Five reasons to train as a Cumbria Blue Badge Tourist Guide

Cumbria is short of professional, accredited tourist guides

The last course was run ten years ago, and our numbers are dwindling: guides move away or retire, and as others extend their range of guiding qualifications, they spend more and more of their time guiding in other areas, and less in Cumbria.  Once we have ‘beaten the virus’, the indications are that the local visitor economy will bounce back, and more qualified Blue Badge Guides will be needed to satisfy demand and to offer new visitor experiences in the post-Covid environment.

The training is life-changing

Training to become a Blue Badge Guide is truly a game changer. It opens doors to an exciting career that can be developed in a variety of ways depending upon personal circumstances. I was in my twenties when I qualified, and for many years my Blue Badge Guide work complemented bringing up a family and working as a translator. Now that my children are making their own way in the world, I’m loving working full time as a tourist guide and trainer of guides. All those years ago I never envisaged how satisfying a career would develop out of that incredibly intense year of study that culminated in being presented with my shiny new Blue Badge. For some people training as a guide leads to a second career after retiring from, for example, teaching, the emergency or uniformed services. Others successfully combine guiding with other self-employed work, such as providing office or consultancy services.

Working as a Blue Badge Guide is exciting, varied and challenging

A typical day’s work often involves guiding visitors by coach or private vehicle around the Lake District, Hadrian’s Wall, the Pennines, Eden and Lune Valleys or coastal areas.  But no two days are ever the same.  We work with a mix of clients with a range of interests and of various nationalities, and tours delivered by Cumbria Blue Badge Guides in 2019 included:

• A familiarisation visit for travel agents from the Indian subcontinent, visiting Muncaster Castle, La’al Ratty and Ullswater Steamers
• A walking group from Israel who also wanted to learn of the Windermere Boys’ visit to Calgarth Park at the end of World War II
• An annual walk to Loughrigg with a large contingent of Canadian students
• A two-day festival promoting Norman Nicholson’s landscape and environment around Millom, linking the poetry to local places by means of guided walks
• A business team event, with a walk to Lanercost Priory and visit to Birdoswald Roman Fort and a coach tour west to the Solway Firth
• A family group researching their history and visiting places in the North Pennines where their ancestors had farmed, mined and worked on the railways
• A Border Reivers tour with special emphasis on the Graham family
• A panoramic coach tour around Carlisle, pointing out features of interest
• A guided walk through Borrowdale
• A photography tour along Hadrian’s Wall
• A farming tour for a group from Mississippi, highlighting the differences and similarities between farming on either side of the pond

It’s a career that provides opportunities for progression

The Blue Badge is just the start!  For instance, I trained in Cumbria in 1995, and over the years have qualified in Yorkshire and the Liverpool City Region.  I’m also accredited to guide in York Minster, having spent a week in York studying the Minster’s architecture, stained glass and history.  In 1999 I started the process of becoming a guide trainer myself and was invited to assist with training the next cohort of Cumbria Guides.  Having completed my training portfolio, I have gone on to train Blue Badge Guides in Liverpool, Yorkshire and the Northeast, Green Badge Guides in Salford, and White Badge Guides in Blackpool.  I also deliver training on welcoming visitors to attractions, and as a linguist I’ve run courses aimed at hospitality providers on welcoming German visitors to England.  This year has admittedly been a challenge, but I’ve continued to develop my skills, by undertaking training offered by the British Guild of Tourist Guides in guiding virtual tours.

My colleagues’ experiences are all different.  I’ve chosen to go down the route of gaining additional guiding qualifications and training, whilst others enjoy tour managing around the UK.  However, many guides choose to keep their focus on their first love: guiding visitors around Cumbria – in English or a foreign language.

The rewards are more than just financial

People wishing to make guiding their full-time career usually build up a business and can command a steady, reliable income.  But the rewards aren’t just financial.  Nothing beats the satisfaction of knowing you’ve given a coach-load of smiling visitors a great tour; of listening to a choir singing their way around Cumbria and performing outside Dove Cottage or in the Storyteller’s Garden in Grasmere; of sharing the joy of finding the resting place of a visitor’s long-lost 17^th century ancestor; or of watching a class of teenagers sitting in contented silence on the shores of Rydal Water sketching the beautiful view in front of them, before continuing on a Lakes Poets tour around the Lake District.