Katie has finished her A-levels, and has decided to take a Gap Year before taking up her place at Bristol University, England to study primary school teaching. She has now successfully passed her BASI Level One exam, and is currently training hard for her Level Two. Asked if she thinks that participating in the course is something that universities or prospective employers would look favourably upon, she enthusiastically agrees.
“It’s an extremely valuable experience,” she says. “It shows that you are committed and willing to go one step further to learn something new. It builds your self-assurance, and it enables you to meet many new people while showing that you are able to deal responsibly with adults and children of all ages with confidence.”
The course itself is intense to say the least. Gappies hit the slopes at 9am sharp and finish at 4pm before rounding their day off with a one-hour video debrief and lecture. They have a sixty-minute lunch break at midday, and two ten-minute coffee breaks morning and afternoon. Katie advises any potential Altitude Futures skiers to gain a “suitable level of fitness” in order to be able to deal with the very active nature of the course.
Training for your BASI Level One exam generally involves skiing on the piste. The main focus is The Central Theme, which assesses how the participants would go about teaching different styles. Katie describes how they had to individually prepare, deliver and evaluate a twenty-minute teaching session directed at the rest of their group. This covered such things as: introductory activities (a warm-up), sliding, the snowplough, snowplough turns, plough parallel and parallel turns.
In preparation for the Level Two exam, the students continue to look at The Central Theme, but this time the lessons that they prepare for the rest of the group are up to50 minutes long. The focus has now shifted to more advanced problems such as: variables, steeps, short turns, long turns, carving, bumps and the dreaded mogul runs (sections of snow with large raised lumps, carved out by over-eager skiers).
Another important part of the Level Two preparation is to shadow qualified instructors during lessons. These can range from three-year-olds to adults of varying abilities. Katie has enjoyed developing her teaching skills but adds ruefully, “Taking seven three-year-olds for a hot chocolate can be an experience, as most of it ends up everywhere—around their mouths and on the floor.”
However, the Gappies do get well-deserved breaks. They have every weekend off to do what they please, and some Wednesday mornings. When asked what she and her friends get up to at the weekend, Katie laughs, “Sometimes they relax, but most of the time they ski.”
It certainly sounds like they work and play hard.