Train New Hires with the E-Learning Course for New Instructors from PSIA-AASI

A new E-Learning Course for New Instructors is now available online from the Professional Ski Instructors of America and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (PSIA-AASI). PSIA-AASI, a national education association, worked with subject matter experts to develop the e-learning course to help snowsports schools onboard their new instructor hires as well as complement the schools’ existing on-snow training. The course helps participants learn about three key aspects of working as an instructor: what to expect, basic teaching principals, and safety considerations. The free course is accessible to PSIA-AASI members and non-members, and a certificate of completion is included so that hiring managers can check for understanding.

“The E-Learning Course for New Instructors is a great educational tool for recruitment and training,” explains Aleisha Padilla Seubert, the course’s co-author and PSIA-AASI educational development specialist. “The course gives people interested in working as a ski, snowboard, adaptive, or nordic instructor a sense of what the job is like. People who take the course will also learn about PSIA-AASI’s student-centered approach which highlights and describes teaching considerations, such as the learning partnership and the experiential learning cycle.” She added that the course was created with the input of several ski and snowboard school directors, current information in the PSIA-AASI technical manuals, and with safety content from the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA).

The Course for New Instructors is organized into three modules: what to expect as an instructor, teaching principals, and job safety. Each module includes written, audio, and video content, and ends with a short quiz to test for understanding. The entire course takes approximately one hour to complete. Upon completion, the participant has the option to send a certificate to their snowsports school hiring manager.

“The Course for New Instructors is a huge milestone for our organization, diving into a new way we will be delivering educational programming not only to our members, but also to the industry,” says Nicholas Herrin, PSIA-AASI CEO. He explains this is the first e-learning course PSIA-AASI will offer, and that PSIA-AASI will launch more online courses to deliver educational and training content to people who want to learn and can use electronic devices, such as computers and phones, to do so. For example, there will eventually be a course to help instructors prepare for Level I alpine and snowboard certification, a course on PSIA’s 5 Fundamentals of Alpine Skiing, additional training for all disciplines, and much more. “Welcoming new instructors to our profession, and giving them more tools to succeed also strengthens our efforts to increase recruitment and retention for the entire snowsports industry.”

“The E-Learning Course for New Instructors is a resource to save time and get new hires up to speed before getting on the snow,” says Padilla Seubert. “It creates a foundation of learning so when your new hires show up for the first day of on snow training they already know about professionalism, teaching and learning, and on hill safety.”

This course can be found on www.thesnowpros.org, under Education > E-Learning.