Trainees from Askham Bryan College have developed lots of skills during their Turing Scheme UK co-funded #OutdoorEducation project in #Sicily.

We promised it!… Here is the video made by Wigan Warriors College trainees about their #OutdoorEducationTuring Scheme UK co-funded project in #Sicily.

Sharing pictures & videos is important to spread the word about the amazing program that is @turingscheme_uk . Our membership partner are taking this task very seriously.Here is a picture of the exhibition organised by @wiganwarriorseducation about their training project in Sicily had on their students. Their video is coming soon.

Watch this great video made by Wigan Warriors trainees about their #OutdoorEducation Turing Scheme UK co-funded project in #Sicily 🏔️🥾🚶🏻🧗🛶🇮🇹.

🚀Find out more about our #training projects abroad: bit.ly/infosessionEP

Trainees from Bradford College have developed lots of skills during their Turing Scheme UK co-funded Outdoor Education project in Sicily 🏔️🥾🚶🏻🚴🛶🇮🇹. In this video they tell us more about their experience!

🚀Find out more about our projects abroad: https://bit.ly/infosessionEP

We are now four months in to our course and have been in Sicily for three of those months, as we spent Christmas and New Years Eve at home with family and friends.

Before we went home the Summer season had come to an end and we had plenty opportunity to explore mamma Etna as well as increase our knowledge in the area. We were able to do some staff excursions where me and Nathan would do the tour to our colleagues and they could give us some constructive criticism back about how we could improve. As well as getting some hints and tips about how to sound better while working, it also helped me come to terms with speaking in front of a group which I was a little nervous about. We had some tutors from four different colleges come out the last week before we left for Christmas. During this week we showed them around Etna and me and Nathan were given the responsibility to do a tour for them on one of the days. We had some worries in the week leading up to this but I think we succeeded in making an enjoyable and interesting tour for them. It was a massive boost of confidence to get my first full tour over with, I feel much better now about going in to next season.

Here's our #VET trainees Walter and Nathan doing a guide tour to #FinishingStrong tutors on mount #Etna. #ErasmusPlus @erasmusplusUK @EtnaFinder pic.twitter.com/BhaJMkrbtV

— EverythingisPossible (@eispossible) December 11, 2017

Since we have come home to Sicily I have had two of my friends visit for the last week, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to show them around the area and give them a chance to eat the amazing food. They were lucky enough to catch a festival we had no idea about when booking the plane tickets, celebrating the local saint of our village, San Mauro. The fireworks at this festival were absolutely amazing and blew any I had ever seen out the water, and as if it wasn’t enough seeing them at night, they would set them off at twelve o’clock in the afternoon as well!

Another day, we visited Taormina where we walked around the city showing them the amazing buildings and corridor streets. We even caught a taxi up to the highest settlement in that region, Castelmola and drank coffee on a balcony with an amazing view over the bay of Giardini Naxos. In the afternoon we even braved the sea down at Isola Bella which honestly wasn’t very cold for the 16th of January and I was surprised we were the only people swimming.

I am now focusing on getting in to a routine of learning Italian daily and trying to better my knowledge of Mount Etna. We have also planned to visit Messina and Palermo in the near future which I am massively looking forward to!

As the summer season came to an end in early November the number of tourists in Sicily has dropped, thus reducing the amount of tours on Etna. White snow now lies over the black ash and lava changing the appearance of the Volcano dramatically, and it won’t be long until the slopes are filled with skiers and snowboarders.

This break in tourism has allowed us to further develop our knowledge of the Volcano, as well as explore some areas we have never seen before. We have been able to delve deeper into the massive Valle Dell Bove which has changed our perspective completely. We’ve explored different caves and visited more natural and isolated areas around the Volcano. All this new information has really helped us understand Etna and has made it a lot easier when explaining things to visitors about it.

Outside of working hours we’ve continued to explore the eastern coast of Sicily and even took a trip down to the southern city of Syracuse although the day was cut short by a rain storm, something we haven’t seen much of during our time here. We’ve also continued to socialise in the evenings with friends and take on some really tough treks around Etna.

