SA AIA Publishes Mountain Walking Guide Courses Curriculum (Revision 3)

Pretoria, Gauteng — 10 June 2026 — The South African Adventure Industry Association (SA AIA) has officially published the Mountain Walking Guide Courses Curriculum – Revision 3, a technical curriculum that documents agreed minimum learning outcomes, progression and assessment expectations for mountain walking competence in South Africa.

This curriculum was developed through an industry working group process and is intended to complement existing mountain walking training routes by providing a shared, public-facing minimum baseline for scope, progression and assessment across sectors.

The curriculum is now publicly available through SA AIA’s Technical Competency Framework and is being released as an open-access (R0) licensed document, ensuring broad access while maintaining official recognition and version control as part of SA AIA’s published standards system.

A practical, industry-led curriculum for two progressive scopes of practice The Mountain Walking curriculum establishes two progressive scopes of practice:

• Mountain Walking Guide – Limited Scope (MWGL): single-day, on-trail activities within defined geographical areas

• Mountain Walking Guide – Full Scope (MWG): on- and off-trail, single- and multi-day activities, with increased operational complexity, expedition logistics, and defined limits for scrambling.

The curriculum includes defined learning outcomes and technical skill requirements across navigation and route finding, movement and group management, safety and risk management, river safety, equipment systems, leadership and environmental responsibility, as well as scope extension modules to support structured progression.

Why this Matters

1. Provides a shared minimum reference for scope and progression across sectors (tourism, education, training, operations).

2. Supports consistent course design and assessment alignment for training providers.

3. Improves transparency for clients, venues and partner organisations.

4. Helps create a common language for competence and risk management in mountain environments.

“This curriculum is about clarity and alignment,” says Jessi Sunkel, Executive Director of SA AIA. “South Africa has deep expertise and strong training routes in mountain environments. Our role is to convene the broader industry and document a shared minimum baseline for scope, progression and assessment that can support both adventure tourism and outdoor learning contexts.”

Supporting future qualifications and multi-sector alignment

South Africa’s guiding and practitioner qualification landscape is evolving, and the national system cannot realistically hold every technical variant of every adventure activity inside a single qualification. SA AIA’s Technical Competency Framework provides the activity-specific “technical layer” that can accompany accredited guiding and practitioner pathways, creating consistency, portability, and defensible safety expectations across sectors — including adventure tourism and Adventure-Based Learning / Learning Outside the Classroom (ABL/LOTC) programmes.

It is designed to be used alongside existing accredited qualifications and recognised training routes, while improving transparency and portability of technical competence across sectors.

What’s next

This curriculum publication is an important step — but it is not the final step in the mountain walking competency set.

The following workstreams are now being progressed:

1. Finalising SA AIA’s generic accreditation system and processes (association-wide session scheduled for 17 June 2026).

2. Formalising the Mountaineering workstream into a chapter structure and appointing interim leadership where required. The mountain walking workstream is currently being progressed through a SA AIA technical working group, and will be formalised into a chapter structure with appointed leadership as the workstream expands.

3. Publishing the Mountain Walking Technical Skills Guideline once the accreditation framework is finalised and aligned.

Availability

The Mountain Walking Guide Courses Curriculum – Revision 3 is available via SA AIA’s website (R0 licensed download) as part of the Technical Competency Framework resources.

About SA AIA

The South African Adventure Industry Association NPC (SA AIA) is a member-driven professional body advancing safe, responsible, and credible practice across South Africa’s adventure tourism and adventure-based learning sectors through standards development, professional recognition, training pathways, and industry collaboration.

Media & Partner Enquiries:

Jessi Sunkel, Executive Director — info@saaia.org.za | +27 76 601 4997 | Website: www.saaia.org.za