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meant that I might not need to do the whole STGA course,” Margaret said. ‘His reply was two-fold - you must do the whole course which won't start for another year, but meantime I can use you in this department. One odd result of this was that on one occasion the following year I taught a class including Bette and Aileen as students and at the end of the lecture went to the other side of the desk as a student on the STGA course.’ Margaret was on the 1992-93 course in Glasgow which had 30 participants. ‘Twenty seven qualified but some never guided for a number of reasons but a core of us
are still guiding,’ said Margaret.
‘Nineteen of the thirty STGA training class of '92-'93 met for a 21st anniversary lunch at Oran Mor in 2014. Others had been contacted but were not free to come and sent their best wishes, yet others had not been contactable. It was amazing how some whom we have not met for some years have not changed at all!! It was a lively occasion with the same camaraderie and jokes which sustained us all those years ago! We hope to meet up again but will not wait 21 years to do so!’ Margaret added.
In 1993 the STGA advertised for a Course Director to develop and run a revised Training course to be mainly centred on Edinburgh in the winter of 1994/5. Ros Newlands got the job and successfully ran the course which had 60 applicants and 37 were eventually offered places on it. Thirty five guides received their blue badges on 30 May 1995.
Joan Dobbie was a student in the class of 1995 which was the only course ever run with only language speakers. Nobody would have got a place with just English. ‘This meant we were very international and on average the age of student was much younger than some other courses,’ said Joan. ‘The languages covered included Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish and Swiss/ German. Strangely enough all of the Spanish speakers came from the West and we travelled through twice a week - Tuesday and Thursday evenings - and every other Saturday to Buccleuch Place for a year. Thirty five guides received their Blue Badges on 30 May 1995 from Lady Sam Fairbairn, the wife of the former Solicitor General Sir Nicholas Fairbairn.’
Over in Glasgow the class of 1995/6 studied at Strathclyde University, Glasgow, under the directorship of Blue Badge Guides Jennifer Hutton Ryley and Evelyn Tiefenbrun. Sue Gruellich recalls: ‘There were 40 of us on the course and the majority had a second language. The course ran from October to May, two nights a week and some weekends. The cost was £1000 and I took out a development loan to cover the cost, even though I was working full-time at the time at Napier University in administration. When I asked at interview how quickly I could recoup my investment I was told 10 days - at that time our daily fee was fixed at £100! I drew a line under my list of invoices when I reached that point and have enjoyed the benefit of that investment ever since!’
Despite the success of its courses it was getting clear in the 1990s that the STGA faced a major challenge from rival trainers of guides. Christine Wade, who headed the STGA training committee, said that, in the 1960s and 1970s, tourist guiding was not regarded as an occupation where one could expect to earn a full time living. By the 1990s the world had changed. Tourism was now a mainstream industry and people expected to make a living from tourist guiding. As a result, colleges and universities saw training as a money maker. The STGA was no longer the only, nor the major, provider of training for tourist guides in Scotland. Christine warned that unless the STGA took action it was likely to be side-lined. Her concerns were among many which led to the replacement of an informal national body, with representatives from its various branches, into a national company limited by guarantee. The new company structure in 1996 allowed it to approach official bodies for help and assistance which it could not have done as an unincorporated body. It was now recognised by local enterprise organisations and the Scottish Office as the professional body for tourist guides and tourist guide training in Scotland.
Ros Newlands oversaw a new training programme which launched in 1997. ‘We thought we would try to do something different, and that was to run a course throughout Scotland, through a form of distance learning, but allowing people to attend classes in their own area,’ she said. ‘So, we worked with the universities of Aberdeen, Strathclyde, Edinburgh, and
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