Guide Training – Certification Award
Award Scheme Documents
- Award Scheme and Minimum Requirements (ver 4.1 )
- Safety Craft Award Scheme (ver 4.1)
- Inline Raft Award Scheme (ver 4.1)
- Raft Award Scheme (ver 4.1)
- Recommended Minimum Content for a Guide Training Program: English / French / Spanish
- Content of Safety Craft Training Program (SCTP
THE INTENTIONS OF THE AWARD SCHEME
The intentions of the award scheme are to provide a means of recognising guides, trip leaders and instructors that meet internationally accepted standards. The Awards have been designed to complement existing requirements, regulations and laws worldwide by giving a structure to their common elements.
Additionally, the scheme is intended to provide an internationally recognised structure for the professional development of guides.
IRF AWARD SCHEME HISTORY
In September 1998 the GT&E committee took on the relatively straightforward task of defining the basic requirements for rafting guides that over time and through constant interaction have become widely and generally accepted worldwide. Once defined, these requirements were intended to provide the basis for a) recommendations on the training and recognition of guides for all those that are involved in or have an impact on the industry, particularly government regulators, and b) a system by which guides could be recognized worldwide.
The first documents were drafted and circulated for comment to guides and instructors around the world. In August 1999 these drafts were further reviewed and discussed at a workshop held. The final versions were agreed upon and the resulting documents, subject to periodic review, are published here.
More details: Considering the worldwide trend towards the regulation of guides of adventure activities, including rafting, the formulation of recommendations was considered both timely and necessary if the drafting of inappropriate regulation (which already exists in some countries) was to be avoided. Additionally, many guides would benefit from holding an internationally recognized award for having satisfied the established requirements. To this end the IRF website features a jobs board where guides seeking work and companies seeking guides can register.
The first document “Recommended Minimum Requirements for Guides” was drafted and circulated for comment to guides and instructors in Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, USA, Wales and Zimbabwe. The subsequent documents, “Recommended Minimum Content for a Guide Training Program”, “Guide Training and Education Award Scheme”, and “Guide Training and Education Award Scheme Assessment Guidelines”, went through a similar process that lasted several months. In August 1999 the drafts resulting from the process of consultation were further reviewed and discussed at a workshop held near the Augrabies Gorge of the Orange river in north eastern South Africa. The final versions were agreed upon by twenty representatives from Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Croatia, England, Scotland, South Africa, USA, Wales, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The resulting documents, subject to periodic review, are published on the IRF website in English, Spanish and French.
At the Augrabies workshop the first group of IRF Instructors was qualified according to the newly finalized Award Scheme. Within the Scheme Instructors have the dual role of training new guides and examining candidates for the Guide and the Trip Leader awards. Since Augrabies, Instructor workshops have been held in Costa Rica (Pacuare river, October 1999 & 2000), Chile (Petrohue river, March 2000) and France (Dranses river, October 2000). A list of the guides, trip leaders, instructors and assessors qualified under the Award Scheme can be found on the IRF website.
For further information on the IRF Award Scheme, upcoming examinations and Instructor workshops please keep a check on this site.
UPDATE
The Award Scheme was updated in July 2005, May 2007 and December 2009.
The main changes of 2007 was that we created the entry levels for the As named as Trainee Guide and the additional class 2 level. In 2009 at the GT&E meeting held in Bosnia at the World Rafting Championships new certifications were introduced, such as “inline-raft” and “safety crafter”. The GT&E Committee modified and finalised the new IRF GT&E Award Scheme by the end of December 2009. Fined the actual version 4.1 of the Award Scheme documents at the top of this page.
