How to influence decision making at Mountain Training

First off, it’s worth highlighting that ‘Mountain Training’ is actually a brand, rather than a legal entity. It represents six national organisations who are officially the awarding bodies of our qualifications: Mountain Training Cymru, Mountain Training England, Mountain Training Scotland, Mountain Training UK, Mountain Training Northern Ireland and Bord Oiliunt Sleibhe (these last two have agreed to form an all-Ireland Mountain Training organisation which will be created in 2018). In 2014 we celebrated 50 years of Mountain Training – a real achievement and a testament to everyone who’s been involved in helping the organisations adapt and develop over the years.

These separate national bodies exist to assure the quality of our course delivery, promote our schemes within each nation and access funding from the relevant sports council for development projects, among other things. (An article on how we are funded will be published on 25th October.) They work very closely together on ‘global projects’ so that all Mountain Training candidates can benefit from our collective experience.

Work for us

Our staff team is based across five offices: Aviemore, Capel Curig, Manchester, Tollymore and Dublin. As with any other business, occasionally we recruit new members of staff and any available positions will be advertised on the News area of our website.

Some positions require technical climbing, mountaineering, walking and instructional experience whilst some are administrative and require other specialist skills. Regardless of the role, we’re always looking for individuals who can work within our community of like-minded people and who appreciate the beautiful places in which we work and the importance of what we do.

Volunteer for us

Each national Mountain Training organisation is governed by its members and its non-executive directors.

The members are representatives from numerous stakeholder organisations (full list below) and their role is to help set the overall strategic direction of the organisations. The members meet three times a year in what are best described as ‘council meetings’ and part of their role is to appoint the non-executive directors.

If you are involved with any of our stakeholder organisations and you want to influence decision making then make contact with the person who attends the council meetings on your behalf. Council meeting attendees are representing an organisation and it’s often the same person who attends each meeting. There may even be scope for you to become your organisation’s representative - this is a matter for each stakeholder organisation.

The non-executive directors are independent individuals who are legally responsible for a particular national Mountain Training organisation. Each group of non-executive directors has a slightly different make up and they meet quarterly. Non-executive directors may perform a particular role, for example Chair or Treasurer.

Non-executive director positions become available periodically and always require personal experience in a particular field such as finance, management, marketing or fundraising, as well as an understanding of our schemes. Vacant positions will be advertised on the News area of our website. The roles are voluntary but travel expenses to meetings are covered by the appropriate national Mountain Training organisation.

Stakeholder organisations

• Association of British Climbing Training Trust (ABCTT)
• Association of Heads of Outdoor Education Centres (AHOEC)
• Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI)
• Association for Physical Education (AfPE)
• British Association of International Mountain Leaders (BAIML)
• British Mountaineering Council (BMC)
• British Mountain Guides (BMG)
• Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE)
• Joint Services Mountain Training Centre (JSMTC)
• Joint Services Mountain Training Wing (JSMTW)
• Girlguiding
• Glenmore Lodge National Mountain Centre
• Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL)
• Mountaineering Ireland
• Mountain Rescue England & Wales
• Mountain Rescue Scotland
• Mountain Training Association (MTA)
• Mountaineering Scotland
• Outdoor Education Advisers’ Panel (OEAP)
• Plas y Brenin National Mountain Centre
• Ramblers Cymru
• Ramblers England
• Ramblers Scotland
• Scouts
• Tollymore National Mountain Centre

Give us feedback

It’s important to us that our schemes are effective and suitable for the needs of the end users. We review all of our qualifications, either singly or as a collective pathway, regularly and these reviews are great opportunities to let us know what you think. If we’re not conducting a review and you’d like to share your thoughts, please email info@mountain-training.org.