Ski instructor course for 19 year old

[Emsij123]

My son is very keen to do a ski instructor course in Europe during his gap year. He is 19. He wants one where he can meet other people his age and get a well respected, recognised qualification at the end of it. He will put money towards it as will we. Any suggestions?

@HandbagAddiction True. I know several British instructors who were working in Austria who had Canadian CSIA Level 2 qualifications, but this was pre-Brexit. It was their lack of an EU passport or inablilty to get a visa that ended their seasonal "careers" rather than their CSIA qualification.

DBro did the CASI level 1&2 qualification in Lake Louise - had a great time as all the students were in shared apartments, they got to know all the lifties and lodge workers, and ended up with a real community while they were out there.

He went back and instructed each season for a couple of years, got his level 3 qual and AST certificate etc, but gave it up as a career once he worked out he was basically working all summer to subsidise his teaching season. He decided he’d rather just get a better-paid job and have four weeks of skiing holidays each year. Which is what he does (2x 14 days).

There are so many people who want to be ski instructors that they don’t need to pay them much - certainly not enough to cover bed and board in a ski town.

One of my DS did the BASI qualification last season during his gap year. Did it with Basecamp in Morzine and had the time of his life, would recommend. He got BASI 1 and 2. Two people in the cohort failed,which I thought was interesting. Clearly paying the cost doesn't guarantee a pass. He made a great group of friends and his skiing is excellent (we are on a ski trip now).
PM me if you want more info.

Totally agree with this. They don’t get paid much at all and probably only just about break even after accommodation costs taken into account. My daughter relied on good tips from the lessons she did to supplement her income - and then promptly spent most of it on extra pairs of skis, new ski gear, etc. Some instructors also doing additional babysitting in resort in the evenings to make extra money.

At least as instructors they get there ski pass cost covered for the season and in the case of Whistler - get reduced priced food on the mountain and some hefty discounts in quite a few of the shops on ski gear, clothes, etc.

I also think the day to day work is not as much fun as you imagine it might be - ok, if you are guiding an expert group of adults off piste, it will be great. If you are watching a bunch of five year olds fall off the button lift all day, in freezing temperatures, not quite so much fun (yes they have some warmup rides with the other instructors before the lifts open to the public, but that is 30-60 mins out of a 6-8 hr day).

As @Saschka says, the day to day work of an instructor is not all that glamorous - at least not for the young, newly qualified instructors.

Taking expert skiers off-piste is not ever going to happen - these people book specialist, highly qualified mountain guides as getting it wrong can be fatal.

The reality for first year instructors is many hours in the kids' ski school area watching little kids fall off button lifts or tripping over the magic carpet travelators, taking them for lunch and supervising toilet stops and hot chocolate breaks. Or spending much of the week sweating in an oversized penguin/rabbit/snowman costume while cheering up crying infants (or acting as a moving target for the end-of-day snowball barrage - from the other instructors as well as from the kids).

If they survive the first season and make a good impression they get invited back for a second season, where they get to take adult groups and if they are excellent communicators and motivators as well as being technically good skiers, they might also get some hours teaching private lessons.