 Poster: A snowHead
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I’m thinking of doing a season, ski instructing in Austria. With a BASI 2 qualification and intermediate German skills, how much on average can you expect to make? And if so, how much in tips too?
Have lived in Austria before as a student but in the city. The accommodation and utilities were cheaper but food etc more expensive so averaged about the same as in UK. Is this true for Austrian ski resorts as well? And any recommendations on good resorts for work?
thanks 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@lski, as it's already February I assume you mean next season, for which you will need a work permit to work in the EU (if you are a British, i.e. non-EU citizen that is). I also think that you would need an Austrian ski instructor qualification rather than British, perhaps someone more knowledgeable can verify that. I do know that the pay is pretty low.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You can work in Austria as a BASI 2, you need to apply to the authorities in whichever state you want to work in for a Bescheid (recognition of qualification). Means you can then work as an Anwaerter.
You won't necessarily need a permit for next winter, it starts before the end of the transition period, so moving to Austria to work is still possible, you'd then need to apply for a residence visa once there (exact details are as yet unknown).
Tips vary, so hard to say as it depends on both the instructor and the client. Wage for an Anwaerter is about 12 Euro an hour, what's included for the ski school varies, e.g. some provide free accommodation, others subsidise it.
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As a BASI instructor I am not sure you would walk into a job as Austrian ski schools think poorly of the BASI qualification- you may well be asked to take an Anwärter course at your cost to get a position. Having done this myself back in the EARLY 90's - before Austria was in the EU, (so a similar scenario to us not being), you needed to go to the local arbeitsampt (employment office) and get an arbeitsbewilligung (work permit)- then go see all the local ski schools and see if they need someone. It isnt your sketchy German that matters to them, they have plenty of Deutsche speakers in Austria - they will most likely need you for English school groups in February and the rest of the time you will be the goto for British punters who are beginners. All intermediate groups and above will likely go to the local instructors. My advice is pick your resort and go ahead of your planned season in summer - speak to Head of Ski School to nail down a gig- ask if they will provide you a letter advising they need naturalised English speakers. That helps getting the work visa.
My experience was tips were good and accomodation is chaotic but fun as you will house share with a load of other instructors and potentially room share as well. As for the punters most will buy your beers at apres. Most bars have a Stammtisch table for instructors and if you bring in groups you will get preferential prices on beers even when you are off shift. Dont get bladdered in your Reds - its not the done thing 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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No offence, but the early 90's were almost 30 years ago, times have changed... I know of a number of people who have got jobs with Austrian ski school as BASI instructors, and no need to do the Anwaerter. As for what visas may or may not be required for next season, nobody yet knows, but freedom of movement can continue until the end of this year.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@lski, I quizzed a few British ski instructors in the Tyrol a couple of years back. They may have had the red uniform but not a qualification between them. I think the local ski school just turned a blind eye to all that silly regulatory stuff in favour of making money, especially in high season. Simple trick, punters respect a uniform and a badge and don't ask further. I'm not going to say the village because I hear it is pretty general. If you can snowplough and hockey stop you can teach would be the mantra.
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@Pruman, really? In the country of cash only bars, no receipts, smoke where you like, what you like....
I find that very hard to believe!
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| Bodeswell wrote: |
@Pruman, really? In the country of cash only bars, no receipts, smoke where you like, what you like....
I find that very hard to believe! |
What are you talking about?
Here in Austria I pay often in bars with a credit card and always get offered the receipt when I do. Nobody is allowed to smoke in the bars as the owners know it‘s an €800 fine.
It‘s fairly common for there is be a shortage of ski instructors during the peak holidays times (e.g. in Feb). Quite a few Austrians have the anwarter qualification but don‘t normally teach as they have an office job in the city. Many just do one or two weeks a year teaching half days and getting ski pass & money to pay their holiday. Working only a few months of the year as a ski instructor doesn‘t bring in much money, most do something else or have some other form of income.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Pruman wrote: |
| @lski, I quizzed a few British ski instructors in the Tyrol a couple of years back. They may have had the red uniform but not a qualification between them. I think the local ski school just turned a blind eye to all that silly regulatory stuff in favour of making money, especially in high season. Simple trick, punters respect a uniform and a badge and don't ask further. I'm not going to say the village because I hear it is pretty general. If you can snowplough and hockey stop you can teach would be the mantra. |
You can teach kids in the kindergarten area without any formal qualification, it's what got me in to instructing. As a snowboarder, I could snowplough but definitely couldn't hockey stop at the time, and I swear by the end of the week the kids could ski better than me. We all had a fun week tho and didn't put anybody off skiing!
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@lski, Most ski schools in Austria will employ you as a Freelancer with BASI II qualifications. However this means you only earn when teaching and most Austrian Instructors also speak English. Therefore, you will be at the bottom of the queue except for peak holiday times and only when they run out of English speakers. If you intend to self-fund then you may have to think about a second job such as Bar Work to make ends meet. Alternatively, take a job with a tour company and ski when you can. You might be better off in Japan where everyone (except the locals) wants classes in English!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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As a rule of thumb, don't expect any tips from the French. In a small resort in Tirol you will only make about euros 50 after tax per day but if you are nice and ask around you might get a cheap room/bunk up with others. Good idea to look for bar work to keep things ticking over. That seems to pay better. Good luck.
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| Quote: |
As a rule of thumb, don't expect any tips from the French
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Do many French people learn to ski in Austria?
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You know it makes sense.
