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Strategic Development Plan2017-2021
Our Vision, Mission and Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Who we are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The challenge ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Key Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1
Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 9
Appendix 1 Qualification Pathways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1
Appendix 2 Income & Expenditure 2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3
Appendix 3 Registrations 2000 - 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5
Appendix 4 Stakeholder Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 6
Lifelong, healthy participation in climbing, hillwalking and mountaineering for all.
Mountain Training England aims to inspire, enable and develop people in walking, climbing and mountaineering through the provision of leadership and coaching excellence.
Our values define how we approach our work. These values influence what we are trying to achieve and how we expect our award holders to operate.
We believe in the transformational power of the mountains and mountain sports. We believe that a core role of our work is to expand participants’ horizons, developing their confidence and independence through inspirational educational experiences.
We work to establish and promote good practice and standards of performance for all our candidates. We do this by creating and delivering quality assured training and assessment schemes that are of a consistently high standard.
We believe in the importance of being able to manage one’s self and others independently in hazardous environments. The correct balance between risk, reward and responsibility is the key calculation of any leader in walking, climbing and mountaineering.
We believe that people from all backgrounds should have access to our sport and that most people have the potential to develop leadership and coaching skills if trained appropriately. We expect all our leaders and coaches to support others to realise their potential.
We believe that all leaders and coaches should be open, honest, transparent and reliable in their approach to the people they lead and influence. We believe they should also promote a sustainable and educational approach to both the environment and the community in which they work.
We encourage all our candidates and award holders to pursue excellence in their development. We believe that leadership is about more than technical skill; it’s about supporting and inspiring others.
Note: The term ‘leaders and coaches’ is used to cover the full range of leader titles including instructor, supervisor and guide.
We currently train and accredit leaders and coaches through six award schemes. These are the:
• Lowland Leader (LL) • Hill and Moorland Leader (HML) • Mountain Leader (ML) • Single Pitch Award (SPA)• Climbing Wall Award (CWA)• Climbing Wall Leading Award (CWLA)
The schemes are recognised by the Department for Education and the Adventure Activity Licensing Authority and are regulated by Ofqual. The Board currently approves around 150 providers to deliver these schemes. Since 1964 MTE has registered over 163,000 candidates on all its schemes.
We also administer two skills training courses throughout England:
• Hill Skills• Mountain Skills
In addition to administering these schemes MTE also has the following roles:
• Close cooperation with Mountain Training UK and other national Mountain Training boards• Quality control and networking of approved providers • Providing support for candidates undertaking the schemes• Further developing award holders through the Mountain Training Association• Providing advice and guidance outside Mountain Training’s own formal awards structure• Working closely with the BMC in matters relating to formal and informal mountain training• Liaison with other organisations to further our aims and offer advice
In 1964 The Mountain Leader Training Board (MLTB) was set up by the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) and the Central Council for Physical Recreation (CCPR) to provide nationally recognised schemes of training and assessment for leaders of groups participating in mountain and hill walking and rock climbing. In 2003 the name of the organisation was changed to Mountain Leader Training England (MLTE) and in 2012 the name was again changed to Mountain Training England.
Mountain Training England (MTE) is owned and directed by itsmembers who are drawn from a wide range of stakeholder organisations based in England (see appendix 4). A Board of Directors is charged with the operational management of MTE by the Members. The Board comprises a group of volunteer Non-Executive Directors and a BMC Observer. A staff team lead by the Executive Officer manages theday-to-day business of the organisation.
We work closely with Mountain Training UK and the other national training boards. We collectively promote ourselves to the public under the brand name ‘Mountain Training’. The following strategies have been developed in coordination with Mountain Training UK in particular and many of the projects will be shared with MTUK and the other national Mountain Training boards.
Mountain Training England’s impact is delivered through the leaders and coaches that it trains and develops. The 2016 Mountain Training Association member survey found that its members who are award holders led or coached an average of 249 participants per year. In this year MTE awarded 1503 pass results for new award holders (675 for walking and 828 for climbing). This equates to an impact of 373,500 additional participants. Many award holders remain active in leadership and coaching for much of their lives but if we take 5 years as a conservative average, this indicates that there would be around 7500 active award holders working with participants each year.
