Mountaineering instructors renamed

The highest level rock and ice climbing qualifications issued by Mountain Training UK are being renamed to better reflect their role. The two qualifications will now be called:

Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor – formerly Mountaineering Instructor Award (MIA)

Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor – formerly Mountaineering Instructor Certificate (MIC)

Over the last five years MTUK has been reviewing its comprehensive suite of climbing schemes, both personal skills courses and qualifications, and one of the major themes of the review was to avoid acronyms and secret language. During 2018 the Association of Mountaineering Instructors carried out a consultation process amongst its 950 members to find new names for their two qualifications, which they felt would fit alongside the other climbing schemes. Their proposal for the qualifications to be called Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor, and Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor, was accepted by the members of Mountain Training UK on 30th March 2019. These new names fit well with the other climbing qualifications which were revised and renamed in April 2018.

The very last element of the review is to look at the pathway required by candidates to gain the Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor qualification and this will begin towards the end of the autumn.

MTUK Chief Executive, John Cousins, said “Mountaineering and Climbing Instructors are the central pillar of our overall delivery system and we are delighted to have worked with them to find what we all hope is a more descriptive title for the varied, high quality work that these people do”.

MTUK will now work with all stakeholders to ensure this new name is applied as widely as possible. It is hoped the existing qualification holders will use the full new names and avoid wherever possible abbreviating them, though in that case MTUK will use MCI and WMCI.”

Phil Baker, the Chair of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) said, “I am grateful to the AMI working group for developing the new names that were ultimately proposed to MTUK, and to the large number of members who engaged in the consultation process. It is fitting that the professional association that represents Mountaineering Instructors work alongside MTUK in matters that affect our membership and we will support the promotion of the names to the wider public.”