UKC

The subject says it all really. Did my SPA training at the weekend and if it wasn't clear before, I now know that I need to get experience with groups before my assessment. I work full time (nothing outdoor related) so any volunteer work would have to be weekends / evenings or I'd have to take holiday to volunteer somewhere.

I am a member of a climbing club but we don't have many complete novices, nor any kids.

Any suggestions? I've already emailed a couple of outdoor education centres but the first to reply (Outward Bound Trust) do not take volunteers.

Any instructors out there who would be willing for a trainee SPA to tag along?

Thanks

Dave

In reply to Dave McKechnie:

Scouts? Other youth groups?

In reply to Dave McKechnie:

where are you based?

In reply to Derry:

Bradford....

In reply to Dave McKechnie:

Scouts for me. You can get a permit to supervise kids before doing the spa assessment and it works well for experience gaining. You'll still have to pass an assessment though so if you're not confident, try to get into a scout group who already have climbing instructors. You can then shadow them. Volunteer at scouts.org.uk and say you want to help with a group that do climbing.

In reply to Dave McKechnie:

Try your local climbing centre - you can often shadow sessions. I managed to get some outdoor experience by getting to know the instructors, who do some outdoor work outside of their usual indoor instruction jobs.

You may have more joy contacting individual freelance instructors rather than companies.

Good luck with the assessment when you get to it.

In reply to Dave McKechnie:

I was in a university club and I got a bunch of experience by sending an e-mail to the mailing list offering a free session outside under the heading of something like "advice" or "experience" (I forget exactly) rather than "instruction" in setting up anchors for top-roping and getting some climbing done on the local crag (I borrowed some friends harnesses and extra ropes). There was a surprisingly huge amount of interest. I didn't go into lead climbing because almost everyone was really at a beginner level. Because it was done as part of a university club and really under the same guise as happens on every meet in a uni club where new members learn from older members, I was fairly confident that I wouldn't have to worry about unpleasant legal nonsense.

A lot of uni clubs don't require you to be a student at the uni to become a member, so you could potentially go down this route.