Career Progression within Manor Adventure
What we are looking for in a new employee at Manor Adventure is a well presented pleasantly mannered individual who has the aptitude, willingness and ability to learn new and fun skills.
It does not matter if you do not have any qualifications or have a lack of experience as regards to the activities we offer. If you have the right attitude then we believe that you would be a major asset to Manor Adventure and we can train you to be a superb Manor Adventure Instructor. When you become employed by Manor Adventure we give you the opportunity to progress through the outdoor activity industry and on to higher levels. This is achieved by providing one of the best training programmes available in today’s market. Manor Adventure has a reputation of providing some of the best instructors around and being able to demonstrate on your CV that you have completed a season at Manor Adventure is regarded very highly within our industry.
Stage One: Initial Training
Your employment will commence with Manor Adventure once you have passed a recruitment weekend and an evaluation week in North Wales or France. Training then takes place at one of our centres in England, Wales, Scotland or France. This will consist of a work induction programme involving all the Health and Safety aspects of the site starting with a Fire Marshals course followed up by a First Aid at Work course. Both these qualifications last for 3 years, so even if you work only one season with Manor Adventure you will be able to use them in your future career.
Additional initial training includes: Child Protection; Pastoral Carers Skills; Health & Safety, Manual Handling and COSHH.
Once all the basics have been completed then the fun starts.
Stage Two: National Governing Body Training
You will be selected to take up to 5 NGB courses subject to your age, ability and competence. Whilst achieving as many of these as you can, you will also be given training on all the other activities which Manor Adventure operate. There are 37 different activities on offer at our Centres. Costs of courses are free of charge on completion of your contract.
Examples of some sessions based at our centre in Shropshire are listed below:
| Kayaking | 1 person kayak. Basic introduction / Fun taster session in the sport. |
| Open Canoes | Large Open Canoe holding up to 3 persons. Session as above. |
| Raft Building (1 session) | Working as a team; build and paddle a raft made from barrels, spars and ropes. |
| Raft Building (2 sessions) | Session 1 (indoors) working as a team, design your raft, build a model of it using equipment provided.
Session 2 (outdoors) build and paddle the raft you designed using barrels, spars and ropes. |
| Hill Walk | A low level walk in the Long Mynd National Trust SSSI Hills. |
| Evening Walk | A short walk in the local area finishing at the centre. |
| Nature Walk | A walk around the Manor estate looking at local Flora, Fauna and Wildlife. |
| Compass Work | Learn to navigate using a map and compass. Basic, Intermediate or Advanced skills can be covered. Session can include a hill walk. |
| Camp Craft | Introduction to basic camping skills, tent assembly, cooking on camping stoves, etc. |
| Overnight Camp | Experience an evening sleeping in a tent, at a choice of two locations. A local farmer’s field, 15 minutes walk from the centre or as part of an Expedition across the Long Mynd, camping at a registered campsite. |
| Long Mynd Expedition | Groups will be given training (packed rucksacks, navigation skills, etc) at the centre, before leaving for the Long Mynd at Church Stretton. Groups follow a planned expedition route around the South Shropshire Hills, stop overnight to camp and cook their own evening meal. Groups return to the centre for breakfast and a ‘de-prep’ session to sort out all their kit. An ideal activity for schools starting their D of E Award Expedition Training. |
| Survival Skills | A practical introduction to surviving in the wild, groups will be taught the 5 basic elements – Shelter, Warmth, Drink, Food and Rescue. |
| Bivouac Building | Learn to build a shelter using natural materials, usually completed as part of survival session. |
| Climbing | Manor Adventure has 2 outdoor climbing towers and an indoor climbing wall. |
| Abseiling | Descend our purpose built abseiling tower. |
| Confidence Course | Challenge nerves and helps develop personal confidence on our aerial obstacle course. Challenges include; rope walk, jumping gaps, plank walks, rope descents, fireman's pole and bosons chair all set between 2m and 8m off the ground. |
| Zip Wire | Climb into a tree and descend via a 70m zip wire descent. |
| High Ropes Course | Aerial challenge course consisting of 3 varying rope bridges 5-7m in the air. The course finishes with a 70m zip wire descent. |
