, ,

What Makes St Anton So Special For Trainee Ski Instructors?

Last winter season marked the first ever Work and Train Level 3 ISIA programme in St Anton.

What Makes St Anton So Special For Trainee Ski Instructors?

It was a phenomenal start – our 16 trainees clocked up a cracking 3,360 hours of work – an average of 210 hours per trainee. Add in the 180 hours of training they did each, and you’ve got one impressive season.

Many went on to complete their BASI Level 3 Teach and Tech exams, and should have everything ticked off by the coming winter. It’s quite the leap from BASI 2 to BASI 3, but they’ve risen to the challenge.

The determination and motivation of the trainees is the reason they were so successful this winter. With a supportive in-resort team, help from the wider New Gen community and an amazing ski area, there’s not much more you can ask for in a Level 3 programme!

Applications to join the team for winter 2018/19 have just opened! We asked trainees Katie, Niall and Louis for their take on what it was like becoming a New Generation instructor, and what advice they’d give anyone applying to the Work and Train programme.

 

How did it feel putting on the uniform for the first time?

Louis – Wearing the uniform for the first time felt great as I always wanted to last season (during my BASI 1 & 2 course in Verbier). Finally getting the chance to felt awesome!

Niall – It felt great when I put the uniform on for the first time, it felt different to other uniforms I’ve worn being North Face and a proper Gortex jacket just made me feel more proper, like a more serious instructor.

Katie – Very exciting! It had been my dream for a while so slightly nerve wracking as well.


Were you nervous for your first lesson? How did it go?

Katie – I was very nervous but that disappeared as soon as I started the lesson. I had a great family who were all great fun and all of them improved a lot throughout the week.

Niall – First lesson went great, a little nervous was I’d had the summer off skis and it was a new resort. But 5 minutes in, I started to relax and get back into the swing of things.

Louis – I was a bit worried for my first lesson as I haven’t done one since last season but it turned out to be really good fun and it all clicked into place as soon as I met the clients! They were my age which helped. You just realise that they are people too so there is nothing to worry about.  Apart from if they are scary 4 year olds…

Ski Training Programme

 

What surprised you about being an instructor? Are there things you didn’t expect?

Niall – Nothing really surprised me this year, just how much I enjoyed it!

Katie – How much I love teaching different people and understanding how everyone learns in different ways and discovering new ways to explain things.

Louis – That I actually felt part of a team whereas the last company I worked for I didn’t feel this!


What advice would you give to anyone planning on applying to this programme next year?

Louis – Smash it and go all out as it is great fun!

Katie – Start working on your fitness as soon as possible, it’s a fantastic course but the combination of work and training is very tiring. So any advantage you can give yourself is going to help.

Niall – I would definitely recommend the course to others as it’s great to get such high quality training and also keeping up the hours teaching. The training has been fantastic. The training with Mikey (APSI Level 4 Trainer) has been extremely helpful as he comes up with different approaches that really work. Especially in the moguls! And again going out with Stefan (Austrian Skilehrer und Skiführer) and him handing down some of his knowledge of the backcountry.

 

If you’d like to apply for the St Anton Work and Train team, please send your CV and a cover letter to stefan.mentberger@skinewgen.com.

If you’d like to train somewhere else, don’t hesitate to check out our other BASI Level 3 programmes in Courchevel and Verbier too.