Excel

About Excel

Over 10 weeks young people (aged 16-21) train to become qualified ski or snowboarding instructors by participating in the BASI Foundation Instructor training programme. The skills which they are demonstrating on the slopes are also reflected in the classroom with life skills sessions before and after each slope session. These sessions also include lessons on the foundations of the coaching pathway, lesson planning and live teaching tasks as well as the essential first aid and safeguarding courses. Furthermore, young people take part in wellbeing workshops with our Wellbeing Managers, gain a mental health first aid qualification and have access to 1-1 wellbeing sessions. 

Excel is a fantastic opportunity for young people to gain a nationally recognised qualification and reach a level of snowsports ability that they would never have thought possible before joining the charity. Young people also continue their progression through the Snowsport England or Snowsport Scotland Snow Life Award course started on First Tracks.

Towards the end of the course young people spend a week in the mountains, shadowing instructors and gaining valuable mountain experience. For many this is their first time abroad, broadening their horizons on a personal, as well as on an educational level. This week long residential provides real life experience for young people enabling them to recognise that they have the ability to start a career in the snowsports industry and beyond. It gives them an increased sense of confidence in their own skiing or snowboarding technique, along with a deeper knowledge of the coaching process ready for their final assessment days when they return to the UK. In our last programme year 105 young people attended the residential, our largest group in 15 years!

With a BASI Foundation instructor qualification new job opportunities in the snowsports industry become very real. We offer a range of opportunities to the newly qualified young people. Young people can apply for one of our award winning Apprenticeships or they can join our Youth Forum. Both of these pathways provide the young people with opportunities to participate in exciting work placements with our snowsports industry partners. We also encourage young people to stay involved with the charity by using their new qualification to instruct the next group of young people entering our courses.

This course is only available to young people who have completed our First Tracks and Graduate courses. If you would like to chat about Excel, please do get in touch with the Programme Manager in your area.