Outdoor Leadership activity: Caving

3 caving

New Zealand has some of the most spectacular caving opportunities in the world. This underground adventure activity allows people to delve into one of nature's hidden worlds.

With these electives, caving professionals can dive deeper into developing their leadership and guiding skills. 

Choose your programme level

To enrol in these programmes, you need to be working in outdoor recreation, in a paid job, self-employed, or as a volunteer with regular and consistent shifts.

If you don't have a role lined up, contact us to talk about how we can help.

The caving elective is available at Level 4 and Level 5 (Guiding). 

You'll be trained, observed and assessed in the workplace, and some of your assessments will be completed online. 

You will complete a Fundamentals module, in addition to the caving elective. Once you've completed Fundamentals at each level, you can add further electives without having to repeat it. 

The evidence required at each level is outlined below:

Level 4 graduates will be able to plan, organise and lead introductory caving activities

  • At least 10 days' experience leading/guiding with clients in a supervised role
  • Operating in a specific cave within the operator's Safety Management System
  • Using Standard Operating Procedures to determine when to cancel a trip due to changing conditions.

Level 5 (Guiding) graduates will be able to plan, organise and guide caving activities

  • At least 20 days' experience in a variety of caves including at least 10 days leading groups
  • Operating in a specific cave within the operator's Safety Management System
  • Using Standard Operating Procedures to determine when to cancel a trip due to changing conditions.

Once you've achieved your Outdoor Leadership certificate, you will be registered with the New Zealand Register of Recreation Professionals. You can keep your registration current by re-registering every three years.

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