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#instructorcourse – An innovative training programme on the shores of Upper Lough Erne is set to welcome participants from all over the UK and Ireland to undertake Outdoor Instructor Training and fast track them into a career in the outdoors.

Share Discovery Village are offering an intensive 15 week modular course focusing on water sports such as Dinghy Sailing, Windsurfing, Canoeing, Kayaking and Power Boating. The Fast Track Water Sports Course enables participants to gain the internationally recognised national governing body qualifications, skills and experience to qualify as outdoor instructors in time for the Spring season when most sun based destinations begin recruitment. As Share Course Co-ordinator Damien Smith suggests;

"The course is a springboard for people completing a sports or outdoor related degree to gain the qualifications needed to work in the industry, or indeed for people to gain some sought-after qualifications that will enable them to work whilst travelling the world. Our friendly and highly experienced Instructors are at the top of their game and looking forward to meeting new people and working on the new programme."

With over 30 years' experience in running instructor training programmes, SHARE is now the largest and most well renowned residential outdoor activity centre in Ireland. Based in County Fermanagh, on the shores of Upper Lough Erne, SHARE offers the ideal lakeside location to deliver, top quality water based training programme.

Starting with an open day in late October, potential candidates are welcomed to try out some of the activities, see the vast range of facilities and equipment on offer and have any pertinent questions answered, before signing up for the course which begins in November 2012. To ensure success to instructor level it's important to have at least a basic personal skills level in each of the three disciplines. SHARE's ten day foundation level course, run just prior to the main course, offers a kick start to the training in each discipline. Candidates will then undergo intensive month long tuition in each sport developing personal skills before undertaking instructor training.

This modular programme enables candidates already holding qualifications in the various sports the opportunity to pick and choose training to suit their needs, ensuring the course is cost effective and all encompassing for people on a gap year or career break, career changers, school leavers, university graduates and outdoor instructors wishing to develop their career further. However signing up for all three courses comes with an attractive 9% discount on the overall price.

SHARE are renowned for their all inclusive prices with no hidden extras, so candidates can avail of full board twin room accommodation in cosy chalets for the duration of each module, qualifications and all associated costs, savings of up to 40% on outdoor equipment, free use of Share Fitness- pool, sauna, Jacuzzi and steam room, and free use of Centre equipment including sailing boats, kayaks, canoes, windsurfing kit and sports hall.

Candidates must be 17 years old and over with a good level of physical fitness. For more information contact SHARE on +44 (0) 2867 722 122 or email [email protected]

Click here to access the application form and additional information directly.

Published in Jobs

Ireland's Trading Ketch Ilen

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

Designed by Limerick man Conor O’Brien and built in Baltimore in 1926, she was delivered by Munster men to the Falkland Islands where she served valiantly for seventy years, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties.

Returned now to Ireland and given a new breath of life, Ilen may be described as the last of Ireland’s timber-built ocean-going sailing ships, yet at a mere 56ft, it is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

Wooden Sailing Ship Ilen FAQs

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

The Ilen was designed by Conor O’Brien, the first Irish man to circumnavigate the world.

Ilen is named for the West Cork River which flows to the sea at Baltimore, her home port.

The Ilen was built by Baltimore Sea Fisheries School, West Cork in 1926. Tom Moynihan was foreman.

Ilen's wood construction is of oak ribs and planks of larch.

As-built initially, she is 56 feet in length overall with a beam of 14 feet and a displacement of 45 tonnes.

Conor O’Brien set sail in August 1926 with two Cadogan cousins from Cape Clear in West Cork, arriving at Port Stanley in January 1927 and handed it over to the new owners.

The Ilen was delivered to the Falkland Islands Company, in exchange for £1,500.

Ilen served for over 70 years as a cargo ship and a ferry in the Falkland Islands, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties. She stayed in service until the early 1990s.

Limerick sailor Gary McMahon and his team located Ilen. MacMahon started looking for her in 1996 and went out to the Falklands and struck a deal with the owner to bring her back to Ireland.

After a lifetime of hard work in the Falklands, Ilen required a ground-up rebuild.

A Russian cargo ship transported her back on a 12,000-mile trip from the Southern Oceans to Dublin. The Ilen was discharged at the Port of Dublin 1997, after an absence from Ireland of 70 years.

It was a collaboration between the Ilen Project in Limerick and Hegarty’s Boatyard in Old Court, near Skibbereen. Much of the heavy lifting, of frames, planking, deadwood & backbone, knees, floors, shelves and stringers, deck beams, and carlins, was done in Hegarty’s. The generally lighter work of preparing sole, bulkheads, deck‐houses fixed furniture, fixtures & fittings, deck fittings, machinery, systems, tanks, spar making and rigging is being done at the Ilen boat building school in Limerick.

Ten years. The boat was much the worse for wear when it returned to West Cork in May 1998, and it remained dormant for ten years before the start of a decade-long restoration.

Ilen now serves as a community floating classroom and cargo vessel – visiting 23 ports in 2019 and making a transatlantic crossing to Greenland as part of a relationship-building project to link youth in Limerick City with youth in Nuuk, west Greenland.

At a mere 56ft, Ilen is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

©Afloat 2020