We want to make a positive and lasting impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of people by encouraging wider participation in climbing and hillwalking. We will achieve this through our leaders and coaches who work with the full range of participants in England. It is their skill and dedication that will inspire, enable and develop people in their climbing, hillwalking and mountaineering.
The outdoor sector has changed greatly over the last 15 years. Traditional outdoor centres and school based outdoor education programmes have been in decline - whereas freelance instruction, indoor climbing centres and commercial provision have all grown. There has also been a shift towards more developmental work with the rise of coaching in climbing and the growth of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and overseas youth expeditions. Mountain Training England will adapt to these changes to stay relevant to these shifting trends (see appendix 3).
To achieve our vision we need to develop the leaders and coaches of the future. We want to broaden and increase participation through them. To do this we will need to widen our recruiting base whilst equipping our coaches and leaders with an even wider range of skills. We will need to review and develop our qualification schemes and their pathways to keep them as relevant and accessible as possible to these candidates. We will need to train, support and assess these more diverse candidates with more diverse skills in more diverse ways. Great leaders and coaches help keep people active within sport if they focus on the needs and goals of the individual rather than purely technical demands.
We therefore need to reach out beyond our traditional markets for candidates and promote a wider public awareness of the opportunities we offer. To harness the energy and talent of the modern climbing and walking populations we will need to work with new strategic partners and develop innovative pathways with them. We need to emphasise the wider developmental role our leaders and coaches can have and equip them with the leadership and teaching skills required to fulfil this role.
To achieve our mission we need to secure our financial future. Mountain Training England needs to investigate and develop commercial income streams, thereby becoming less reliant on public funding. We can become more responsive to participants’ needs by offering products, services and initiatives that support and encourage their active habits whilst doing this.
Finally we need a governance structure that has access to all the skills required to guide the organisation into this exciting future of opportunities - with the right balance of vision, prudence and business acumen.
I’ve recently retired after working as a midwife in the NHS for 23 years. I’m now helping my partner set up an ecological camp site in Dorset near Bridport. With the new venture I hope to help people have a great holiday with their loved ones and family.
I want to be able to take walking groups out in the beautiful Dorset countryside. We don’t have any mountains in Dorset, but we do have the fantastic Jurassic Coast.
During the training course I’ve really enjoyed meeting lots of outdoorsy people from cavers to Mountain Leaders.
Once I’ve completed the Lowland Leader course I want to lead walks from the camp site. I’m very interested in the links between mental and physical health and I like to incorporate mindfulness techniques into walks.
I would say, go with a friend, who might be four-legged! Dress for the weather. Start low, go uphill at the start, come downhill at the end and if you can finish near a teashop or pub, so much the better.
When the instructors at my climbing centre asked me if I wanted to try out something they were calling NICAS I became so excited that there would be structure to my climbing sessions. At that time climbing was my secret world away from school and even from that age I knew it was all I wanted to do as I grew up.
Determined to follow what I loved, I went on to get a first class degree in outdoor education and a range of Mountain Training qualifications. Now I’m studying a Masters in Outdoor Education alongside a Diploma in Counselling and have finished a two year contract with Outward Bound Hong Kong. I now hope to inspire others to grow through adventure sports by starting my own outdoor adventure company.
With the excitement of the 2020 Olympics introducing climbing it’s a celebration of how far climbing has come, not just climbing but outdoor education as well. I am still so grateful to those years I spent at my climbing centre and the growth in confidence it gave me.
Since 2011 Heidi has completed her CWA, SPA, ML, and CWLA.
In order for MTE to achieve its mission of inspiring, enabling and developing people as walkers, climbers and mountaineers, we have identified four main objectives to be pursued at the four fundamental levels of the organisation’s operations.
We will conduct a full review of our governance procedures to become fully relevant, secure and effective in today’s regulatory and economic climate. We shall seek to further enhance the governance and effectiveness of the organisation by developing partnerships and collaborating with stakeholder organisations. We recognise that a wide range of ‘activator’ and ‘provider’ organisations have a key part to play in order to help us achieve our aims.
• Strengthen our governance system by auditing our
procedures against the Sport England/UK Sport’s Code for Sports Governance and implement changes that this review highlights.
• Enhance our Board of Directors by appointing independent Non-Executive Directors. We shall perform annual skills audits of the Board and provide training for directors where needed.
