Ski Instructor Training Industry Receives Trans-Tasman Boost (08-Feb-10)

Lake Wanaka, New Zealand, Feb 8, 2010 - New Zealand's longest running

New Zealand’s longest running independent ski instructor training programme, The Rookie Academy, has seen a 150% increase in Australian clients for the 2010. 

In direct response to the current economical situation university graduates are putting their careers on hold due to a shortage of jobs. Instead they are coming to New Zealand, qualifying as a ski or snowboard instructor and traveling the world working in international resorts while they wait for the economy to pick up.

Director of The Rookie Academy, Garret Shore said Australians are choosing to qualify in New Zealand as the Academy, which is based at Treble Cone, is the only training facility in the Southern Hemisphere that provides New Zealand (NZSIA), Canadian (CSIA) and UK (BASI) qualifications, allowing them to teach anywhere in the world, and it provides a quicker route to qualifying.

“To qualify in Australia, students have to go through an internship with a ski school while in New Zealand they can achieve the same result with just training,” he said. “Through our extensive instructor referral scheme, they can then go to the Northern Hemisphere to teach and log lesson time.”

Australians have been heading to Canada for many years to do similar courses. However, they have now realised that by attending The Rookie Academy at Treble Cone they can achieve their CSIA, go on to work the long Canadian winter and then circulate back to Australia with both qualifications and experience. 

Each year The Rookie Academy at Treble Cone, near Wanaka, trains over 100 students and employs 20 trainers to cater to all the different options available. Both directors Shaw and Dean Hunter actively work for the NZSIA as examiners and trainers and have taught throughout Canada, USA, Japan and Europe.