Cultural Tour Leader

Would you like to join the Wilderness England guiding team? Do you currently guide clients around England and/or Wales, introducing them to our landscape, history and culture? Do you have a passion for outstanding service, a love of England’s natural landscape, and a curious mind? If the answer to these questions is a YES then keep on reading.

The Wilderness Guide plays a pivotal role in the company, ensuring that our clients experience outstanding adventures throughout England and/or Wales.

What We’re Looking For

Wilderness England is seeking Tour Leaders to host an array of trip itineraries in England and Wales for our clients. To be a tour leader, you do not need an NGB qualification (but it is great if you do), as you would deliver any such activities in tandem with a qualified guide. You will need to hold a valid first aid qualification. You will need a curious mind that thrives on seeking out interesting new experiences and encounters for our clients. Our tour leaders will lead small groups of clients around England and/or Wales, sharing their passion for the destination. As well as being knowledgeable about the area’s history, heritage and culture, you will introduce our clients to England’s nature through various experiences designed by our team. We want to connect our clients to English and Welsh natural and cultural heritage, and your role is crucial in achieving this aim. Therefore, you must be able to demonstrate a great love of and knowledge of England’s and/or Wales’ natural environment. The ability to demonstrate great familiarity with many areas of England and/or Wales is vitally important. Knowledge of English and/or Welsh history, culture, environment, geology and geography is also important to us. Of course, we aim to provide our clients with the best possible experience, so our guides must take pride in their work and have a natural flair for customer care, hospitality and the ability to act as the host throughout the duration of any trip.

We would love to hear from you if you have the knowledge, character and experience to work for Wilderness England. We can offer you an excellent wage, good working conditions and the opportunity to lead superb trips in some of the most beautiful regions of England and/or Wales. While we have a lot of fun at Wilderness England, our team is 100% focused on delivering 5 star world-class client experiences. As such, the successful guide will bring a professional and high-energy approach with an unwavering focus on all aspects of the client travel experience.

What You Can Expect

We offer a special combination of interesting work, career opportunity and supportive culture in which to thrive as a freelance guide. We have steadily grown over the years and plan to continue this growth path, which in turn, will offer a wide range of guiding opportunities. We commit with passion to providing our customers with the most inspiring experiences of their lives, ensuring our experiences are delivered sustainably, promoting the value of wild places, setting new standards for tourism experiences and creating a rewarding, meaningful and truly fun place to work.

Being a guide for Wilderness England is more than just another freelance job. It means being part of a dynamic team that are always seeking new ways in which we can improve with guide feedback highly valued and acted upon. The successful guide will thrive in this fast-paced environment and within the wider Wilderness team but will be encouraged to bring new ideas and enthusiasm to the role and the company as a whole.

Freelance benefits

• Guiding opportunities on a freelance basis
• Competitive daily guiding rates
• Meaningful and rewarding work
• Working with high-quality equipment
• Training and development opportunities
• Support from our dedicated operations team whilst guiding in the field
• Industry discounts on outdoor clothing

Our application window is open from January to July each year. We will then review applications over the summer and be in touch with an update regarding your personal application. Potential guides apply through the website application survey. We will review each application towards the end of the summer. We consider the business’s needs and the current guide team’s capacity before reviewing individual guide applications. It might be that you are a standout candidate, but if there is not enough capacity to be able to confidently consider you as part of the team with the type of work you are looking for, then we would rather hold off until we can engage you more successfully with us.

The Office Guide Team will be in touch to introduce ourselves and have a general chat with you. Potential guides are invited to meet for an interview/chat in the Autumn, preferably in person, but an online interview will be considered. This follows a pro-forma with set questions. This interview helps clarify whether the candidate should be invited to the next stages of the application process. Please note that we may change the interview style to incorporate an active guiding element. This will be communicated to you with plenty of notice.

At times, dependent on business need and the type of recruitment we are undertaking, Wilderness hosts a 2-day guide selection event. The application process will be explained to you upon being invited to an interview. It is emphasised that the selection is a two-way process as outlined above. At any point, a potential guide should feel free to leave the process if they don’t think guiding with Wilderness is for them. Likewise, please don’t be offended if we don’t think you are the right fit for us.

