The Outdoor Industry Association (UK) has entered a partnership with And Social Events for the March 2024 ‘Outdoor & Social’ training event in The Peak District. One of the core aims of both the event and the OIA is to establish a UK Outdoor Industries certification scheme.
Aimed at staff within outdoor retail companies, from the shop floor through to online customer services, the idea is that the scheme could provide education and certification in a wide range of Outdoor topics.
Andrew Denton, CEO of the OIA, said: “It has been a long-term goal of the OIA to work on education and certification programs. The OIA in the USA has an extensive online training program and when ‘And Social’ brought to us the idea to start something in the UK we were immediately keen. We are excited to work towards defining a full certification scheme covering a broad range of Outdoor categories, not only at this training event and with ‘And Social’ but exploring NVQ’s and apprenticeships, through our partnerships with the Institute of Outdoor Learning and other education specialists. We will be pooling resources and asking some of the most experienced and leading industry members to help structure modules for a certification system.”
Keith Marshall, of And Social, said: “To establish a certification scheme for industry staff to gain qualifications so that they can provide this knowledge to consumers is something we are passionate about. Our free event for retailers and retail staff, Outdoor and Social, is one part of how we can achieve this but there is a long way to go and we are committed to the journey.”
For more information about Outdoor and Social click here and to Register for FREE as a retailer, with all your food, drink and accommodation included for free, see the links below.
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