By Weiyan Li, in 2022.
Since China started bidding for hosting Winter Olympics in 2013 winter sports have become a popular recreation for Chinese in a fast pace. The government launched a target of getting 300 million people into winter sports since then and series of policies have been implemented through all walks of winter sports. Snow sports, as the pillar of the industry, have witnessed a major leap in this decade. According to the China Ski Industry White Book of 2020, by the end of April 2021, the skier visits in China have reached 20.76 million, a critical revival from the blow of COVID-19 in the previous year which resulted shut-down of all resorts.
The steady and rapid increase of the China Snow Sport Training Market size from 2014 to 2020 have also revealed the change of people’s perception towards this sport, from most just as ‘tourists’ to ‘serious takers’. In 2020 the training market size reaches 6,510 million yuan (about 1,500 million NZD).
Although more and more people taking on the snow sports start to realize that they need to be educated to be really able to enjoy it, there is still a great potential for the snow sport training market to be further activated in China. Statistics shows that in 2021 the average annual visits per person is just 1.91, while that of a fully developed market is 4, which means many people did not come back or stayed less in this sport because of the unsatisfactory experience.
With the new sensations like Yiming Su and Aileen Gu from the 2022 Winter Olympics, the fever for snow sports has been further ignited. The demand for qualified instructors to provide quality education products is going to witness a steady increase and last for years.
Seeing the great potential in the training market in China, many ISIA member systems, such as NZSIA/SBINZ, PSIA/AASI, CSIA/CASI, have all launched different levels/categories of instructor training/certification courses in China through the 3-4 years before COVID-19 hits in 2020.
Just take NZSIA/SBINZ for instance, from 2016 to 2019 before the pandemic situation, NZSIA/SBINZ has facilitated 118 instructor certification courses (71 for ski, 47 for snowboard) for 888 candidates (535 for ski, 353 for snowboard) across 11 resorts in China. Among these courses, majority are level 1 courses, 101 courses for 760 candidates. And much less but fast-growing level 2 courses, 14 courses for 110 candidates and a few children cert courses, 3 courses for 18 candidates. The booming of instructor certification courses, in terms of quantity and category, also reflects the need from this fast growing snow sports training market.
But since the pandemic blow-out started in 2020, for 2 snow fiscal years, no other foreign instructor training/certification courses were held in China except CSIA/CASI. With several CSIA/CASI level 3 instructor and 1 CASI level 4 instructor in China, 78 courses (73 for snowboard and 5 for ski) have been facilitated to 739 candidates (708 for snowboard and 31 for ski), organised by a local company named Xin Jie. (There is also another company doing CSIA ski courses in Chongli only). Among these courses, 63 are level 1 (616 candidates), 8 are level 2 (76 candidates) and 2 park courses (16 candidates).
There are also some new specialised instructor training programs such as GISS by FIS and Burton Academy Snowboard Instructor Certification Courses. All these are on the vast demand of the market because the mandatory official Chinese instructor certification courses ( known as Guo Zhi Exams) are not adequate and lack of efficiency in terms of providing education and tools for teaching, especially only ski exams are widely offered while snowboard exams are still on a test run for twice only since 2019.
In a certain long period of time, eligible instructors who can provide solid lessons to first-timers/beginners will still be on a consistent need from the market. Percentage of professional candidates from the industry would also be exceeding those who are just hobbyists. So Level 1 courses would be of a great need as necessary complement to the current Chinese national certification. Many intended candidates have consulted me so many times when NZSIA can reinstate courses in China. Though some of them who can’t wait for occupational reasons have taken other course they still want to do NZ level 2 courses when available.
To match the fast growing market and its associated needs of instructors with higher education and better knowledge, a wider spectrum of courses could be introduced, such as level 2 certification course, children’s teaching certification, freestyle and park certification. Even some pre-courses on certain facets of even higher certificate could be of a great need. People, who have more sophisticated experience in the sports but seek for improvements, would register for the education itself instead of just winning a certificate. Especially, the snowboarding courses, of which the market is expanding to the world’s largest in a short time. Many of the potential candidates are engaged in various full-time occupations. They need to spare lots of time of their annual leaves to register for a course. Modular training courses with a specific target over a shorter time, followed by a standardised certification exam course would be an ideal approach.
The language barrier, though with many bilingual talents into this industry, can still be one of the main hassle for many Chinese candidates. Many people posted their understanding of some technical and tactical understanding of certain topics of the various certification system on the Chinese social media. A great deal of them has some misinterpretation which may be resulted by misunderstanding. I have also heard some unfavourable comments on the bad performance of the translator from candidates joining a course. The translators working for the certification course play an crucial part in delivering a quality training. It would be highly beneficial and of long term significance to select and train the translators, or even with certification for translators for NZSIA programs.
As of 2022, most of the world is opening up for travelling across countries, China is still adopting a relatively more ‘conservative’ pace towards normalising international travelling. But just like a congested flood, the request for instructor training courses are in a tremendous demand. Foreseeably, there would be more people who are seeking for long-term of training/riding opportunities would love to afford the costs of travelling to neighbour countries/regions opened up, e.g. Japan. There might be chances to offer translated courses or certification exams in those areas as well.
In the future, with more bilingual talents pursuing higher level of certification or even the trainer cert within the NZSIA system, it would be possible to offer certification courses in Mandarin, which will further promote the influence of NZSIA internationally and foster its vitality and diversity, accompanying the growth of Chinese snow sport industry at the same time.