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Chapter 10
The Evolution of Guide Training
The courses for training Scottish Tourist Guides have changed hugely since the STGA’s inception in 1959. Right from the start courses were run in Edinburgh and Glasgow in association with the Scottish Tourist Board. In 1967 the Glasgow branch took responsibility for running its own course after STB withdrew its support. In the 1970s trainees had to take a six-month course at weekends and a couple of evenings during the week and had to pass an exam which tested history, geography and general knowledge. During that decade The Scottish Tourist Board dropped out of its involvement in training and the branches took over working alongside the extra mural departments of Glasgow and Edinburgh universities.
Inge Wanless who qualified in 1976 recalls that there was a high failure rate in her year. ‘Languages were tested at the end and some were not so proficient in their foreign language. This was later changed to a language test at the beginning of the course.
By the 1980s Anne Lister was in charge of the training in Edinburgh. Glasgow had its own separate course with the core knowledge side led by historian Innes McLeod who was not a guide.’
Blue badge guides Margaret Houston and Jay Wright were also involved in training in Glasgow. Anne Lister also started organising training in Dundee and Aberdeen in the 1980s.
All the courses were run in association with the Extra Mural departments of local universities which focused on core subjects such as history.
Ros Newlands, who qualified in 1983, did her course partly at the University of Edinburgh Extra Mural Department and the trainers from STGA were Anne Lister, Elizabeth Seaton, and Jean Duncan.
‘Elizabeth was always very willing to help new guides and to share her knowledge and love of Scotland,’ said Ros. ‘As a trainee guide in 1982, I remember one of our number asking her prior to a walking tour ‘What will happen if it rains?’ Elizabeth replied: ‘You will get wet; guides are impervious to weather! Elizabeth died in 2002 in her 83rd year.
‘We had to attend evening classes twice a week, Tuesday and Thursdays, from October through to early spring,’ said Ros. There were 30 of us on the course. On weekends we went out on coach trips and walking tours. We did Edinburgh, Fife, the Borders and paid a very brief visit to Glasgow and we were assessed on each of those places. ‘I remember, particularly, being assessed on Fife,’ she recalled. ‘I had to talk on the section from St Andrews to Anstruther and went the weekend before with my husband Phil to learn it all.
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