We will spend the whole selection event together – inclusive of lunch and dinner on the first day and breakfast and lunch on the second day – with both days being spent largely outside. After a brief introduction from the office team on Day 1, we will split into groups and head out following an itinerary we use on one of our live trips. You will not be leading all day, each day, but every applicant will take the lead at times throughout the 2 days. The group will be made up of members of the Wilderness Scotland office team, some of the selected guides, and will be facilitated by a senior guide. Hospitality will be as much a part of the two days as guiding the activity. You will be expected (with your fellow groups) to look after your assigned group when at the hotel, including hosting dinner on the evening of day 1.

We will discuss all aspects of what is involved in guiding for Wilderness Scotland throughout the two days, but for the most part, you will be leading both individually and with fellow guide applicants. At the end of day 2, each guide candidate will have a review with the WS team and will receive recommendations on next steps. These would likely be summarised as follows: The potential guide is ace and could go out with a group asap. The potential guide would really benefit from working alongside a senior guide on at least one trip to learn more about WS and guiding. The potential guide is not quite the right fit for us, and we will not be taking the application further.

This one-day event is mandatory and will provide a more in-depth understanding of Wilderness and your role as a guide with us. The morning will involve providing an orientation to the company and guiding in general. The day will then be structured so that, as well as meeting the team, you will learn about the processes and procedures we require guides to follow pre, during and post-trips. The aim is for each guide, on leaving this one day, to feel much more comfortable with guiding for us and the requirements before heading out on a guided trip. These typically take place in November and/or February/March. Dates will be made available to you if you are invited to an interview.

The hard work of getting through recruitment is over, and we can now allocate you to trips. Trip availability for the initial season following recruitment is unknown, and the offer of work following these steps depends heavily on the volume of work available and the availability of guides; it is not guaranteed. Our existing core guiding team will be given priority; however, we are in this for the long game, and hopefully you are too! You will also be invited to attend further guide training and have access to further onboarding resources to help you feel part of the team and our culture from the get-go!

Job Description

Whilst the details below do not cover every element of the freelance Wilderness Guide role, they do provide a general overview of what you can expect. April – October is the main season during which we run trips in England and Wales with the majority of trips taking place from May to September. All locations across England and Wales, with a particular focus on Northern England. Wilderness England guides are at the heart of the business. The success of any one trip depends upon many people, arguably none more so than the commitment and performance of the guide. We’re dedicated to achieving greater recognition for the guide community – as a profession which is respected by our clients and the wider tourism industry. This recognition starts with doing the highest quality job on each and every trip – be that the first outing of the season or the last when you may well be running on empty. We expect our guides to be dedicated professionals and committed to the relentless pursuit of amazing client experiences. In return, we strive to offer working conditions which lead the way for the adventure travel industry.

The role and responsibilities of a Wilderness guide are as follows:

• Represent all aspects of Wilderness England’s operation in the field
• Embody the Wilderness values of Inspiration, Professionalism, Sustainability and Innovation.
• Be totally focused on delivering amazing customer experiences and embracing the concept of sustainable tourism.
• Foster strong relationships with our partner network of hotels, transport, activity providers, other services and the rural communities where we work.
• Develop familiarisation with the products and services of Wilderness England, Wilderness Scotland, and Wilderness Ireland.
• Act as proud ambassadors for their country and the adventure travel industry.
• Provide clients of Wilderness England and our partners with a professional, inspiring, informative and entertaining outdoor experience
• Be professional at all times, in appearance, behaviour and conduct.
• Be open, honest and approachable with all clients.
• Be flexible and responsive and realise that no one trip is the same.
• Undertake to develop knowledge and skills beyond technical capability.
• To be conversant with the content of the Guide Manual plus all the resources provided for the successful running of a trip.
• Deliver to clients an adventurous yet safe outdoor experience, having regard to Health and Safety and Risk Assessment procedures
• To be fully conversant with all of the Standard Operating Procedures contained in the Guide Manual.
• Be familiar with the Risk Assessments for the relevant activities and be confident in their dynamic application in the field.
• Carry out the necessary equipment and safety checks as required by the activity (NGB guides only)
• Obtain relevant weather forecasts