What are the important skills needed to be an Outdoor Educator

What are the important skills needed to be an Outdoor Educator?

In my 25 Years of experience I can say the number one skills needed are technical skills, these are vital to ensure the overall safety of the group. For example being able to make sure we are at the right place all the time, ensuring everybody in the group has the right equipment, gear, food etc as it is important to be able to manage all the elements especially risk appropriately.

So many times I have come across groups that are out of their depth and are at risk of endangering the students. In this day and age there is no excuse for providers not training their staff to enable them to deal with all situations. Safety should be paramount at all times but unfortunately it seems greed has overtaken risk by some companies.

The second important skill I believe is to be a a good communicator. I am always mindful of speaking in a way that all my students can follow, no matter of their age, experience or background. I try to always be personable as it is essential to form a connection with the students and converse in a meaningful way.

The third is always have a contingency plan, we never know when we arrive at a trail or a climbing site if something may have changed it could be an environmental factor or maybe another group is climbing. Therefore having a back up plan is always essential. All too many times I have seen groups for example turn up at a caving site and still try to continue, even though there are several groups already there. This is potential for many hazards to arise but because they have it on their program they feel they must continue, putting all the groups at risk.

Our main responsibility is to facilitate our students learning experience empowering them to make choices in a safe and fun way. Watching the students grow throughout the week is truly inspiring and makes our jobs, I feel like the best job in the world.