lot more intensive. Which is where I will start.
They advertise their course as a 3 week program designed to train you to level one ski instructor standards and get you qualified before you actually start work. In reality, what we received was 6 days of on snow training and 1 day of off snow theory. Even including the exam it doesn’t really come into 3 calendar weeks either so I’m not entirely sure where they pulled that number from. Either way, that’s what you’re getting.
In the days that we weren’t training they pretty much left us to our own devices to get things done. Which was kinda sucky to be honest. No help getting to Reno to apply for social security numbers (wasn’t an issue for me personally as I came out early and already had mine) or really any help with transport to get to anywhere we might want to go. It really wouldn’t have been that hard for them to arrange a bus to get everyone to Reno and back but they seemed to be taking the cheap way out wherever possible. Various figures for how long the walk was from our accomodation (on the edge of King’s Beach) to the nearest supermarket were quoted, usually between 5 and 10 minutes. In reality it was more like 15-20 minutes but of course the reason that they got this wrong is because they had a car and so didn’t have to walk so wouldn’t know how long it took.
It’s true to say that there is a little grumble in a lot of all this and I am just saying the negative stuff first, the other element that added to everyone’s general sour moods was the lack of snow. The 08/09 season was a bit late in Tahoe and when we all got to the training there wasn’t a patch of snow in sight which was naturally pretty depressing and caused us to be much more critical of everything else that was happening. Things did actually work themself out and we didn’t lose any time on snow due to the magical powers of man made snow.
So after arriving and being given a few days off we had one day of theory, nothing wrong with that, it included some fun little bits and pieces. After that we had another couple of days off hoping that Northstar would be able to make the snow for us to start training on Saturday. It’s worth noting that the way they put it to us was that if there wasn’t snow falling then Northstar would make snow for us. In reality, they were making snow just to try and get open and start being able to make some money and we had no exclusivety whatsoever, other than the fact that we were in ski school. It meant that when we did finally start the training it was very crowded and pretty limited. This isn’t EA’s fault of course but you should be aware that the weather could really screw your experience over, hopefully you will be lucky, obviously there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s just a risk that is inherent in a sport such as ours.
The other thing that became obvious to different people at different times was that the training they offered over this intensive course is in fact offered for free by our resorts in order to train their instructors. Of course, you don’t get a nice intensive course leading straight into the exam but don’t be under the impression that this training is more special than it is, both Northstar and it’s sister resort Sierra (my resort) offered weekly clinics to work towards exams.
One other little thing to note is the 98% pass rate and the claims that people of any ability are welcomed. Nothing wrong with that pass rate, indeed in Tahoe the pass rate was actually 100% as far as I’m aware but it says as much about the nature of the exam than it does about the quality of the training. I’m not saying the training was bad by any means, it really wasn’t, but the reason the pass rate is so high is because the exam is set up for passing and not failing candidates. The first two days are designed to be learning as well as examining experiences so are more like extra days on the training but with a different trainer, a feature that is no bad thing. It’s only really the last day of the 3 day exam that is an exam and even then it’s pretty relaxed.
The other part of that is any ability being welcomed. The 98% pass rate didn’t include the people who deffered their entry because they were advised not to do the exam. That included a decent percentage of the “beginner” training group. It would be true to say that actually most of the people who chose not to do the exam would have passed if they had done it but they didn’t feel ready and so chose to wait. The point being if you haven’t done much skiing but still want to do this (awesome) don’t necessarily think you’ll feel ready to sit the level 1 directly following the training. You can still do the course and still have the job but chances are you won’t feel ready to do your level 1 until a bit later in the season.
One other little nit pick is that if you make alternate travel arangements to arrive at the training don’t expect EA to make things particularly easy for you. I happened to luck out and get a ride up there and had a place to stay due to knowing some people up there due to the pre-season training I did but if you’re thinking of doing something different instead of going to the San Francisco stop over be prepared to get yourself to the training off your own back entirely.
It’s also worth noting that although the EA representatives guiding you through the training are perfectly friendly and try to be helpful they are a tad useless in a practical sense, which is a bit difficult to describe and probably just something you’ll realise when you get there.
One last bad part, this time about something outside of EA control: Visas. I can’t say about Canada (although from what I gather it’s a safer bet) but the US are limiting the amount of visas at increasing rates which is a real danger to the EA model: their training course isn’t nearly so unique if no one can get visas to work afterwards. In order to guarantee the visas got through for my season my resort and it’s sister held a mandatory (but not actually mandatory) “pre-season training camp” in order to say they needed their instructors early and therefore letting them put their applications in early, meaning that many other californian resorts had no H2B visas. That’s probably not what will go down this year but with the visa situation as it is the course is a fair risk. Even returning employees already qualified have been warned that the visas may not be available for them if they get unlucky so for unexperienced level ones the chances are even lower. Really, you are only above the uncertified locals and they don’t need visas, as there aren’t really any uncertified foreign instructors. Essentially: Be wary, you may not get your visa, and the risk is only increasing. Hopefully the visa cap will be raised with new legislation some time soon but for now your chance to work is at risk.
In conclusion, the opportunity Educating Adventures gave me to have the best experience of my life but it’s not the only way to get the preciously advertised level one. There are other options and if you are considering EA you should consider them too, just to make sure that spending the $4,000+ is worth it for you. For me, I think it was and I hope to do seasons again in the future, by which time I may just about get my investment back.
Just remember, you can’t really put a price on good experiences. Despite all the negatives of the training, it really wasn’t all bad and enabled me to have a fantastic time.
To say it’s been a while would be misleading June 16, 2009
Posted by Sharny in : Life, Misc, USA Trip , add a commentI’m so well meaning with this here blog. I mean, it doesn’t really matter after all, I get 1 page view per day with delightful keywords such as “shiny guitar gear + opium”, ” search words biggest red back” and ” “the girl who” lundone”. I’ve got to wonder if any of the people searching for these things actually got anything like what they were after. Especially the first one, what the hell is going on there. This is the internet though after all.
I didn’t really even have a “I’m going away for a while” post so really if anyone was following this they would think it just died without explanation (which does happen, quite a few favourite blogs of mine have just evaporated from the intertubes much to my dismay) but in reality I was just in another country doing something different and new.
To be specific, I was in California playing grown up and being a ski instructor (although lets face it, we’re not the most grown up of professions). And it was epic. To say it’s changed my life would be a ridiculous understatement. Really, if I was going to go into details about it all I would need a whole series of posts and I don’t seem to be able to dedicate myself enough to writing quite enough to do that at the moment. Suffice to say that as an experience I recommend it and I really recommend trying skiing too, it’s the most amazing outdoor activity I think you’ll ever try.
So here we have this jumbled blog post, basically saying that I’m gonna try and write stuff again. I should write more, I know this. Perhaps it’s time to uninstall stumbleupon, it’s a real horror for my productivity. Yes, I think that’s what I’ll do. Actually force myself to do something useful. See, this blogging thing has helped me already, why didn’t I try it before…?