• Develop our risk register and subsequent policies to control risks in areas such as safeguarding, business continuity and incident management.
• Seek to diversify our Board so that it can represent the backgrounds of all participants in our activities.
• Ensure sustainable income for our core work through increased registrations and seek funding from Sport England for 2017-21 to support our development plans.
• Review and develop new income streams. We will seek to increase revenue through: a) external funding, fundraising and sponsorship, b) developing awards and services for our customer base and the wider market, and c) developing our current business model to candidates.
• Develop an integrated youth development strategy
with partner organisations including the BMC and ABC Training Trust.
• Develop partnerships with ‘activator’ organisations that will encourage greater participation in our award schemes by developing new pathways into them.
• Hold a conference of wider stakeholders to further promote our work and explore partnerships with other organisations.
Maintain sound financial health having created additional income streams.
Be financially independent, being able to cover all operational costs from our own income.
Have a fully integrated public facing relationship with the BMC through its website, magazine and social media.
Increase the number of national ‘activator’ organisations that become MTE Providers or who directly recruit candidates for MTE schemes.
To have directors on the Executive Committee who represent the diversity of our candidates.
To adhere to nationally recognised standards of governance.
Increase total annual income by 20% by 2021.
Have a balanced budget for all operational costs entirely supported by own income by 2021.
Achieve an established presence on the BMC website and Summit magazine by 2018.
Have a minimum of 5 independent national organisations directly recruiting for or providing Mountain Training England courses by 2021.
Minimum 30% of directors being female and minimum 25% being independent by 2018.
Governance standards fully conform to Tier 2 of the Sport England/UK Sport Code for Sports Governance by 2019.
Our providers are the cornerstone of our organisation. We will support and enhance their teaching and coaching skills, giving them the resources they need to do this. We will continue to develop and deliver rigorous quality assurance systems, so that we have even greater standards of consistency in the delivery of our award schemes. We will encourage the development of a creative and reflective community of practice amongst our providers, thereby creating a network of excellence. We will strive to provide the best customer support through our office staff and candidate management system.
• Review the contract and fee structure, benchmarking
this against other sports, with an aim to create the most effective arrangement for both MTE and its providers.
• Support our providers through the provision of branding, publicity, training resources, the candidate management system, updates and newsletters.
• Seek to improve provider training standards through: - Providing update workshops with additional training
- The development of a community of practice through regional training meetings and a national conference of providers - Further developing leadership, training and assessing skills - Requiring safeguarding training where appropriate - Requiring mandatory professional association membership
• Continue to develop the skills of the moderator team through training workshops.
• Continue to moderate our providers through our moderation programme and investigate ways to expand quality assurance for all our course directors on both walking and climbing awards. To achieve this development we will investigate and develop peer to peer observation systems.
• Continue the work required to have all our awards recognised by OFQUAL. We shall review the OFQUAL compliance process with a full cost/benefit analysis.
• Continue to develop our office organisation, upgrades
to our IT systems and candidate management system so as to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of our operations.
• Review staffing levels required to service work commitments (such as the climbing awards review) and recruit temporary or permanent staff as appropriate.
• Continue to review our management structure and coordination with the other national Mountain Training boards to provide the most effective service for delivering Mountain Training aims across the UK.
• Commit to providing ongoing training for all staff.
Increase and improve provider resources which will be used on Mountain Training England courses.
Improve course quality and the candidate experience – as measured by online quantitative customer satisfaction surveys.
Increase moderation of courses using peer to peer observation and self- assessment systems.
Increase training standards on our courses.
Develop leadership training for our providers and award holders.
Produce a minimum of one e-learning module, one guidance document and one training film to support providers by 2021.
Establish a baseline and increase customer satisfaction scores by 10% by 2021.
All course directors to receive moderation, peer to peer observation or self- assessment every 3 years by 2021.
All course directors to be members of a professional association by 2019, meeting their CPD requirements.
All new course directors to hold a teaching/ coaching qualification or have relevant CPD in delivery skills by 2021.
All course directors to have attended one update workshop every 3 years by 2019.
We will run a minimum of 4 workshops per year, training over 200 participants by 2021.
