The Ultimate Guide To Nature Training

Nature Guiding is becoming an increasingly popular career choice. With so many nature training companies to choose from, how do you know which one is going to offer you the best training? It’s easy. Always choose a FGASA registered training provider. In this feature three of the countries best training providers give you insight into what courses they offer and what you can expect when studying towards qualifying for a career in nature guiding.

Considered one of the top guiding schools in Southern Africa, LFGA has been operational since 2003, when founder Mark Stavrakis drew on extensive industry experience in the training and management of safari guides, to set up the company. With Nature Immersion as the goal, our courses are designed to give learners the maximum exposure to all-natural aspects and guiding skills.

We offer 9 different start dates for courses each year, thus creating opportunity for getting going at any time of year. We understand that everyone is on a different schedule and are therefore flexible in this regard. With the full, two-month, FGASA endorsed, Apprentice Field Guide course as the flagship product, we have a variety of shorter options to suit all budgets and durations. Examples of different course options are:

FGASA Endorsed Apprentice Trails Guide Course (1 month duration) – includes Advanced Rifle Handling (ARH)

3 week Mentorship Course – Includes guiding and Tracking Training.

4 week Mentorship Course – Includes guiding, Tracking and basic Dangerous Game Training.

Note that the 3 and 4-week options cover the FGASA guiding syllabus in a quicker, more intensive duration, allowing the learner to prepare for National Qualification, which they will complete remotely via the National Sitting of FGASA theory and then completing a practical evaluation thereafter. This allows for course attendance if you are on a smaller budget or have time constraints.

There are also a number of shorter courses on offer, designed to help the learner build towards the National Qualification, or simply to be used as knowledge enhancement tools:

Correspondence Course

Birding Courses

Track and Sign Courses

Basic Dangerous Game Courses

Knowledge Enhancement Courses

If you are a guide with experience on the FGASA system, we have opportunities for you to prepare for the practical evaluations towards: