An idea to maintain relationships after the training to continue our interpretive journeys together.
It sounds a lot – 40 hours of training – but it goes by so quickly. The days of the Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) course are so intense that they just fly by. But strong bonds are made through the training and each group that I have led so far in Slovenia has expressed a desire to keep in touch and do something more together. So, the idea of special celebrations and official presentations of the CIG certificates was born. But, since we are interpretive guides, we have to do things a bit differently. So, we celebrate by inviting the bravest of the lot to be our hosts and present their homework in practice (the final part of the certification process is the submission of an interpretive walk).
We have so far celebrated with three groups of certified interpretive guides in Slovenia. The first by visiting a geological path and discussing how to find the best solution for mass tourism in nature. With the second group we visited the wine region and thought about the heritage of wine production. And the last group visited Maribor’s old centre that is becoming renowned for the oldest vine and working towards becoming the centre of wine tourism in Slovenia.
This get together after the training course has ended reinforces relationships between participants in the group and the relationship with the trainer and Interpret Europe as the organisation which provides the standards of training and their certificates. It is especially rewarding to see how proud they are of their certificates. They all agree that the training and certification process is far from easy, but that it is worth it. To make the day even more special, we also invite family and friends to join us.
Slovene members of IE are also invited to a special event coming up soon on 22 April to meet each other, experience a workshop which was delivered recently at the Koszeg conference, enjoy a museum visit or interpretive tour and talk to Janja about IE training courses. Details can be found in the announcements section or email Janja for further information.
Janja is a Legend. Well she runs NGO Legends, works as a trainer, guide and consultant. She is also an IE certified trainer and IE’s Country Coordinator for Slovenia. She is hooked to everything ‘e’ and can be contacted at: janja.sivec@dlegende.com.
To cite this article:
Sivec, Janja (2018) ‘It is not over after 40 hours of training’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 1-2018, 11.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2018-1_spring.pdf
