UKC

The WMCI/MIC is very much a UK specific qualification and not to be used in the Alps etc where other local or carnet based qualifications like the IFMGA may be required, I understand this much.

My question is however what the remit of an MIC is? I ask as somebody who in many years and with a lot more experience, may seek this qualification and I wonder what the technicalities are that allow for examples MICs to run water ice courses in Norway. I know that MT states that it allows you to "teach, train and assess general winter mountaineering, ice climbing and related activities". So is then it fair to say that an MIC can operate in any country with those conditions should they be resemblant of the UK, without issues such as altitude and should they be able to get insurance cover/work for a UK company, and not be required to have a different qualification for that local area such as France?

I use Norway as an example as I know for a fact that it is commonly used over there.

As I said, I know the primary purpose is for UK winter mountain conditions however I'm intruiged as to the limit of this award or certainly where others have found it viable beyond the UK without it being a contentious issue. Anything anybody knows would be super useful

Cheers, Tom

Some other countries recognise each others higher level qualifications. 

The cop out answer is that side of stuff is nothing to do with Mountain Training, and down to the specific country.

Probably the biggest issue for U.K. passport holders is the right to work has disappeared, for obvious reasons, in EU countries.

I think the situation has changed in Norway even, although someone else better placed might correct me there.

I had been under the assumption the right to work had been taken away from us too. But this isn't the case, it is country specific and info can be found on the gov.uk website.

The first question is what does the Law of the country you're operating in say?

In many cases there is no such specific law governing mountaineering qualifications, in which case, the next questions are, if something goes wrong whose legal system are you going to have to satisfy and what can you tell them to justify your choice to provide an activity. These are the same things clients/employers/insurers will ask. 

If you're complying with the generally accepted practice in the industry you should have a reasonable case (eg Summer ML's assessed in the Lake District are used to take kids overseas to do "gap yah" expeds, it's not strictly within the qual's remit but it'll do to satisfy their risk assessment).

In practical terms, given that Scottish Winter conditions are generally regarded as being "pretty challenging" the skills of a WM&CI are certainly transferable to most (non-glacial) winter climbing venues around the world. 

Achieving  WMCI is a benchmark. It means that at a given time you were able to meet the standard required. But as soon as you pass you can get better (using the award, CPD, reflective practise), or worse (skill fade). Beyond that the points above about the law of the country you work in and the limitations of any insurance company you work in are also important. As i understand it Mountain Training don't see their qualifications as a limit, just a measure that may be exceeded.

Then there is competence. Working on cascade waterice is something we do get to do in the UK occasionally but the scale of Norwegian routes, the avalanche conditions, the temperatures, depth of snow on approach, descent factors can all make it a little different from the UK (the Guides do a course on cascade ice in addition to their Scottish winter training and test). So before working there id expect to ensure i was happy about those differences and well practised in that environment to ensure i was competent. To me thats part of taking a professional approach to my work. 

So the Qualification is an important factor but its not the only one in the equation. Qualification+experience+CPD+currency+knoweldge+skill+legal and Insurance Factors would be a start.