Alpine resorts freeze out British ski instructors after Brexit

There are far fewer British ski and snowboard instructors available this year than in the past.

The trade agreement between Britain and the EU that was signed at the end of 2020 left out mutual recognition of professional qualifications, which has made it harder for instructors from Britain to work in the Alps.

Since the reopening of ski resorts in Italy, France, Austria, and even Switzerland after two years of disruption due to the Pandemic, Britons have had difficulty finding work as ski instructors.

Andy is a snowsports training manager at Interski, a tour operator with 40 years of experience in the Aosta Valley. Italian authorities turned down his application for a work permit.

He said that his job requires him to be in the UK for seven months and in Italy for five months.

While Interski recently booked its first British school ski trip in over a year, most client lessons were booked with Italian schools, rather than its own British instructors, despite many outfits being short of capacity.

We were the largest British ski school in the Alps, employing up to 400 British ski instructors a season and covering 1,200 instructor teaching weeks.

Because of the current situation, it is not possible for British ski instructors to work for us.

Tom Cloke, interim chief executive of the British Association of Snowsport Instructors (BASI), said that as the UK was outside the EU, local employers were required to deal with added bureaucracy in order to hire British citizens.

He said that the UK's winter sports had been disrupted. The country's performance at the Winter Olympics in Beijing has been criticized by the sports community.

After working as a British ski instructor in Italy before the Pandemic, Robert Greatbach was hoping to work in the popular French ski resort of Tignes, but his application for a work permit was turned down.

He said that his British qualification is not recognised in France. It will not be formalised until the summer.

Instead, Greatbach was able to fulfill the preconditions to work in a Swiss ski school, which allowed him to work in Zermatt for 90 days a year.

The UK and Switzerland signed an agreement in late 2020 to preserve access of UK services providers to the Swiss market.

I'm lucky to be able to work in Switzerland because I'm self-employed.

Despite not being in the EU, Switzerland allocates work permits more readily to EU citizens and British nationals are competing for jobs there.

Ben Woodhead, a ski instructor at the French resort of Méribel, has seen how hard it is to get British qualifications recognised.

Woodhead said that you can't rock up and get work like you could before, or move between countries.

The authorities are considering allowing their off-piste test to be taken only in French, which would make it harder for UK citizens who don't speak the language very well.

It will stop most British people from being able to train as instructors.

Cloke said that if British citizens had EU residency, they could work in only one country because they couldn't follow the snow and adapt to weather conditions.