UKC

im looking to do my ML training this year and have had lots of advice saying that training from Plas y Brenin is worth the extra cost. just wondered if people have had any experience in the matter. is it a better experience as i really dont mind paying if thats the case. or are you just paying for the kudos?

Thanks
John

In reply to johnbale:
They do nice cake.
I like cake.

Sorry, distracted there. PYB have a very good reputation and employ a lot of excellent instructors, and the accomodation is good too (en suite and free bouldering). PYB are pretty much the gold standard for NGB awards. I think you do pay for the kudos, but there's a reasonable argument for doing that if you're serious about working in the industry. On the other hand, you can do a course for half the price if you don't mind camping. I've only really heard positive things about PYB, but there's bound to be someone here who hates the place with a passion.

In reply to johnbale: PYB is a very nice B&B/hotel with excellent instructors.

In reply to johnbale: i did my training there are sailed through my assessment because of their tuition, superb and i echo the above comments!

In reply to johnbale:

A mate of mine did his assesment at PYB and had a terrible time.

Firstly, the whole thing with everyone calling it the 'the brenin' annoyed him immensly. That was fairly minor.

The background being that he was solely a walker not a climber at all. He felt that he was very much judged on this, in fact, unfairly so. During the security on steep ground, he felt that the terrain was well beyond that of the ML. He appreciates that an ML may find themselves out of their comfort zone, but that because the other candidates were climbers, the instructor took them to an area which he found very serious.

In addition to this he felt he was judged on his appearance and equipment etc. Anyway, he was deferred, he appealed against it and was interviewed by the director, who in the end stood by the instructor's original decision.

Maybe it's a case of sour grapes - I can't say. He did pass the deferred element several months later with another provider.

To balance it though - I know a few people who found it really good.

In reply to garethmorgan:
thanks for all your thoughts. i like cake too so i think i will be booking it with PYB. any more thoughts would be great probs sort the booking out tomorrow.
cheers
John

In reply to johnbale:

I did both my Training and assessment at PYB and found the experience excellent.
However it is a case of pay your money and take your choice. Friends of mine have used other providers for both and had positive and negative experiences.

The smaller independent providers follow the same syllabus and assess to the same standard. An ML is an ML wherever you do it. Otherwise it completely undermines the whole system and we might as well rip up the awards.

The accomodation is good at PYB and the meals are of a good standard and plentiful. The cake is great but the egg mayo is the best!!

In reply to Albert Hinton: It has a nice bar

In reply to Judd_IV:

I did my ML Assessment at 'The Brenin' (I think that gets used a lot as it's shorter, a bit like 'the pass' & 'the cromlech').

I got slated as my boots were old & knackered, with not much grip, making the confidence roping on steep grassy slopes a wee bit harder for me than it needed to be, but as I explained, there were two reasons for me wearing these, they fitted and were not going to give me any grief during 5 consecutive days of use, I couldn't afford a new pair as I'd just spent all my cash on my ML assessment, neither cut uch ice with the assessor, (who I had met previously in a social context and is avery nice chap and who I have met several times since in a social setting and is still a very nice chap). His opinion was that I should have the right tools for the job, which seemed fair enough. One candidate form our group of 4 was deferred, primarily for sloppy rope-work (he was a climber, but made some DANGEROUS errors).

I recently failed a kayak coach assessment with an independent provider (I had a shocking second day, I was really poor). Who's organisation & communication was poor, was woefully under-resourced (and explained that he couldn't afford to supply either a digital projector or OHP for a lecturettes), he charged more for the 2 day assessment than 'the brenin' and didn't even include a single night in a bunkhouse. My opinion on the organisation of the course would have been the same whether I had passed or failed.

IMHO, certainly for kayaking qualifications, you don't always get what you pay for!!

In reply to johnbale:
Did my ML training there,it`s excellent; really recommend it.

In reply to CENSORED:



Who did you do that with? I assume that it was a level 3 assessment of some type!

In reply to CENSORED:



If you turned up like in your profile piccy - you probably scared them so much with out the parrot ! or the monkey...

you would scare me !

In reply to johnbale: I did my SPA training and assessment at PYB but am doing my ML with someone else. PYB is good but you can get the course elsewhere for half the price they charge.

In reply to Ian McNeill: I hope you aren't as prejudiced against other ocularly challenged candidates?

In reply to Anonymous: My eye patch only exists in photoshop in an effort to help conceal my true identity...

In reply to CENSORED:

What do you call an "ocularly challenged" Stag?

-- No idea !

In reply to indalo:

What do you call an "ocularly challenged" Stag with no legs?










-- Still No idea !

In reply to indalo:



Still no f**king idea

In reply to johnbale: I have done several courses at Plas y Brenin including ML Assessment. I think it is potentially useful for your future career in the outdoors to have spent some time there as it does, whether we like it or not, set standards.

A particular dislike I have of the place is the afternoon 'tea and cakes' tradition for which you have to be back at the centre at 4pm come what may. On assessment the ability to hit this time schedule seems to mark the line between success and failure! I would much prefer to receive more instructional and coaching time on the hill.

In reply to Hammy:
come on a sense of houmour helps -- take a tea urn out with you on assessment go prepared ...

In reply to Hammy:


Reminiscent of the glory days of (now vanished) British industry.

Mick

In reply to Mick Ward:



Mmmm or maybe a way of balancing out the hours worked by their staff, some of whom put in the equivalent of 2 weeks work for most mere mortals over the 5 days spent on an ML Assessment....

In reply to johnbale: I did my ML there in December. Accommodation, food, instruction and ambience at the centre are all excellent. They are one of the few places that will do a summer course at that time of year, which is why I chose them. (I want to be up and running by summer) On the downside the driving wind and rain made learning on the hill rather difficult and the wild camp rather damp.

In reply to tradlad: I'm doing mine nest month with a group from Cornwall, it was going cheap and also not over a weekend. I tried to book with P Y B but they were awful. Just unhelpful. I'm getting my fees paid for by a bursay and they just wouldn't help in how the billing had to be done.

Bit worried about mine, havn't done much nav work for a while, how tough was the nav work that was required? Is it finding some boulder on a hill side, or quite large features?

As a runner I tend to make the nav easy so will go for longer distances if there's obvious hand rails and attack points, so I can largely ignore the nav.

In reply to IainRUK: I do not think that the navigation was particularly difficult. I have not had cause to use a map and compass very much over the last 30 years. We did have to navigate to small knolls and other features, such as sheep pens, as well as finding the campsite in poor visiblity, well complete darkness actually. The main problem that I had was sometimes not hearing what was being said because of the wind and rain and my glasses steaming up or getting wet. At one point a colleague was despondent because we had got it wrong, where as in fact we had navigated to the feature that I thought had been indicated so I did not feel that I had really got it wrong, just misheard. Perhaps in better conditions they may be a little more demanding.

In reply to IainRUK:

hi ian,

much more about reading the contours and terrain/environment and being aware of where you are all the time (which you'll be well up on) plusn the night nav is fun in - listen to you body (uphill/downhill sideways etc)

you'll do fine

In reply to lithos: Cheers, it's only the training anyway, but just want to get my assessment as soon as possible too, so hoping the guy won't think I'm a total tool and say I need a 10 year consolidation period . Looking forward to it though, hopefully the weather will stay OK.

We'll see..