Here's our #VET trainees Walter and Nathan doing a guide tour to #FinishingStrong tutors on mount #Etna. #ErasmusPlus @erasmusplusUK @EtnaFinder pic.twitter.com/BhaJMkrbtV

— EverythingisPossible (@eispossible) December 11, 2017

There has been opportunity for us to practice what we have learnt, and a few weeks back Walter and I led our first independent excursion. Seven tutors from various colleges came to Sicily to take a look at the project Walter and I are currently partaking in as well as to plan future projects with Etna Finder. It was up to us to firstly make sure they were safe as well as provide them with information about Etna and Sicily as a nation. It felt great to take what I’ve learnt and really do something with it. After a couple of nervous moments I think we both did brilliantly and the tutors really seemed to enjoy themselves. Although they weren’t paying customers as such, I think it has set us both up perfectly for a successful summer season!
This break in work has also allowed us to fly home for a month at Christmas to see friends and family. I’ve really enjoyed my time back in England but I’m really excited to get back to Sicily and hopefully try and enjoy some of the ski season!

My name is Walter, I am 19 years old and come from Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire. After attending high school in Harrogate I went on to do a two year Outdoor Adventure Sports course at Askham Bryan college in York. This course fitted perfectly with my interest in one day having a profession within the outdoor industry and taught me a lot about being a safe and effective leader in mountainous or lowland terrain as well as being able to manage a group in many different situations. I also learnt a thing or two about environmental science including geology and volcanology. After completing my college course and deferring my place at Cumbria university, I was ready to exercise the knowledge I have picked up from my course as well as enjoy the beautiful outdoors than here on Mount Etna in Sicily?

After six weeks here we have settled in to our home and the surrounding area brilliantly. We have felt amazingly welcomed by the Etna Finder team as well as the locals in the area we live, it seems everyone is very happy to help out where they can to make our stay as comfortable as possible and we have felt spoilt to say the least.

A typical working day will usually start by getting picked up in the morning by a guide, we will then travel to the pickup point for our guests and from there, begin the tour. We will visit a couple of places in the morning; the Bove valley, a vast plane of old lava fows in which the old and extinct volcanoes once stood or the Sartorious craters from 1865, named after a German scientist who mapped Etna so perfectly however two years after he died, the craters popped up which partially distorted his map and therefore taking his name in honor of his hard work. Depending on whether we have a full day or half day we will get a giant and important to note for us students, free lunch that will always consist of Sicilian cuisine – this is always very welcomed by me and my friend Nathan. After lunch we will visit a few more interesting and eye-catching sights around the volcano for example the Grotta della Neve, a lava tunnel or cave used to preserve snow for the production of ice in the 16th century. We may also see the old North side ski station where you can see the ruins of a three story hotel that was engulfed by lava flow in 2002. This place is particularly sad to visit for some of the guides who learned to ski in that area before the destruction of the lava flow as it is a much different place now, having seen pictures from before and seeing it now I can definitely sympathize with them and see how they find it hard to visit. One thing that is very interesting however is that they do not blame Etna for this because it is the nature of a volcano to cover land with lava, instead they try to hold the memories from before the lava flow in their hearts and try to see the land as a new beauty rather than dwelling on what it once was. They say you can’t adapt Etna, you must adapt to Etna in order to live there. And if you don’t like it you can happily move somewhere else.

So far we have mainly been observing the tours almost from a customer’s perspective and trying our upmost to take in information about different sights we go to, so that hopefully we can soon lead our own tours. The guides have been very good at making sure me and Nathan understand completely what they are explaining as well as our customers on the tour. Although I have learnt it doesn’t just take masses of knowledge about volcanology, geology and the flora and fauna on Etna but it is also about entertaining your customers so that they have as fun and interesting a day as possible.