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I'd be unlikely to tip an instructor who couldn't ski a LOT better than I can. As both the Austrian ski instructors I had in the past most definitely could.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Quite a few from France but obviously not like the Germans, Brits, Dutch, Scandis. All of these tend to speak good English. I think the French come because it is far cheaper than France and Switz etc. If you get the right instructor he or she will be terrific but I have always tipped everybody from when my children were about 3 because I knew the instructors were not being paid well. My children now teach a bit and I subsidise them. If, along with a friend of mine, we go off with a local guide, we will pay the guide well.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I've been a ski instructor in Austria for a few years now, if you want to know some more specifics send me a message! Not sure on the anwärter/BASI thing as we've not had any british colleagues in the time I worked there, but my guess is our ski school would probably require an anwärter qualification (on the kids beginner hill you can work without any qualification though). I'm pretty sure you won't get rich from working for an austrian ski school, in that case it might be better to go to switzerland (heard some good things about the wage there). I usually make 50 euros per day (before taxes, that is), pay 6.50 rent, and if your kids go to lunch with you your lunch is paid for, otherwise you have to pay for it yourself. Can't compare to the UK, but food is a little more expensive than in the Netherlands there; I would say drinks are a bit below Amsterdam level but not much (you do get a small discount as a ski teacher though, I think €2.90 for a beer? don't drink beer myself so i don't remember).
Our area mainly has dutch/german ski instructors, some austrians (some young ones, lot of older guys), and one canadian (I think he'll be mainly studying next year though).
By the way, from what I've heard St. Anton is always very international, so maybe there it might be possible to work with a BASI qualification?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hey guys, I want to do my Anwärter this season and work in Austria as an instructor. However i do not speak german fluently, more at a simple level having learnt it for a couple years at school. What would you recommend? are there any schools that take english speakers ( i speak swedish as well ) or should i look for a different country to work in. Thank you
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@nikolaikja, I guess the first question has to be “ do you have a passport issued by an EU member nation?”, ie. do you have the right to live & work in Austria for a season?
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@nikolaikja, you could try these for your qualification:
https://www.eng.snowsports.at/skiinstructor
If you based yourself in a busy resort you'd probably be able to get work without German, as an example, I was offered work on weekends in Mayrhofen with little to no German. As it happened, visa issues meant I wasn't allowed to do it, but they get enough English speakers that they could pretty much guarantee me work every weekend.
In terms of money I was offered €16 an hour as an IASI Level 2. The other half was speaking to someone who is an instructor while working for Snowbombing and they were doing around 28 hours a week at a similar rate.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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i think there is a verband (assocciation) in Austria which offer anwärter Courses also in English. At least it was so as i searched it many years ago.
Working without qualification is also possible, as far as i know mainly in Salzburgerland.
However i do not know the visa issues.
But definitely you could find something without or with less German knowledge.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| turms2 wrote: |
i think there is a verband (assocciation) in Austria which offer anwärter Courses also in English. At least it was so as i searched it many years ago.
Working without qualification is also possible, as far as i know mainly in Salzburgerland.
However i do not know the visa issues.
But definitely you could find something without or with less German knowledge. |
I’d agree with this. From having done some research on the matter, most ski resorts will offer anwärter courses. There are options in a few resorts to do the course in English. Depending on the Federal/local rules, you may well have to do a first aid course and the Rotes Kreuz typically run this. That will be in German, though it’s not complicated….as far as I could ascertain.
Good luck…and welcome to snowHeads 
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Thanks for the responses lads. I have an EU passport and have found many courses in English, just the problem is that I don't know any ski schools that hire non German speakers. Any of you know any that I can look at?
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you do not have to go this way. IF you make the course , send as many emails as possible and you definitely will find something.
Make the course, concentrate where you would like to go - work - live, and send emails
Otherwise each area - verband, has a job offer website. You could also check there
eg.
https://www.tirolerskilehrerverband.at/service/jobs/
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@nikolaikja, go for popular international resorts, and just fire off emails to all the ski schools. You'll almost certainly find someone will come back to you with work on offer. Don't expect to make much money beyond paying your living costs for the first season or so.
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It is the ski associations, not the resorts, that organise anwärter courses. Tirol, as the post above, or https://www.sbssv.at/ for Salzburgerland. These courses take place in November and December - e.g. on Kitzsteinhorn glacier - with new instructors moving on to their employers from early to mid December. There are also a few courses that run in the summer - e.g. in Hintertux in June/July. It used to be the case that participants were required to have a job offer before being accepted for the course but this no longer seems to apply - in Salzburgerland, course participants now get a €100 discount on the cost of the course if they already have a job offer.
My observation from seeing the groups on Kitzsteinhorn is that most of the participants do not have German as a first language and many have little more than "school" German. Most seem to be from Netherlands, Belgium or Denmark - i.e. countries that don't have many mountains but from where huge numbers of tourists travel in order to ski in Austria. There used to be quite a few Brits, but because of Br.... 
Ski schools need instructors who speak Dutch/Danish/English/Swedish etc as well as German, particularly over the peak holiday periods of Christmas/New Year and February.
For someone from Sweden, look at the Swedish travel company websites and find out which resorts are most popular. Saalbach is an obvious one - there are others. Then just send emails to the ski schools or call and see if you can get a job offer (which will always be conditional on you passing the anwärter course). Ski schools are already advertising 2025 vacancies on the SBSSV Jobroom-board on the website.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I believe Tirol still do all of the training and testing in German but Salzburg will allow English. There are many companies offering ski and language courses combined at an extravagant price over the cost of doing the course directly with the governing body. Even if your German is very basic it is enough, when I did Anwarter in Tirol years ago the instructor said' I have to deliver the course in German but if you don't understand something then ask me on the lift', they also allowed dictionaries for the written exam and everyone had a 'leaked' copy of the exam before the test.
Many ski schools will take non German speakers in high season but make not have so much work available for non German speakers outside of the Christmas/ new year / half term peaks.
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