|
When you're participating in hazardous
activities it makes sense to ensure that the people you're entrusting your life
to are properly trained, qualified and (where necessary) registered. How do you
do that?
Training and instruction
If you want to do a recreational mountaineering-related course the best place to
check is with the MDT. They accredit trainers for rock-climbing (which includes
abseiling) and for mountain walking (or hiking). You can check on their website
and see what the level of training/qualification is for anyone who is offering
climbing, abseiling or hiking training. If you want to do a course that follows
and MDT syllabus or results in an MDT certificate then you can also check that
the person offering the training is MDT accredited to offer MDT training /
assessments.
Adventure Activities
If someone's going to be leading an activity (eg: taking your school group
abseiling) then you can check on their qualifications with either the MDT or
with THETA (who administer the Tourism and Guiding part of the NQF, including
adventure-guiding qualifications).
Qualifying as a guide
If you want to become a mountain guide operating in South Africa you will need
to gain both a generic guiding qualification (which every tour guide needs). and
specialist mountain guiding qualifications (unit-standards). The only
qualifications / unit standards acceptable for registration as a mountain guide
in SA are SAQA unit standards issued by THETA, either as individual standards or
as part of a Skills Programme / Learning Programme. This means that although you
can acquire these skills in any way you like, you can only be assessed by an
accredited assessor. You can check your assessor's status through THETA. The
company or organisation offering the assessment must also be registered with
THETA . (If you want to check on our accreditation status, look under 'Adventure
Qualifications Network', which we form part of for NQF training and
assessments)
Mountain Guides
How you can check on mountain guides:
-
The
MDT or
AQN will be able to tell you if someone's qualified to conduct the
activity.
-
Check with
THETA that the person has the required qualifications to register as a
guide.
-
Your provincial tourism registrar will
be able to tell you whether your guide is registered.
-
The quickest option is to ask your guide
to show you their registration card. The back of this card will list what
activities and/or areas they are permitted to guide.
For a detailed description of guiding legally and how to
become a legal guide, download the following pdf document on the subject.
How to be a Legal Professional Guide PDF (399kb)
The above text thanx to:
www.sml.co.za
| 