| Underground Maze | (Artificial Caving System) A realistic but safe introduction to caving in a 230 sq metre artificial system. |
| Obstacle Course | Manor Adventure has 2 obstacle courses involving various physical challenges, ideal for team building. |
| Blind Trail | Experience an obstacle course and team games wearing a blindfold, ideal for team building and communication skills. |
| Orienteering | Using a map to find points around the Manor grounds. |
| Scavenger Hunt | A challenge in small groups to collect and find out information about Manor Adventure and other fun items. |
| Initiative Exercises | A selection of problem solving puzzles, ideal for team building and communication & listening skills. |
| Archery | Manor Adventure has 2 outdoor 4 lane archery ranges, with Junior and Adult bows. Sessions supervised by our own GNAS qualified Instructors. |
| Rifle Shooting | Target sport using .177 small bore rifles in our indoor range. Sessions supervised by our own NSRA qualified instructors. |
| Fencing | Learn the skills needed to take part in a duel with foils (swords). Sessions supervised by our own BFA qualified instructors. |
| BMX Bikes | Various games and challenges riding BMX bikes or learning to ride a bike. |
| Crows Nest | A challenging activity which requires skill, team work, nerve and good balance. All participants are actively employed in the competition against the clock, each other with the element of balance to add to the excitement. |
Stage Three: The Season
When you are not on training sessions or training courses you will be instructing clients on a wide range of activity stations. (You will not be placed on a limited number of activities for the season which is common practice with a lot of our competitors).
We have an impressive list of schools and groups who return to Manor Adventure every year because they know that their pupils will be taught by excellent instructors. This is a very testing and intensive lifestyle and the first few months will determine whether you have the personality to handle centre life which differs intensely from the mundane 9 to 5 work lifestyle.
Our experience shows that our instructors love their job. YOU as well as our clients develop an inner confidence, grow in self esteem and develop previously unknown skills. Our instructors regularly state their high level of job satisfaction and the buzz they get from helping children develop. (For example: Helping and coaxing a child on the abseil tower to overcome their fear of heights and to see the look on their face when they succeed with your help. Something they will never forget.)
You will get respect, admiration and appreciation from our customers; this makes the job immensely enjoyable.
Stage Four: Mid Season
Promotion opportunities for the right employees can occur after only several months while at Manor Adventure. As a personal company, Management are able to quickly assess potential in our instructors especially after our intensive training programmes.
Also during mid season we usually recruit a second wave of instructors which gives more opportunities to our experienced instructors for promotion and /or training.
Stage Five: End of Season
At this stage you will have gained a vast repertoire of knowledge, experience and confidence which will enhance you with any Outdoor Pursuit Company. Over 45% of our instructors who wish to stay on over our winter period are offered extensions to their contracts.
The work ranges from instructing activities for small off peak groups to maintaining activity stations to building, developing and testing new exciting activity stations for the following season.
Staff who finish their contract are able to keep their uniform (retail value of above £500 new), and enjoy our traditional infamous end of season party.
Second Season
With the knowledge and experience generated in your first year you are in a very strong position to look at the possibility of promotion when the opportunity arises if you are ambitious. If you are not looking for promotion you have the option of working at a different centre if you wish.
Potential For improvement
We have a policy of promoting within the company. Our current Managing Director started as an instructor! Head of Centres, Chief Instructors and Senior Instructors are regularly promoted from within our existing staff teams. This emphasises the quality of our instructors which provides a natural recruitment base within our company!! We also offer follow up courses which are available to our exceptional staff who make the grade. These include: NUCO First Aid at work tutors course; Single Pitch Award; Level Two Coach UKCC; BEL Tutors Course to name but a few.
History shows that instructors with the right attitude, diligence and enthusiasm can achieve and progress within Manor Adventure in quite a short period of time subject to opportunities which develop within the company.
