Mountain Training
Mountain Training is the collection of awarding bodies for skills courses and qualifications in walking, climbing and mountaineering in the UK and Ireland.
Our Vision
A diverse and active outdoor society, supported by inspirational leaders, instructors and coaches.
Our Mission
To inspire, enable and develop people in walking, climbing and mountaineering through the provision of nationally and internationally recognised skills training and leadership qualifications.
Our Ethos
We believe in:
- The safe enjoyment of walking, climbing and mountaineering. We disseminate guidance on good practice and provide training and qualifications for participants, instructors, leaders and coaches.
- High quality training and assessment delivered by experienced and supportive practitioners.
- Developing independent walkers, climbers and mountaineers who practice and encourage, sustainable and sympathetic use of the outdoors by all users.
- Supporting equal access to our sport for people from all backgrounds. We also believe that all people have the potential to develop leadership and coaching skills if trained appropriately.
- Good leadership is about more than decision making and technical skill; it is about supporting and developing individuals.
- Inspiring people to enjoy walking, climbing and mountaineering with confidence and skill.
All of our nationally-recognised schemes are designed to educate and train people so that they can safely enjoy the climbing walls, crags, coast, hills and mountains of our beautiful country.
Our qualifications train and assess people to look after other people in these environments, whether that’s leading a walk in the mountains, coaching in a climbing wall or teaching multi pitch rock climbing. People who hold our qualifications have been assessed at a nationally agreed standard and may be volunteers, youth workers, outdoor instructors or teachers.
Courses are run by approved providers who are scattered all around the UK and Ireland. When you book onto a course, they’re the ones who will train and assess you, teach you how to climb, navigate, lead etc.
On a day to day basis, Mountain Training is run by a small staff team based in North Wales, Aviemore, Manchester and Dublin. There are also quite a few volunteers who represent the interests of outdoor and educational organisations and help to steer Mountain Training at a strategic level. Without these volunteers, we’d find it a lot harder to do what we do.
Mountain Training also provide:
- advice on safety in the outdoor industry
- a range of publications to support the awards, available from our shop
- opportunities for Continued Personal Development through the Mountain Training Association