The Snowminds job guarantee and how it works

We strive to be straight with you. The job guarantee is naturally conditional on your ski and snowboard teacher training, which over 90% of our students successfully pass. Even in the event you do not receive your certification, we still do everything we can to ensure you a job. That way you enjoy your season as an instructor like everyone else and then simply retake your certification in either January or March. With six years of experience to date, we are proud to say we have always been able to find a job for 100% of our instructors after graduation from our training course.

Training Course Housing

You will also live in a 3-star hotel (sometimes better) with Wif and all the basic necessities. You can expect to live with 2-5 people per room or apartment. While this may not sound fancy, that’s “mountain luxury” for you.

At Snowminds, “we take care of our own”. That’s why we specifically only work with hotels that make healthy and nutritious food. Breakfast typically consists of a large, nutritious buffet. Dinner will either be a 3-course meal or a buffet with soup, salad, main course and dessert.

Ski Season Housing

Wherever you go, Snowminds guarantees you arranged housing at your local ski school for a full-season. The precise details of your housing vary quite a bit, ski school to ski school and country to country. That’s because everybody does things differently. Regardless, you can expect to either live in ski school housing or affordable housing arranged by Snowminds, which is easily accessible to a nearby lift.

Salary

An average salary for a starting instructor in Austria is around €800-€1.000 per month. In addition to this there are often opportunities for bonuses, for example a guest may wish to extend their lesson with you as an instructor. The job as an instructor won’t get you rich money wise, but definitely rich with experiences. We recommend bringing pocket money which will allow you to have the freedom to fully enjoy your season. The pay also depends on your own motivation, your working ethics and your previous working experience.

Lift Pass

In cooperation with your ski school, we will buy a Salzburg Super Ski Seasonal Lift Card as a key benefit for you. This will give you plenty of options, with access to a total of 2550 km. of slopes, divided into 22 ski areas in Salzburger Land, as well as a number of adjacent ski areas. We also want to make it easier to visit your friends at other ski areas and generally explore more of Austria on skis.

NOTE! If you work in Kaprun, Zell am See or Tirol, the Salzburger Super Ski card is NOT included in the price.

Instructor Certification

To offer a high-quality education, we work together with the Salzburger Berufskilehrer & Snowboardlehrer Verband, one of the world’s most recognized instructor schools. This will not only look good on the CV, but is also very useful if you decide to return with Snowminds for our other destinations around the world. For the final 16 days of your course, your coaches will take you through a challenging instructor training program, which is Level 1 within their education system. Here you will be trained to teach both beginners and more experienced skiers and snowboarders, and become a competent instructor ready to teach anywhere in Austria.

Our Coaches

Even though you may have skied your entire life, you are not necessarily an expert. That’s what most of our future instructors will discover when they meet our Austrian team of coaches. Our trainers are certified at the highest international level and are among the best ski and snowboard teachers in Austria, if not the world (that’s according to us, they are much more humble). There’s a reason we select the best: to make sure you develop with lightning speed from day one of our courses and get the right preparation needed to pass the Austrian ski and snowboard teacher training.

5-Week All Mountain Training Course

Our 5-Week All-Mountain Camp offers you comprehensive training, where you will grow as a skier or snowboarder in ways you did not foresee. The education we offer is foundational: You will refine your skiing and snowboarding technique, learn more about skiing equipment, and become safer and more aware on the mountain after taking our popular avalanche courses. You will also participate in a lot of team activities that are meant to be enjoyed and hopefully create the strong Snowminds team bond we are known for.

Specifically, you will receive 5 days of teaching per week on the mountain, where a trainer will help you commit fully to every element of the mountain: the piste, the park, and the powder. Each year, we see our instructors technique evolve quickly and through ongoing personalized feedback. Our number #1 goal is to make sure you are fine-tuned and in tip-top ski shape before the season begins. All this trainings leads to the culmination of our camp: the Austrian Level 1 ski and snowboard exam, which is the final step before you begin a winter season as a certified Austrian ski and snowboard instructor.

Some ski schools in Austria take pride in training their own instructors a little bit extra before or during the season to qualify their instructors specifically for their ski schools. Therefore, two ski schools in particular, have an add-on price for extra training, which is a requirement for you to take part in, if working in those ski schools.

The ski school in Sankt Anton has its own requirements for who they hire in the ski school. This includes a higher level of German, skiing level and that you must complete the ski school’s own recruitment process to get a job at the ski school.

Due to the low season in January, you will not work 4 weeks in January/start-February and instead the ski school offers you extra training during this period. Therefore, a self-payment of €1200 is added to this course for 4 weeks accommodation, 2 training sessions per week (8 in total) and lift passes for these 4 weeks.

This is a unique opportunity to develop your skiing even more during the winter with some of the best coaches in Austria. At the same time, it’s also a great opportunity for you to have time for visits from home.

Similarly, the ski school in Bad Hofgastein has mandatory completion of their in-house training program prior to employment. You should be prepared to pay an additional €500 on top of the regular course. This specialized training not only elevates your skiing and teaching abilities, but also ensures that you are totally prepared to work with the ski school in Bad Hofgastein.

It should be noted that most ski schools do some sort of in-house training prior to the season to onboard you in their ways of working, ski area and teaching ways. Whether it includes a fee depends on the destination, and if you are in doubt, you can always reach out to us.

A Second Chance

If you happen to fail your exam or some parts of it, there’s no need to worry. We have you covered with a second opportunity if you have completed your Anwärter exams in Salzburgerland (Altenmarkt & Kaprun) in November or December. You’ll have the chance to join a 3-day Wiederholungscamp from December 18th – 20th, 2023. The third day will be the “Prüfungs”-day (test day).

The camp costs 275 euros and includes training only. You will be responsible for arranging transportation, lift tickets, hotel accommodations, and other expenses. However, this unique opportunity allows you to retake your exams shortly after a previous failure, ensuring you have the chance to start working as soon as possible.