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‘Ros had been a real ground breaker and visionary and the training had developed organically, driven by opportunities. The Green and Yellow Badge Qualifications were still fairly new and the Blue Badge Course was developing rapidly. It was time to separate the roles of Training Manager and Blue Badge Course Director, which Ros had performed simultaneously over a number of years prior to 2007. ‘I drafted a Scotland-wide modular guide training system with progression opportunities between the levels of qualifications. My dream was to have a regular schedule of regionally based and Scotland-wide co-ordinated Green Badge Courses in sync with the Blue Badge Course.
‘The modular guide training system compared the yellow, green and blue badge qualification and benchmarked them on the then new EN15565 Training Standard and the SCQF (Scottish Certification and Qualification Framework). ‘We also approached the Scottish Qualification Authority and were told that the tourist guide qualification, with less than 200 graduates per year, is a niche qualification and not worth investing £10,000 in getting SQA accredited. We were advised to become a self-accrediting body, which we could now do based on EN15565, the European Standard for the Training and Qualification of Tourist Guides.
In 2015 Mary Kemp Clarke resigned as Blue Badge Guide Course Leader and Anne Robertson and Alison Reid took up the mantle as joint course directors for the new 2015- 2016 course. ‘After my time as training manager the Blue Badge Course was one of the first courses to also obtain WFTGA accreditation as an additional seal of quality,’ Mary said. ‘Even though the modular guide training system wasn’t implemented at the time, it might yet be revived in some shape or form here in Scotland. Meanwhile, I have shared the modular training system paper with many colleagues world-wide and it is currently being considered by the Danish Tourist Guide Association.’
Viola also oversaw the recruitment and assessment for Green and Blue Badge Courses and responded to enquiries for Yellow Badge Courses. ‘I’m very proud of the first and so far only ‘rainbow graduation’ ceremony at the Scottish Parliament in 2008 – graduates of all badges were present or acknowledged, if they couldn’t travel the distance,’ Viola said. ‘Having worked as a guide for City Sightseeing Glasgow whilst I was training to become a Blue Badge Guide, I was able to encourage the company to consider Yellow Badge Training. City Sightseeing Glasgow still is one of STGA’s long-standing Yellow Badge partners.
‘During my time as Training Manager,’ she continued ‘we enhanced the recruitment process for the Blue Badge Course by devising a structured selection and interview process and significantly increased the number of people we interviewed. Personal attributes are paramount for a tourist guide and we wanted to allow applicants to convince us of their passion for the profession. Together with the University of Edinburgh we re-shaped the introductory course to make it a two-way selection and self-evaluation tool for STGA and participants.’
Viola also created a ‘rather large’ Training Committee which met frequently in the hope that knowledge, skills and work were shared, and an atmosphere was built, in which the STGA Training system could flourish and become more sustainable. ‘In the early years, knowledge had been concentrated in a few minds, which was okay then, but is not good practice for any growing organisation. Another major milestone was the development of an assessment and appeals procedure to safeguard both candidates of the STGA Membership Exams and STGA Trainers. One important pillar in this procedure was timely dissemination of information to course participants and the STGA Trainer Team. There shouldn’t be any surprises in the membership exam.
‘What we now take for granted was not always the case. It took effort and time to communicate the benefits of adopting the EN15565 Training Standard. I drew up a schematic overview of the Standard, which not only contributed to EN15565 being adopted by the STGA Board, but also helped the Office Manager to negotiate a significant discount for members’ professional liability and public indemnity insurances. The insurance companies saw the breadth and depth of our training. This schematic overview of EN15565 is now used in Tourist Guide Training worldwide and it also helped me gain my FEG Trainer Qualification.
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