In our free time we have explored some of the coastal towns, including Aci Reale and Taormina – these amazing places, both for history and for doing some snorkeling and sunbathing in the bays. We have also explored the city of Catania on various occasions and have made it a necessity to try the amazing seafood they have on offer within the city as well as discovering the intense nightlife, very fun! So far we have mainly been using public transport to get around, there is a reliable bus service to and from Catania that passes through a lot of the neighboring towns and villages which has been very useful to us. There is also a train service from Catania to coastal towns and also other parts of Sicily which we are yet to visit. In the last week we have acquired bicycles that Lorenzo, our tutor kindly got for us which are perfect as we have much more freedom to travel longer distances in our free time as well as doing some exercises while we’re at it.

One problem we encountered at first was the language barrier when in shops or a restaurant, for example asking for bags or making sure you don’t buy four bottles of lactose-free milk *cough cough*, however we quickly picked up the right things to say, not to say and not to buy and can easily communicate by this point. On top of this people are very quick to try and help you along, often pulling out there phones to use google translate or pulling in other people who speak a little bit of English which is very nice and helpful for us.

All in all our first six weeks have been amazing and I can’t believe how many different experiences I’ve had so far. I am very excited for the coming ten months!

My Name is Nathan I am 21 years old and from Leeds. I’ve always had a passion for the outdoors and prior to this project studied Outdoor Adventure Sports at Askham Bryan College. During my time at college I learnt many things, such as; how to manage a group in an Outdoor and potentially dangerous environment, leading a group on mountainous terrain as well as a good understanding of both geology and volcanology. All of which are transferable to the project I am currently on.

Since arriving in Sicily the guides at Etna Finder, as well as Lorenzo our tutor, have educated us on both the general life and culture of Sicily as well as “Mama Etna” herself. For the first month or so a lot of the time me and my Friend Walter sat in on the tours almost as if we were customers, this allowed us to observe the techniques used by the guides as well as expand our knowledge on the area. The thing we both noticed immediately was the amount of passion the guides had towards Etna, they don’t see Etna as a Volcano they see her as a Mum, that provides them with food and protects them from the cold northern winds.

The tours themselves are never the same, we often visit places like; The Bove Valley, a huge valley on the east side of Etna in which many Lava flows are easily visible. Grotta dell’ Neve, a lava cave that was used hundreds of years ago to preserve and store ice for the summer season. The Sartorious Craters, a series of secondary extinct craters that were formed in 1865. And of course the summit area of Etna at which the views are mesmorising and youre able to gauge the true size of Etna. Also Etna Finder run wine tours, these tours consist of a morning on Etna followed by an afternoon at a winery at which the guests can try wines produced on and around Etna. After the wine tasting the winery provides both us, the guides, and the customers with a HUGE meal usually three courses, a pasta dish followed by a meat dish and then desert.

After the first Month of tours and a bit of studying Walter and I are now able to provide some input and share our knowledge with the customers. And I am sure with some more practice will be able to take a tour ourselves.

Outside work we have done a fair bit of exploring, Mainly around Catania which is the closest big city to us around 13km away. We also took a day trip to Taormina, a touristic town where we went snorkelling. The town we are currently staying is called Viagrande its relatively small but is convenient for us as it’s where the work office is based. We have met a fair few locals, all of which have been very welcoming and accommodating to us and have even made a few friends around the area. We have also been on a few days and nights out with the guys from work. Catania itself is booming on a night, there are frequent festivals and events and even if there isn’t there is always something to go and do or see.

The first thing you notice when arriving in Sicily is how crazy the roads are, just a few steps out of the airport and it’s evident. Lorenzo was quick to tell us this however and went on to explain that the stop lines are not an enforcement but instead, a suggestion. Many of the customers on the tours have also mentioned it but after a few days you get used to it. The other problem we often face is the language barrier, however everyone around us seems keen to help as well as practice their English and improve our Italian so it’s not too big of a problem and I do believe we have learnt enough to get by for now.

Overall my first 6 weeks in Sicily have been really enjoyable and I am very excited to learn more about Etna as well as the Italian language.