We will ensure our schemes are fit for purpose and that they serve the current and future market. We have made a commitment to undertake a full review of the climbing award schemes. We shall work in cooperation with the national Mountain Training boards to see this process through to its conclusion, amending existing awards or creating new awards and skills courses where appropriate. We will also review the new walking awards. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our candidates on our schemes. Scheme contents, pathways and delivery methods will be investigated and developed to increase reach and retention. We aspire to break down barriers and strengthen lifelong pathways to encourage the full range of participation in our schemes.
• Work closely with MTUK to complete the current
Climbing Awards Review. This will require us to adapt existing awards or develop new ones; develop new pathways between awards; create resources; recruit, approve and train new providers; and develop new administration systems.
• Carry out an interim review of the new walking awards.
• Audit the pathways through our schemes and
benchmark costs and barriers with other sport schemes.
• Support Bangor University with a research project on delivery models (2016-2019) with a view to piloting new approaches.
• Develop insight data and tools using the candidate management system to further investigate the pathways and blocks candidates experience.
• Develop a CPD workshop in Leadership skills with a
view to this informing our award syllabi.
• Support the Mountain Training Association and other professional associations in their delivery of quality CPD training to their members by signposting these to MTE candidates and by helping to develop further workshops.
• Develop, produce and evaluate e learning modules in
collaboration with MTUK.
• Coordinate with partner organisations to develop resources for our candidates and members. These include films, apps, publications, online links, webinars and infographics.
• Develop a female participation strategy in collaboration
with MTUK and the BMC.
• Establish a BAME mentoring scheme with the BMC and partners embedded in BAME communities.
• Develop an integrated youth strategy with partner organisations and investigate ways digital technology can support this.
• Develop a ‘veterans’ strategy to encourage older award holders to re-engage in leadership and coaching.
• Continue to develop the candidate management system
in collaboration with MTUK, in order to provide the best possible candidate and provider resource for our award schemes.
• Develop online customer satisfaction survey tools to help us improve our service through all our agents.
Increased participation in MTE schemes.
Improve the retention of candidates through our schemes.
Establish climbing courses for U18s and create pathways with stakeholder youth organisations
Increase female participation in MTE schemes.
Increase BAME participation in our schemes through partnerships and mentoring.
Increase representation of people with disabilities amongst the coaching workforce.
Increase total annual registrations by 10% from 7,283 to 8,011 by 2021
Increase conversion rate of Mountain Leader registrants to award holders from 29% to 35%
Develop and release climbing skills courses accessible to U18s by 2020.
Develop an integrated DLog app with NICAS/NIBAS by 2021.
Increase percentage of female registrants from 27% to 33% by 2021
Increase number of BAME award holders by 100 by 2021
Establish a baseline and increase the number of disabled award holders by 20% by 2021
In addition to providing information about our schemes we shall market with a message based approach about the desires and benefits of participating in outdoor activity and on the schemes that we provide. We shall communicate to supporters of potential participants about the transformative impact that these activities have on them. We shall acquire and develop insight and impact evidence to support this message. We will also investigate and capitalise on the marketing potential of climbing’s inclusion in the 2020 Olympics.
• Develop close relationships with our stakeholders by
attending key events, promoting the work of MTE.
• Hold a conference of wider stakeholders by 2021.
• Promote the work of MTE to the health and education sector and liase with these sectors on projects as appropriate.
• Commission an impact report on our work, our award holders’ work and the work of our user organisations. We will use this to measure our impact on participation and its effects in the future.
• Encourage and promote responsible access, activity and environmental awareness and respect
• Market the value of outdoor activity, aiming to change behaviours and create an outdoor activity habit and culture by: - Creating short message films for distribution on social media and through stakeholders and our own agents. - Focussing on personal case studies and stories to appeal to a wider range of candidates. - Producing information resources on career pathways for candidates and award holders. - Appointing ambassadors who are top influencers in our activities. - Identifying and attending national and regional promotional events through our stakeholder, provider and MTA network.
- Managing a marketing outreach programme through climbing walls throughout England. - Developing a more pro-active sponsorship arrangement and seeking further sponsorship links. - Developing a marketing network with our partner organisations and members.
• We will coordinate our marketing strategy in partnership with the other national Mountain Training boards.
