What a professional field guide qualification entails

Traverse across four diverse unfenced bush camps and gain quality work experience through our lodge placement programme.

You will be completely immersed in the African bush. Gain practical experience from day one and learn to become a Field Guide in some of the wildest places in southern Africa, including Botswana and our camp in the Kruger National Park.

If you love the idea of taking safari lodge guests from all over the world out on walking and game drive safaris into Africa’s wild places, finding wildlife for them and teaching them fascinating facts about the animals and ecosystems, then EcoTraining’s Professional Field Guide course is for you.

Why you need to have a look at the professional one-year course

This comprehensive and unique one year course has been designed to supply the safari industry with high-calibre FGASA and CATHSSETA EcoTraining qualified professional field guides. This course is, however, not only available to people wishing to enter the industry for a career as field guides, but for anyone who wants to increase their knowledge of the African bush. We understand that a range of professionals do our course for different environmental roles.

It also offers a uniquely well-rounded gap year combining facets from accredited environmental education, to a depth and breadth of life skills, to adventure and inspiration – all rolled out in our camps in Africa’s wilderness.

Whether you imagine yourself to be a game ranger – managing a conservation and wildlife game reserve, or a forest ranger working in a protected park in your country, or a safari guide giving your guests an interpretative game drive, a course of this depth of experience and learning will give you the footing you need for these inspirational careers.

What are some of the modules covered during your year in the bush?

Unravel the mysteries of the bush and learn the art of tracking with the EcoTracker practical animal tracking course.

The tracks, signs, trails and animals are the subject matter you work with. We start with track and sign interpretation and trailing. Then we go onto trailing each other and as skills improve, we work with animal signs and trails to track and find game. It is fun, it is hands on and it is thrilling to learn an ancient artform in the bush.

Appreciation for birds and birding as a hobby has grown tremendously in the last few years. What better way to learn about these creatures than to enrol in the one-year course, and do both the basic as well as the advance birding course towards the end of the year. We will teach you how to successfully identify birds by sight and sounds through spending hours in the bush doing these very practical courses.

Successful candidates could walk away with an array of qualifications to ensure they stand out in the crowd. These include FGASA Field Guide Level 1, Rifle Proficiency – Firearm Proficiency Certificate (with a PFTC [Professional Firearm Trainers Council] accredited provider), FGASA Advanced Rifle Handling, FGASA Trails Guide Back-up, Basic and Advanced Birding, Tracking (Level 1, 2 or 3), Wilderness Medicine (Level 1 and 2), Navigation and Orientation, Guiding experience logged towards FGASA Level 2 practical assessment

You will be placed at lodges so that you can work with experienced guides and managers, to learn with and from them. At the end of the year you will therefore not only be comprehensively qualified, but will also have gained valuable practical experience in the lodge industry.

This is also a great networking opportunity. We currently have around an 83% employment rate from the one-year course, so make every moment count!

Our winning formula

You will be based in camps in prime wildlife areas, and partake in wilderness walks and game drives twice a day. You are trained in different game reserves, exposing you to a diversity of habitats and species. No other training provider can match this variety of training environments, or the frequency of practical activities we offer, especially combined with a team of experienced trainer guides.

10 reasons why EcoTraining is the world leader in guide and nature training

Our Commitment to South Africans

We are local, and to show our support and to enable South Africans to join the one-year Professional Field Guide course we opened limited discounted spots on our January intake for SA Residents.

We will offer two discounted spots on each of our January 2018 intakes to South African residents. You can contact our head office in Nelspruit to take advantage of this offer.

Hear what past students had to say:

“I can only confirm that the care of ECO is very professional and the organisation was perfect. As a mother, I am grateful for the time my son was able to spend there. These beautiful and extraordinary experiences will accompany [him] his whole life. I thank you all and wish you continued success and a lot of nice upcoming customers.”
Deike von Koss, parent of PFG student

“A HUGE thank-you for having Justin on your FGASA 1 course, he loved every minute and has come back a different person to the child we sent you. The guides were excellent, the food fantastic etc … thanks, thanks, thanks … we are so proud of him.”
Ryder Rollinson, Justin Tobias’s father

“The course was fantastic! The knowledge and experience we gained from the training and instructors themselves made it an unforgettable experience as well as a stepping stone into the industry.”
Tanith Meyer

Enquire or make a booking for your spot in the bush – contact EcoTraining telephonically on 0137522532 or via email at enquiries@ecotraining.co.za. You can also like EcoTraining’s Facebook Page and visit their website for more information.