Plas y Brenin National Outdoor Centre, Saturday 9th November, 2019
Summary of the meeting of Mountain Training United Kingdom & Ireland
Eleven representatives from mountaineering councils and national Mountain Training organisations met for their third meeting of 2019. They were supported by ten advisers and three members of MTUKI’s Executive Board. This was the first meeting under the organisation’s revised title of Mountain Training United Kingdom and Ireland.
Notable decisions and actions are as follows:
- With the exception of reviewing the pathway to the Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor (MCI) scheme, the Climbing Awards Review is now complete. The timing of the MCI pathway review will next be considered in June 2020, one year after the launch of the Rock Climbing Development Instructor.
- The scope of the current Mountain Training Walking Schemes Review was agreed and the survey being conducted with stakeholders and providers was noted.
- A Leadership and Decision Making model was agreed that will now be incorporated into our Walking Scheme Review. This model has been developed alongside ones for British Cycling and British Canoeing with assistance from Glenmore Lodge’s Chief Instructor Doug Cooper and Dr Samantha McElligott.
- Members had asked for a web page providing information and links to resources focused on health and wellbeing, which is now complete and will be live soon.
- Members received reports on registration figures for all schemes and were pleased to see an overall rise of 6% compared to the previous twelve months. Feedback from candidates on all training courses was also received with a small rise in the satisfaction rating for our training courses from 89%- 95% being extremely satisfied. During the quarter MTUKI had also effectively completed one appeal against an assessment result and one formal complaint.
- Following a successful Director recruitment process, supported by a Nominations Committee the Members and Directors appointed Lucy Vincent as the sixth Director of MTUKI.
- Members had a useful presentation from Adventuresmart UK and discussions were ongoing with individual MTUKI Member organisations regarding its application.
- MTUKI launched its report on ‘Developing excellence in outdoor provision’, which had been developed in partnership with members of the Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance at Bangor University. Will Hardy and Dr Ross Roberts lead discussions on the practical applications of this three year co-funded research project, which while endorsing the Mountain Training delivery model (register, train, consolidate and assess) emphasised the need for effective signposting for specific qualifications and the range of support mechanisms to enable more candidates to successfully complete their chosen qualification. Read the report.
Date and place of 2020 meetings: Saturday 21 March – Glenmore Lodge, Saturday 27 June – Tollymore, Saturday 7 November – Plas y Brenin.