• Work with partners to formulate a marketing strategy to capitalise on the increased exposure of climbing to the general public as a result of its successful inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo games.
Commission an impact study to determine the number of participants directly influenced by our award holders.
Increase understanding and cooperation with national ‘activator’ and ‘consumer’ organisations
Increase the public awareness of Mountain Training schemes and their contribution to the sport
Promote the work of MTE by attending relevant high profile events outside the Mountain Training sphere
Develop information on the careers and pathways for leaders and coaches.
Establish a baseline and increase the number of participant contacts with our award holders.
Hold a conference for wider stakeholders by 2020
Increase annual landings onto Mountain Training website by 20% by 2021
Attend a minimum of 2 major events per year to 2021.
Create an information pack for the website
My journey through the qualification process started in 1998 after deciding at the age of 38 to change career from electronics to the outdoor sector. I was inspired to make the move as I had spent many years organising outdoor events for colleagues and their families. Apart form this I had no experience of the outdoor industry and was unaware of the NGB Awards.
Based in Bristol I enrolled at the City College on a 1 year outdoor professional development course focusing on personal skills in climbing, hill walking, canoeing, kayaking etc. as well as providing essential background information. I spent the next couple of years gaining
logbook experience for SPA assessment and ML. I worked as a volunteer for D of E and with Fairbridge Trust and was highly motivated to organise personal climbing/walking trips. Almost as soon as I gained the ML I started to get offers of work mainly for D of E expeditions.
I finally completed the SPA assessment and once again I was immediately offered work and in 2004 I was able to resign from my electronics job due to the volume of outdoor work that I had.
I had started leading adventurous overseas expeditions for schools in 2005 so it was a natural progression to work through the WML and IML Awards. Now aged 56 I run my own business working full-time in the outdoors with the majority of my income coming from trek leading in the European Alps.
It all started with a school trip when I was 14yrs old and I was instantly hooked. Two years later I was selected for the GB junior climbing team and had left school with having no idea what to do. I started by picking up some reception work at my climbing wall and anything else climbing related I could do. The next few years I focused on competing and trying to climb as much as I could. Before moving up to the senior category I placed 15th in the 2005 China World Youth Championships.
A few years later I did my SPA training and was signed-off as a site specific instructor and passed my assessment the following year. The CWLA then came out. I passed that as quickly
as I could, and was signed-off at site specific crags to take clients sport climbing. At this point, I took on a more full-time position at the climbing wall, eventually becoming manager.
In 2014 I made the decision to leave the climbing wall to pursue opportunities as a self-employed coach, route-setter, and wall-builder. I don’t have the MIA and all I wanted to do was to take clients sport climbing in both the UK and Europe, which I now do.
In the last 15 years climbing has come a long way, especially the indoor industry. Climbing walls have got bigger and better and the new coaching awards are a big step in the right direction. However, I feel the outdoor side of the industry hasn’t really moved on. There are so many instructors / coaches that fall in to the same category as myself where we want the rock side of the MIA but without the navigation side. I think this would fill a huge gap in the industry and more closely align it to the indoor industry.
Key Direct Entry Recommended Progression
Assoc. of MountaineeringInstructors
Hill Skills
Mountain Skills
NICAS
FUNdas
Lowland Leader
Hill & Moorland Leader
International Mountain Leader
Mountain Leader WinterMountain Leader
Mountaineering Instructor Award
MountaineeringInstructor Certificate
British Mountain Guide
PerformanceCoach
British Assoc. of InternationalMountain Leaders
Mountain TrainingAssociation
British MountainGuides
Mountain TrainingAssociation
FoundationCoach
DevelopmentCoach
Single PitchAward
Climbing WallLeading Award
Climbing Wall Award
KEY
LLA HMLHML Exped MLS CWA CWAA SPA CWLA WGL
Nu
mb
er o
f Can
did
ates
0
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
500
2000
The graph shows the fall in ML and SPA registrations over 15 years while newer schemes come on stream to respond to a morediverse market. Total registrations were 5,159 in 2000 and 5,158 in 2016.
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 THE DUKE OFEDINBURGH’S AWARD®
JOINT SERVICE MOUNTAIN TRAINING CENTREDEVELOPING MEADERS AND INSTRUCTORS
