It's great outdoors

CAREER in outdoor education is not for the squeamish or faint hearted. Applicants to the outdoor education foundation, course at Colaiste Dhulaigh, Dublin, are expected to be in good health and ready to take part in a range of sporting activities.

"It's a very tough life," says Eamon Burke, co ordinator of the course's first year and head of canoeing throughout. "We look for people who are prepared to get cold and wet, who like working with young people and with groups of people."

About 80 per cent of the students who do the course at Colaiste Dhulaigh's Shackleton Centre begin directly after their Leaving Cert. Others may have spent a year working in an outdoor centre and decided they want to learn more.

Apart from having achieved at least five passes in the Leaving Cert, students must also be able to swim. Demand for places is high and a lot of emphasis is placed on the interview. Last year the school interviewed 150 candidates and offered between 35 and 40 places. There are 24 students in first year.

"We try to get a very mixed group," Burke says. "Ideally we like to have people from different social backgrounds, from urban and rural areas and we try to have a 50 50 male/female mix. The course has been running far 15 years and it has worked for us.

The emphasis, he says, is on students' ability to work well with young people. "We are really looking at the personality of the students and at their interest in outdoor education," he explains.

A foundation course in outdoor education is what some young people may opt for before they go, on to college. However, many are looking for a career in the adventure sports industry the Colaiste Dhulaigh course acts as a stepping, stone. Graduates can go on to work at one of the many leisure centres around the country.

There are between 40 and 50 such centres in Ireland today, including 18 owned by the VECs, and they are "still blossoming", Burke says.

Some graduates of the course transfer to colleges in Britain to study for a degree in outdoor education.

First year students in the two year foundation course are introduced to a variety of adventure sports canoeing, sailing, wind surfing and hill walking. The course concentrates on developing leaders and instructors students can develop such skills in a range of sports. They are prepared for exams in each outdoor activity during the course, and are then examined through the college and certified by the various national sporting bodies. Students on this PLC course can also expect to receive NCVA accreditation.

The course also covers safety, the legal side of the business, maths, navigation and environmental studies. A small number of students choose to do a third year in order to become specialists in centre management some of these return after a few years elsewhere to do the third year, after which they get a diploma in outdoor education.

Burke says that applicants, whatever their ultimate goal or ambition, benefit from the course. Ex students have gone on to become gadai, boat builders, trainers with FAS, workers in specialist sports shops and instructors or managers in outdoor pursuits centres.

Simon Evans, an outdoor pursuits instructor at the Cappanalea Outdoor Education Centre near Killorglin, Co Kerry, is a recent pupil.

"There were so many different activities," he says. "I came down here to Cappanalea for the summer between first and second year and when I finished I came down to work." He teaches rock climbing, absailing, wind surfing and canoeing, while he pursues a specialisation in orienteering.

There were 20 in Evans's group at Colaiste Dhulaigh, he recalls. "We spent two days in the college each week doing theory mountain navigation, workshops, first aid basic leisure management. It was excellent."