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General Climbing Discussion

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Cert IV - Outdoor Ed? 25-Oct-2013 At 1:18:10 PM simey

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I agree with lockydoc. The Cert 4 course is great for gaining a lot of outdoor experience in a variety of fields, but if it is climbing guiding that you primarily want to pursue then you are much better doing your training and assessment through the ACIA (Australian Climbing Instructors Assoc). The ACIA qualifications are held in fairly high regard as applicants at entry level (Single Pitch Guide) are expected to be competent lead climbers before they even apply for training. The standard to which it is assessed is also a lot more rigorous.

Increasingly there seem to be qualifications coming into existence where you can become some sort of accredited top-rope instructor and yet have never led a climb in your life. This might be fine in very controlled environments, but it also means that the person being employed as a climbing instructor probably has very limited experience.