Instructor Continuing Education

AIARE Instructors and Course Leaders (CLs) are required to stay up to date with AIARE curriculum, industry and teaching best practices, and their own professional development through annual continuing education (CE). The AIARE CE Program provides AIARE Instructors and CLs with a menu of courses to tailor to their individual development needs.

Instructors are required to engage in at least 8 total hours of continuing education each year in order to remain current.

Thanks to the many high-quality virtual course offerings available in our industry, this can be a combination of virtual and in-person courses from one to eight hours in length offered by either AIARE or from a growing list of approved non-AIARE courses, including regional SAWS, ISSW, and AMGA training.

To remain connected to AIARE-specific skills and content, at least half of CE hours every two years (or 8 out of 16 hours across two seasons) must be met with AIARE-offered continuing education course(s).

Each fall, when you pay your annual instructor dues and acknowledge the AIARE Code of Conduct, you will also need to upload a record of your previous two seasons of continuing education using the template linked below. For example, if submitting in Fall 2022, you will need records of your CE from the winters of 20/21 and 21/22.

Instructors who are inactive for more than one season will need to contact the Rec Program Director to determine a professional development plan to become an active AIARE Instructor again.

Download CE Tracking Template (.xlxs)

*REMINDER: AIARE waived the AIARE-led CE requirement for the 2021-22 season. This means that forms uploaded in the fall of 2022 will be required to show 16 hours of continuing education over the past two seasons, but there is no requirement for any of those hours to be from AIARE-led courses. In 2023, 8 of the 16 hours of continuing education for the past two seasons will need to be from AIARE courses.

AIARE-Offered Continuing Education

For the 2022-23 season, AIARE will be offering a webinar series as well as two in-person workshops. These courses are designed for avalanche education professionals and are open to any instructor from an AIARE or non-AIARE provider.

Recorded webinars from the 2021-22 season may still be used to meet AIARE-CE requirements if you have not yet watched them. They are found at the bottom of the webpage linked below.

NOTES:

  • A PRO 2 course from any A3 course provider, as well as the AIARE Course Leader Training, count as AIARE Continuing Education.
  • If you took the AIARE Instructor Training Course last season, please just list your ITC on the CE tracking template and upload that as a PDF to your Instructor Status Requirements page. Alternatively, you may upload your ITC certificate of training.
View AIARE CE Courses

List of Approved Non-AIARE CE Courses

The courses in the list below have been approved as non-AIARE CE opportunities. Please note that because the purpose of CE is to engage in continuing education yearly, the maximum number of “credit” hours that will be honored as non-AIARE CE for a single course is 8, even if the amount of hours exceeds the requirement. This means that if you engaged in more than 8 hours of CE in a given season, the extra hours do not count toward your CE requirement for any future seasons.

Don't see your training listed below? Keep reading!

Non-AIARE courses are approved by AIARE on a regular rolling basis. General guidelines for acceptable courses are those that are open to any AIARE Instructor to enroll (i.e. not in-house employee trainings) and are relevant professional development for avalanche educators. Suggestions of synchronous and asynchronous virtual training, as well as in-person training, are welcome. If you would like to suggest a course, or want to know if a training you took (OR taught) can count as CE, please send a course description, syllabus, and the number of hours, to AIARE Rec Program Director Liz Riggs Meder.

Non-AIARE Courses or Conferences approved for Continuing Education Credits
(as of 1/16/2023)

Instructors are required to engage in at least 8 cumulative hours of continuing education each year in order to remain current as an instructor. This may be accomplished with one event, or by summing up hours completed from multiple shorter events.

You may use in-person, virtual, AIARE-provided, or non-AIARE CE, as long as 8 of 16 hours across two seasons are AIARE-provided CE.

To remain connected to AIARE-specific skills and content, at least half of CE hours every two years (or 8 out of 16 hours across two seasons) must be met with AIARE-offered continuing education course(s). The remaining 8 hours may either also be met with AIARE-offered continuing education courses, or with courses, trainings, and events listed in the above approved non-AIARE CE list.

*REMINDER: AIARE waived the AIARE-led CE requirement for the 2021-22 season. This means that forms uploaded in the fall of 2022 will be required to show 16 hours of continuing education over the past two seasons, but there is no requirement for any of those hours to be from AIARE-led courses. In 2023, 8 of the 16 hours of continuing education for the past two seasons will need to be from AIARE courses.

Non-AIARE courses are approved by AIARE on a regular rolling basis. General guidelines for acceptable courses are those that are open to any AIARE Instructor to enroll (i.e. not in-house employee trainings) and are relevant professional development for avalanche educators. Suggestions of synchronous and asynchronous virtual training, as well as in-person training, are welcome. If you would like to suggest a course, or want to know if a training you took (OR taught) can count as CE, please send a course description, syllabus, and the number of hours, to AIARE Rec Program Director Liz Riggs Meder.

If you decide to take a season (or more) off from teaching with the intention of resuming your instructor status at a later time, we ask that you still remain current on CE requirements during the season(s) you take off. Instructors who are inactive for more than one season will need to contact the Rec Program Director to determine a professional development plan to become an active AIARE Instructor again.

Each fall, when you pay your annual instructor dues and acknowledge the AIARE Code of Conduct on your Instructor Status Requirements page you will also need to upload a record of your previous two seasons of continuing education using the CE tracking template. For example, if submitting in Fall 2022, you will need records of 8 hours of CE from the winter of 20/21 and 8 hours of CE from the winter of 21/22. Remember that 8 of those 16 hours listed on your template must be AIARE-provided CE.

Yes. Please just list your ITC on the CE tracking template, and upload that as a PDF to your Instructor Status Requirements page. Alternatively, you may upload your ITC certificate of training.

Because the purpose of CE is to engage in continuing education yearly, the maximum number of “credit” hours that will be honored as non-AIARE CE for a single course is 8, even if the length of the training exceeds the requirement. This means that if you engaged in more than 8 hours of CE in a given season, the extra hours do not count toward your CE requirement for any future seasons.

Please send a description and syllabus of what you taught, along with the number of hours, to REC Program Director, Liz Riggs Meder for review.