Spending a winter season in the mountains is a dream for almost all skiers and snowboarders. If you want to work at a ski resort in order that you can ski or ride almost everyday, there are a great deal of possible options. However, many of the jobs mean that instead of spending all your time out on the slops as you planned, you are stuck in a kitchen baking cakes or cleaning a chalet. That's why taking a ski or snowboard instructor internship course is such a good idea - it means that you’ve got a job and earning money but still out on the slopes.
A ski or snowboard internship is where you take (and pay for) a training course in order to gain an instructor qualification and then go onto work as a ski or snowboard instructor straight afterwards. It is a great way to train, qualify and work as an instructor all in one go.
Whilst there are differences between different resorts and/or training companies you should be receiving good quality training in order to prepare you to pass an instructors exam. You should also be getting a guaranteed job with a ski or snowboard school to start as soon as you finish the training course. Often you will also be provided with accommodation for the training phase too as well as in resort support and possibly meals, welcome arrangements.
By paying for an internship, you should be receiving high level ski or snowboard instruction in order to not only get you to instructor standard quickly but also improve your own all mountain skiing or snowboarding. You will also be getting a portion of your accommodation costs paid for. In addition to this, you get the security of a rewarding instructor job for the rest of the winter season.
Of course, you could avoid paying for a training course, but you would then have to shell out for the exam fee, your ski pass, accommodation etc and you stand a much lower change of getting your dream instructor job.
On the face of it, there appear to be quite a large choice of resorts and training companies that offer internship courses. The biggest and most important difference relates to the nature of the 'guaranteed' job. In some places, you may think that you will be working as an instructor only to discover that you are working in a mountain café. Large, popular resorts such as Whistler have the demand on their Ski and Snowboard School to be able to offer proper instructor jobs as part of the internship programmes there.
"It's a great way to train, qualify and work as an instructor all in one go"
Written by Paul Beard from ALLTRACKS Academy. ALLTRACKS offers Ski & Snowboard Internship Courses with Guaranteed Instructor Jobs with the Whistler Blackcomb ski & board school.