Get a career in the great outdoors!
Scotland is the ultimate natural playground and offers the perfect outdoor learning environment! Students at UHI Perth get hands-on experience in one of the most beautiful settings in Scotland. If you have been thinking about a career in the outdoors, but want to find out more, our lecturers Chris and Kieran gave us the lowdown on what you can expect from our courses ⬇️
Can you introduce yourselves?
🗣️ Chris – I’m Northumbrian . . . purely by good fortune, but in my professional life - prior to coming to UHI Perth - I spent 12 years at a university in England delivering on an outdoor education degree. I was thrilled to get a position at UHI, as moving here gives my daughter and I easy access to our superb onsite climbing wall, mountains, whitewater rivers, and exciting coastal areas.
🗣️ Kieran - having moved to Perthshire from the west coast of Scotland I’m enjoying the drier climate and easy access to quality climbing crags. Having worked in outdoor education for over 20 years, I’m thrilled to now be able to share my knowledge and experience with students keen to work in the outdoors.
What is your role at UHI Perth?
🗣️ Chris - I’m one half of the outdoor education teaching team. I feel fortunate to be working not only with Kieran, who is an amazing land-based adventure sports specialist, but also with other fantastic colleagues within the Sport and Fitness Department. I’m the Programme Lead for our Outdoor Education degree, having been at Perth for four years now.
🗣️ Kieran - teaching on the outdoor courses since 2022, it’s been a privilege to work with Chris to review and update the courses. With a focus on paddle sports, climbing, and hillwalking - we’re creating a pathway for students keen for a career in the outdoors.
What’s the best part of your job?
🗣️ Chris – I've been working on Further and Higher Outdoor Education programmes for almost 30 years. My primary motivators have remained the same in all that time. I love supporting students as they develop their inter and intrapersonal skills, their academic abilities, their practical skills to become well-rounded outdoor adventure practitioners, and their ability to facilitate learning experiences for others. In doing so, I’m lucky to be able to spend time with those students in amazing Scottish landscapes and see the students grow and develop over several years of study; ultimately becoming ‘colleagues’ and the future of the outdoor sector.
🗣️ Kieran – working with a diverse range of students makes every day interesting and facilitating their development is a really rewarding part of the job. Days when I can combine this with getting out for a climb or up a mountain is just fantastic! I also enjoy the variety that the job provides, no two days are the same and we have the flexibility to amend our programme to suit the conditions, ensuring students get the most out of their time with us.
Kieran
What is a typical day at work like?
🗣️ Chris - It’s hard to pick a typical day as our work is quite polarised, we’re either working with students in the classroom or outdoors. One benefit of our programmes is that the lecturer facilitating learning for students in the classroom exploring theories, concepts and technical content will be the person leading the application of that theoretical content on the hill, river, or sea.
For example, on Monday next week, I plan to take our FE students to surf kayaks at St Andrews as the forecast looks excellent and the activity lends itself to our learning outcomes. We’ll be working on technical templates, observation and analysis and safety management systems. I’ll swap my kit over on Monday night and on Tuesday I’ll be out on the hill with our degree students looking at applied leadership principles in a mountain environment/activity and hopefully we’ll bag a Munro on the way. Of course, we must always have multiple plans that allow us to respond to changing weather and ground conditions. If the surf isn’t appropriate, we may end up on the river and if the mountain conditions aren't suitable, we could go to the forest.
🗣️ Kieran – the day starts by meeting the students at the Academy of Sport and Wellbeing at 9am, we’ll then head out in the minibus to a local hill or crag for the day. The content of these days varies from focusing on personal technical skills at the start of term to how students can support, lead and coach others later in the academic year. During the winter months, we make use of the excellent campus facilities such as the indoor climbing wall which is perfect for developing our students personal climbing skills and progressing through the Climbing Wall Instructor qualification.
If anyone is thinking about studying an outdoor education course at UHI Perth, what can they expect?
UHI Perth is ideally located in close proximity to excellent rivers, lochs, coasts, hills, and crags - meaning our students get the opportunity to learn the personal skills and develop their leadership and coaching abilities with minimal travel time, maximising the practical learning time and fun. We have close links to the outdoor sector, including providers and national governing bodies and many students successfully gain employment during the summer which they are able to continue part-time when returning to study the next level of course.
We endeavour to model what we teach. We see students as individuals with their own strengths and areas for growth and our job is to support their journey. We therefore strive to apply a person-centred approach to coaching and supporting students on their own learning journey, in the hope that they carry those principles in their own practice.
Applications are now open for a new course ‘NQ Coaching and Leading Adventure Sports’. What is the difference with this course and how did it come to fruition?
The Level 6 NQ Coaching and Leading Adventure Sports was designed both to build on the skills and qualifications gained by students on the Level 5 NQ Outdoor Activities and Leadership and to offer an entry point for those students who already have a selection of National 5 qualifications, as well as more mature students looking for a career change and a way into the outdoor industry. This course focuses on developing students’ ability to coach others in a range of environments such as rivers, lochs, and the sea, as well as on the hill and at local crags and on our climbing wall. Students also benefit from residential experiences and further industry qualifications.
Students completing the level 6 NQ Coaching and Leading Adventure Sports would be eligible to progress to our HNC with a focus on coaching and outdoor activities. They would also be highly employable to a range of outdoor sector employers from small-medium business to local authority centres and larger companies.
We also offer an NQ in Outdoor Activities and Leadership. What can people expect on this course?
The level 5 NQ Outdoor Activities and Leadership course is great starting point for those interested in a career in the outdoors. The focus is largely on developing students' personal skills to a point where they are competent and confident to lead others in paddle sports, climbing and hill walking. The course is predominantly practical and links theory to industry qualifications to prepare students for work as well as further study.
After finishing their course at UHI Perth, what types of jobs can our Outdoor Education students expect to get?
Previous students have successfully gained employment at the following locations 👇
In Your Element (Loch Tay)
Duke of Edinburgh Awards providers
Internationally – Oman
And many more…
What has been your most memorable moment since working at UHI Perth?
🗣️ Chris – There's so many! Surfing, coasteering, climbing and biking always creates opportunities for joy and genuine light bulb moments for students. Starting at UHI Perth a few weeks before the first covid lockdown in 2020 made for a crazy time to be running an outdoor education programme, but in the summer of ‘21, when restrictions were eased, a colleague and I were able to embark on our first proper journey with our students since March 2020. We kept it local with a hill walk and a camp near Aberfeldy before picking up canoes and paddling back to Willowgate Activity Centre in Perth, with an overnight on the riverbank. It was amazing to have a group out doing an authentic outdoor journey again.
🗣️ Kieran – I’ve really enjoyed our residential up at Cullen. It’s a great location with paddling and climbing venues nearby which affords our students the chance to test out their skills in a new challenging environment. It’s also a great way to celebrate the students’ achievements towards the end of the course. Spending a week away living together fosters further development of the ‘soft’ skills required for working in outdoor education and gives the students the chance to take part more in the planning and logistics and learn from our experience when considering what activities are possible given the weather conditions.
And finally, if someone would like more information about our courses, how can they get in touch to arrange a tour/get further information?
Email us on chris.heaney.perth@uhi.ac.uk or kieran.thompson.perth@uhi.ac.uk to arrange a call or a chat and a tour in the Academy of Sport and Wellbeing.
There is also more information available online for our Level 5 and Level 6 courses and we also have social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook where you can get an idea of what we do.
