WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN, WHAT SHOULDN’T, AND WHAT IT MEANS TO ALL OF US
By Mark Aiken
This is an excerpt from a feature originally published in the Fall 2023 Issue of 32 Degrees. You can access the full digital article here.
COME OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, AND DECEMBER, RESORTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY WILL BE PREPPING NEWLY HIRED INSTRUCTORS –THE FUTURE OF OUR PROFESSION – FOR THEIR FIRST SEASONS. If you’re a seasoned snowsports professional, think back to your training as a new hire. Was it life-changing? Too much information? Indoors? On-snow? A combination of both? The fact that you kept at this teaching thing must mean you got something out of it… and your trainers saw something in you. Well done.
If this is your first season out of the gates – or you have a training role within your ski or ride school – the following insights can help set the scene for your success.
A Goal to Engage
“The ultimate goal of new-hire training is to begin to turn new hires into great instructors – instructors with enough experience and knowledge to teach anything and anyone,” says NATHAN JARVIS, a longtime instructor and trainer at Park City, Utah.
Snowsports managers, supervisors, and trainers face a tall order when it comes to prepping people who have never taught a ski or snowboard lesson before – all in time for a new season. Think of all the information in the noggins of great instructors. As sometimes happens, it’s easy to fall into the trap of covering too much at new-hire training events.
“Anyone involved with training has probably experienced the point when you realize you’re over-training or over-communicating with someone,” says KATIE WHITE, ski school director at Portillo, Chile; assistant training manager at Montana’s Yellowstone Club; and a member of the Northern Rocky Mountain Region’s board of directors. “Where they have reached their capacity to take in more information.”
To avoid overload, Jarvis suggests focusing on a few short-term goals: providing some essentials and getting new instructors to like the job. “They need to know how to engage with guests in a way that makes it the best day ever,” he says. “Not just for the learner but also for the new instructor – if we want them to come back next year.”
What exactly, then, are the essentials? How can trainers avoid “avalanching” information on new hires to the extent that they become overwhelmed at training and therefore under-prepared when it comes time to teach? I spoke with several experts from around the country learn what should happen at new-hire trainings, what shouldn’t happen, and, what all this means for new and veteran instructors alike.
Part of an Ongoing Process
“Training to become an instructor should be ongoing,” says Dan Healy, chair of PSIA-AASI’s Snowsports Management Advisory Committee and vice president of recreation services at Solitude, Utah. In other words, no instructor will exit a new-hire training event with a firm grip on everything there is to know.
Indeed, much of the knowledge gained over the course of an instructing career comes through experimentation, observing peers, and even making the occasional (or frequent, depending on the instructor) mistake. Many of the hundreds of split-second decisions that can spell the difference between success and disaster must be learned by teaching actual lessons. Good decision-making skills come with experience – like remembering to pack a stuffy in your pocket before a lesson with a 3-year-old, knowing whether to take students on a side hit by the edge of a beginner trail, or recognizing when to explore more challenging terrain or features.
“We usually have a meeting with the new hires after MLK weekend, to have them share some of their experiences, questions, and/or concerns,” says GAIL SETLOCK, snowsports school director at New York’s Gore Mountain. Then, she says, trainers and managers tailor training clinics to address the issues they experienced.
“New-hire training should be one component of a strong and organized internal training program,” says Healy. This program doesn’t just start when new hires show up for training; it begins when they apply for a job and continues when they’re hired and onboarded. And it certainly shouldn’t end with the conclusion of the new-hire training program.According to Healy, it should set the table, and stimulate their appetites, for continued learning once they start teaching.
Most of the trainers and managers I spoke with said the successful and comprehensive new-hire training programs don’t rush; training staffs may spend upwards of a week with new-hires, showing them the way.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
In addition, they place great value on steeping new-hire training in PSIA-AASI methodology. JOE FORTE, the adventure sports and snowsports director at Pennsylvania’s Blue Mountain, points out that when applicants accept a job offer at the area’s Mountain Adventure School (so named for its year-round emphasis) they are enrolled in a six-part new-instructor training program – all required before they can start teaching.
The first two parts, which new-hires can complete at their convenience, include free webinars PSIA-AASI offers offered through thesnowpros.org. Then, Blue’s new hires participate in four half-day, in-person modules (two indoor and two on-snow), offered throughout the fall and early season.
“In a way, I treat new-hire training like a Level I or Children’s Specialist prep course,” says Park City’s Jarvis. Therefore, new hires get the same information that experienced and certified pros have, and – if they catch the bug to pursue further professional development (as many pros at Park City do) – the information that comes up at their first PSIA-AASI events will be familiar.
Following PSIA-AASI doctrine in new-hire training is a good idea for a multitude of reasons. For one, it’s the result of decades of expert crafting and honing; there’s no need to re-invent the wheel. Ryan Lavoie, director of risk management and education for MountainGuard, a longtime insurance carrier for resorts, offers another reason. “There are no real teaching standards other than PSIA-AASI certifications,” says Ryan. “PSIA-AASI methodology serves as the de facto industry teaching standard.” Therefore, from a liability standpoint, it pays to stay true to what the national organization supports.