Bluedome

The Venture Centre - a fantastic opportunity to gain a wide range of outdoor qualifications in the unique setting of the Isle of Man.

Our centre has an excellent record and our training programme is one of the best in the Outdoor Industry. We recommend you compare us with what other centres are offering.

Why do people join our scheme?
Some people come on our scheme as an alternative to attending a college course. The advantage of our scheme is that you will gain soft and hard skills as you will be actively involved in outdoor activities throughout the season. Many college courses deliver excellent soft skills whilst missing out on the important hard skills the industry requires. Some use it as a stepping stone into higher education, some colleges and university value a year of work in the industry as an entry route on to their courses.

Why is the minimum age 18 years?
Most governing bodies recognise this as the minimum age for someone to take charge of young people.

How much will I earn?
Don’t look on our scheme as a way of earning a lot of money.
This is a volunteer training scheme you won’t earn anything form The Venture Centre. However there is opportunity to earn £60 per week

What is the accommodation like and am I expected to live in?
Firstly you do not need to live in at the centre, some people have local contacts who can offer accommodation others prefer the community support that living in at a centre provides.
Accommodation will be in a shared bunk room and each room has en suite shower and toilets, there are laundry facilities on site

How many staff are at the centre?
The number of staff at our centres varies throughout the season. Ideally we hope to take on approx 8 trainee instructors in the 2008 season.
In addition we have approximately 8 qualified instructors some of whom live in and some of whom live locally.

What will I be expected do?
The scheme is a balance of training a voluntary work. The first part of the season March – end of April you will undergo a considerable amount of training opportunities. Including kayaking, mountain biking, sailing, power boating, climbing, hill walking (see extensive list of training opportunities). From May onwards you will be actively involved in delivering outdoor activity sessions to groups of young people and adults using our centre. This period allows you to gain experience and develop you r skills ready to progress your national governing body awards. During late season August – October we consolidate these awards and where appropriate complete the assessments required.

We aim to end our season mid October this usually involves a week of hill walking in Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Over the winter period many staff use this period to go travelling. If you head to New Zealand then December – March is peak season for their outdoor industry and many of our staff have used the qualifications they obtained with us during the summer to gain work.

Throughout the time with us opportunity will be made for you to attend the following courses at our expense.