Becoming a Cycle Trainer

you should be alright, if anything just having a bit more evidence you consolidated training will get you a good mentoring, if it is a few months over shouldnt be a problem.

Bikeability

As a qualified NS Instructor how does one get listed as a Bikeability Instructor?

To teach Bikeability you have to be registered with an ITO; you can register with more than one. It's free (except for one ITO, I forget which). There is a thread about ITOs on this forum.

I'm interested in the Bikeability course. I've been trying to build up some voluntary experience, though as I'm currently living with my parents in a pretty rural area there's not anything running at the local schools until the spring. There appears to one bikeability accredited private cycle instructor in the area, so I'll contact him to see if it's possible to shadow him before taking a full course.

I assume London will the closest place to find an ITO? Is voluntary experience a necessity prior to taking a course (obviously it would help...)?

Yeah volunteering is a good way in, esp if you have no experience with kids.
get down the the schools that the trainer works with- suggest meeeting the trainer first then if hes contracted by a council start getting to know them, generally speaking in the regions bikeability co-ordiantors in councils should be jumping at getting a young person on board. even in Poole I can make £15 an hour doing this after full accreditation, it might seem like a long journey just to be able to teach kids to ride safe,
but if youre up for it,
it beats working for a living. Good luck

The skills required to take the course Include being a confident rider, having good communication skills and around 4 or 5 hundred pounds. experience whether volunteering or paid work with young people will help you get a job once qualified.
And yes there are 4 ITOs in greater London to choose from

being a confident rider, having good communication skills and around 4 or 5 hundred pounds
You might be able to NOT pay the 4/5 hundred quid - some councils will pay for your training course in return for your working X number of courses for them. This will help you gain experience and this is what will help you to pass your final assessments.

Great, thanks, I'll look into courses in a bit more depth shortly. Unfortunately I'm currently in Norfolk and the local councils use their own training scheme so I find it unlikely they'll be willing to pay for the course.

They might do though- even if their scheme is not Bikeability accredited I would imagine they use national standards and national standard trained instructors.

Does anyone know if bursaries are still available?

Sorry to say they are not

necro post

I'm doing the British Cycling NSI course over the next two weekends, should be interesting!

It's delivered at the National Cycling Centre so hopefully I'll get chance to have a nosey around the velodrome at some point.

I'll be around in bmx side until 11.30 both Saturdays so come have a look/say hi!

I'm looking at doing this in the next few days. I can't decide if I should go via cycleconfident(more local to me) or cycletraining.co.uk(only about 20min ride more). Any experiences with either? They both give really sketchy info on the bit between the 4 day course and the post course assessment and a £600 punt to a dead end isn't what I need right now.

.

Essentially once you have done the course you are on your own. It's up to you to find the work. Being provisionally accredited shouldn't stop you, people can go a long time before they do the assessment. So it depends on how committed you are, how far you are willing to travel for work and how flexible you can be.
I felt the same way after I did the course, that there wasn't really any useful information on finding work, but everyone is in the same boat. You do now, at least, have this sub-forum to provide advice and information.

@WillMelling thanks, it's been hard to find that answer.

Bit of a dredge... I'm hoping to train with Bikeworks towards becoming a qualified cycle trainer this summer. It seems a bit of a funny time to be doing that with the recent uncertainty about government funding for cycle training. I plan to use the skills I'd gain to create and deliver a training scheme for the company I work for when hiring new cargo bike riders. Has anyone qualified recently and can offer any advice or guidance? Also, is anyone able to share with me what a typical wage for a qualified cycle instructor might be?

There's not really a typical wage as it all depends on how much work you do which depends on how much work you want to do. Per hour once you have done your PCA it's not bad but you'd have to work a lot to make anything close to an average wage.
I know the person who devised the training regime for PedalMe so he might (or might not) be able to help you in that regard.
There's never really been a worse, or at least uncertain, time to start if you want to make it your job but for what you plan it could be ok.

Thanks for the response! Yeah I'm not looking to make a career out of full time cycle instruction, just looking at a ball park hourly wage so I can make sure I'm not over or under selling myself.
I spoke to Chris who's a trainer for PedalMe who's very lovely and helpful but can understandably only share so much of the training scheme they sell for £700~ a pop

Also, I know that this is a strange time to be asking this and I stand in solidarity with anyone who's job may be affected by these government cuts. It's a rough time to be alive!

Is anyone on here a working cycle instructor working with adults? I've just finished my course and need to get some experience under my belt before my post course assessment. I was hoping I might be able to shadow a few sessions to see how the theory applies to a real world situation!

Where are you based?

Near Crystal Palace. Happy to travel within reason though!

OK we may well have some adult training in tewer hamlets or Hammersmith
Pm me