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This might be a sign of me getting old and the slow trickle to grumpy curmudgeon feeling unappreciated..
It would be good to get ticketed up for work (current and future thoughts) - for guiding rather than working in a bike shop. I've done my own bikes and those of friends for 25 years but never had a qualification. Velotech seems to make sense. I looked through the modules and there is nothing in the platinum (top) level I can't do currently - obviously as a home mechanic but I've got an engineering background so I'm not a total bodger. Silver would seem to cover the minimum level I'd need but it would be nice to have something higher if possible and I can and do tackle all those jobs. But it appears they insist you absolutely must start at the bottom bronze level and work your way up. It's partly the money and time (2 days and £400 a level, 3 days and £650 for platinum, and there must be a minimum of a month between courses) but it's also the tedium. I look at the bronze level course content and I'd rather headbutt the wall than put myself through that. Mending a puncture looks about the highlight.
Anyone put themselves through similar and have a positive story to tell? Is it going to be a dire as I'm imagining?
It might be worth giving them a bell, and having a chat with a human? I can see why they'd want to protect themselves professionally from chancers jumping onto courses they're not prepared for and giving them a bad rep. If you're doing it for yourself rather than accreditation they may be more accommodating?
It might be worth giving them a bell, and having a chat with a human? I can see why they’d want to protect themselves professionally from chancers jumping onto courses they’re not prepared for and giving them a bad rep. If you’re doing it for yourself rather than accreditation they may be more accommodating?
I did (well Glenmore lodge, the local provider) - a hard no.
Yes, I can see why they'd need to protect the award and people can be very 'creative' when they describe their abilities! Just when you know you can actually do it, but there is no alternative it's pretty depressing!
I would be using it 'professionally' so its the accreditation I'm after more than actually a need/desire to improve my skills.
Cytech is the other option, they are aimed at people already working in bike shops.
unfortunately I doubt there is a way around this. Its hoop jumping but needs to be done. If its any consolation I had to do courses in nursing where I actually knew more than the person supposedly training me. Just needed to get that bit of paper for management.
Apart from the personal satisfaction of having the ticket is it actually worth doing? Once you have paid out, completed the levels etc you have invested time and money. You'll never get the time back but you might get the money back eventually if the qualification(s) cause a punter to go to yourself as opposed to somebody else. Competant spanner skills would be low on my list of wants from a guide tbh. What's the estimated pay-back time here?
Eldest_oab just looked at this - he is thinking a couple of years working in Canada land around bike parks, it could be a way of getting employment. But the cost of starting at the bottom rather than stepping in at Silver is rather prohibitive - and yet (assessing as a Cytech trained person myself) he is more than capable of what is in Bronze to a professional level.
Apart from the personal satisfaction of having the ticket is it actually worth doing?
It's more about litigation to be honest. Especially working with children. If you alter the brakes of a child in your care (or an adult to be fair) so they can continue and something were to go wrong (that may or probably may not have anything to do with what you did), having a bit of paper to say you were qualified to do what you did is not a cast iron immunity but it's going to help. You'd hope.....
Hmm. I did the Velotech Gold course at Glenmore without doing Bronze or Silver. I wouldn't say it taught me much but it was useful as a "sanity check" and it was good for the business to have our certificates on the wall in the reception area.
Did you have to do any grovelling or know anyone at the lodge already? How long ago was this. Maybe I just got fobbed off at the first hurdle.....the attitude on the phone was a very rehearsed, I've been here a hundred times - no chance fella.
My boss spoke to someone at Velotech and managed to get the same option for three of us. I don't think it was grovelling, just a grown up discussion. Maybe it helped that it was a business-to-business chat?
This would have been 2016 right enough. Maybe they've had a change of heart since then. Might still be worth contacting Velotech directly.
"he is thinking a couple of years working in Canada land around bike parks, it could be a way of getting employment."
To be honest I don't think too many shops care about 'professional' qualifications over here, especially foreign ones.
One person that did a 2 week course and got hired at a shop that I worked at was one of the biggest morons that I've ever met....
Maybe find some experience in Ol' Blighty and then be prepared to do some sort of practical test, and note all experience on the CV / resume.
I used to deliver velotech training for a local charity a fair few years ago now.
It's a difficult one, and one that was visibly frustrating for those in training who clearly had more than enough knowledge, but also you'd normally get those, in the same training group who thought they knew, but didn't really have the level of understanding needed to gain certification off the bat.
Each task needs to be checked off. However, how this is managed is up to the trainer. It may be that if you get to speak to Graeme at velotech, you can be assessed on the lower grade tasks, rather than have the teaching side. That would certainly save time, and cost.
Although this may only work if there are a group at the same level, as one to one teaching is a different pricing structure, or it was. Normally it'll be groups of 4+.
Similar experience to scotroutes at Glenmore, about 2012 tho iirc. I did bronze to gold, bronze was kind of compressed, presumably as skill levels were patiently obvious
There was a fair bit of admin/legal type stuff regarding building bikes/minimum standards for sale etc etc.interesting but ultimately a bit pointless outside a professional setting.
These things have a habit of hoop growing though, so I am not surprised it's a bit more Draconian. See BCU qualifications for example
It’s more about litigation to be honest. Especially working with children. If you alter the brakes of a child in your care (or an adult to be fair) so they can continue and something were to go wrong (that may or probably may not have anything to do with what you did), having a bit of paper to say you were qualified to do what you did is not a cast iron immunity but it’s going to help. You’d hope…..
Its really the other way round. As a lay person you are judged for negligence on the skills an average person would have. If you purport to have special skills then you are judged against that and held to a higher standard
Your employer might have a defense tho as they had trained you to an industry standard
The ability to make basic repairs is part of the L2 BC guiding qualification - so your example of tweaking a kid's brakes mid ride would be covered by the BC insurance. L3 includes further get you home stuff such as dealing with broken spokes etc.
But it is all fairly Mickey mouse - on my assessment ride group there was a factory maintenance fitter who decided it was a good idea to put a new chain on his 4 year old drivetrain the night before....... yet he still passed. I had to guide first, but did get brownie points for spotting his impending twitching derailleur snagging doom and stopping to work out which few gear combinations he could safely ride 🙂
We've been on plenty of guided holidays and never seen a guide doing major repairs to anybody's bike - they are there to get you rolling to finish the day or off the mountain to a bike shop / hook you up with a hire bike for the next day.
A mechanic qualification would surely only be appropriate in specific circumstances - e.g. outdoor pursuits instructor looking after a fleet of bikes.
I think the problem is when you approach these things with an "I already know all of this" type mindset, think of it more like it's a professional qualification you need to be allowed to do useful work.
If you only want it as a bolt-on qualification for guiding then from looking at the site 'Bronze' or 'Silver' would probably be enough to satisfy customers that you can do basic trailside/chalet repair work. If you want to set up as a mechanic (mobile or not) at least some punters will probably be looking for the 'Gold' or 'Platinum' certificate.
The other important thing to note is the value of talking to an experienced bike mech, like you OP I've got year and years of sorting my own bikes, and work as a mechanical Engineer, which can lead to a bit of a "know it all" attitude.
Of course someone who's spent several years as a shop tech (assuming that's who takes you through the course) will have seen a wider variety of bikes/kit and ways for them to fail, as well as learned more preventative tricks than even the most competent home mechanic ever will. The bullet points list is just the outline of a syllabus/assessment criteria, the real value of doing such courses should be getting to pick the brains of an experienced spanner monkey...