Freelance Cycle Training Instructors: Preliminary questions

Can you answer YES! to all of the following questions:

  1. Do you live in Bristol?
  1. Do you ride everyday or almost everyday and feel confident and competent cycling on a variety of roads including very busy ones?
  1. Do you have recent proven experience working with young people? (not including your own!)
  1. Do you have good other, on-going freelance work? (Cycle training can be very patchy at times – read below!)
  1. Do you have availability two days a week?
  1. If are not an NSI, are you able to part-fund your NSI training and do some un-paid work?
  1. If you are not an NSI are you available to attend training on: 3,4,10,11 September 2012?
  1. Are you already a NS instructor? (Still read on – you need to make sure that what Life Cycle can offer will suit you.)

If you were able to answer YES to all of the above then read on!

Freelance Cycle Training Instructors: Job description

Life Cycle UK’s mission is to help more people take up cycling. We see the bicycle as an affordable, practical means of transport that benefits the environment, promotes health and that helps create safer, friendlier communities. We specialise in innovative, “hands on” projects that raise awareness of the benefits of cycling and that enable more people to take it up.

Demand for our services is growing and we are looking for more people to act as cycle training instructors accredited to, and delivering, the National Standard. 90% of our work is providing on-road training for young people of primary school age. We also provide one-to-one training for adults and teenagers. We operate mainly in Bristol.

Recruitment is on-going and I would be happy to receive an application from anyone who is interested. If you cannot be recruited immediately then I will keep you on file for when we have a vacancy.

Hours

  • Variable. We are looking for people who have regular weekday availability. We are able to offer almost year round casual employment on a freelance basis.
Location
  • We are looking to recruit people in Bristol.

Main tasks

  • Providing training for students in years 4 to 6.
  • Delivering training in schools as well as teaching courses during the school holidays.
  • Occasional work with Year 7 students in secondary schools and on holiday courses.
  • Teaching control skills away from traffic plus practical on-road training.
  • Riding on-road with the young people from the playground to the training area.
  • At all times looking after the safety and well being of the young people in your care.
  • Collecting and returning course paperwork to the Life Cycle UK office.

Additional tasks

  • Providing training to adults on a one-to-one basis.
  • Providing training for teenagers on a one-to-one basis.
  • Providing training for groups of year 1 to 4 students
  • For the right applicant there may be bike maintenance work

Qualifications

  • Ideally you would be a National Standard Instructor Qualified (NSIQ) or National Standard Instructor Provisional (NSIP). However for those with the right experience and availability, Life Cycle will part-fund people to train to The National Standard.

Potential instructors should

Have good other freelance work. Why?

  • The cycle training courses run in 4 or 5-week blocks during term times which leaves gaps at the beginning and start of each term when you will not be working.
  • PM bookings in general. Due to literacy and numeracy being taught in the mornings many schools prefer to have their cycle training in the afternoons.
  • If you work 2 afternoons per week your likely earnings for one term will be £133.50 (although you could earn up to £400 per term) in total although it can be much busier in June & July.
  • Gaps in work for holidays. We do run holiday courses on 3-consecutive days during half term and summer holidays in Bristol but unless you can make yourself available for these courses there will be gaps between work that can be several weeks.
  • It is essential that you have good other freelance work to fill all the gaps.

Does it sound like we are trying to put you off? We are! The pay and conditions only work for a small minority of individuals so please think carefully about whether it would work for you before putting in an application.

You must:

  • love cycling and like children!
  • be a regular urban cyclist able to cycle competently and confidently in a variety of traffic conditions.
  • be fit and healthy. Our training covers a wide geographical area and you are standing up whilst working. You need to have good physical fitness and plenty of stamina.
  • have recent, proven experience working with and being solely responsible for groups of 8 – 11 year olds. (Having your own children is not sufficient!)
  • have experience in a teaching, training or instructing role with young people and adults.
  • be friendly, tolerant and outgoing and able to empathise with the problems that young people may experience.
  • possess good organisational and computer skills. You will need to be able to read an excel spreadsheet to find out when and where you are booked for work, print some of your own paperwork to use at the school and report back to the office on a regular basis. You are freelance so you also need to be able to manage your own tax returns etc,.
  • be a good listener and have good communication skills.
  • be familiar with the current theory of safe cycling and or be willing – and able – to learn.
  • be able to stay calm in all situations.
  • be punctual, reliable and trustworthy.

It is also essential that you are available for work two days a week Mondays to Fridays on a regular basis for the foreseeable future.

It is also useful if you have

  • A first aid qualification.
  • A clean driving licence and access to a car would be advantageous. We work over a wide geographical area where public transport is sometimes not available or in-practical.
  • Bicycle maintenance skills (other work within Life Cycle UK may be available if you do)

Disclosure (“police checks”)

  • Due to the nature of our work all instructors should be prepared to be checked via the Criminal Records Bureau.
  • Schools in Bristol will often ask to see your original CRB + a form of photo ID and may refuse entry to anyone with anything on their CRB.
  • Additionally, Life Cycle UK will require two references, one of which must be related to your work with young people.

Payment

  • Instructors operate as freelance contractors carrying out work when it is convenient for you. We pay £8.90 ph for provisionally qualified instructors, rising to £10.20ph when fully qualified.
  • 1 mile from your home Life Cycle will make a contribution towards your travel costs of 30pper mile.

Life Cycle UK’s National Standard Instructor recruitment process

Step one: Return your application form and chat to Life Cycle

Before returning your application make sure that you have read the job specification (above), that you are sure you are who we are looking for and that what we can offer is what you are looking for.

On the strength of your application form and after an informal chat with Tamar or Frances in the Life Cycle office, you will be offered a subsidised place on one of our National Standard Instructor training courses. Offering you a subsidised place means that from what you have told us, we think you would make a good cycle training instructor. It is not a commitment to offer you work at this stage.

Step two: National Standard Instructor training course:

This is a Nationally recognised certificate and consists of a four-day course which includes both classroom based and practical activities. To work for Life Cycle you must achieve a Provisional pass.

The course cost is £450 per person. Life Cycle UK will contribute £150 towards this cost. NB: We cannot guarantee that we will offer you work at the end of it.

Step three: Decision on you joining the freelance team:

At the end of the Instructor training course the Instructor Trainer gives the office information on your overall performance and suitability for the kinds of work we have on offer. Your Instructor Trainer will have worked as a cycle trainer for us for many years and is best placed to assess if you would make a successful trainer for us or not.

If the feedback on you was positive then we would invite you to join the freelance team. You would need to come into the office and meet us (Frances and Tamar), start your CRB etc,.

Additional requirements for Instructors who join the freelance team:

  • Observing training:

You must observe a full course of Level 2 training before you take the National Standard Instructor training course. A full course is 1.5 hours of training spread over 5 weeks.

If you are already trained you would need to observe one full course before you start work.

  • Working un-paid for the first course:

You must work with an Instructor Trainer for your first course and this is un-paid. The money ‘saved’ by not paying you is used to mentor in your early months.

On-course mentoring: We would give this to you as soon as possible and would be when you are working with a National Standard Instructor Trainer. You would work alongside but they would guide you, support you and feedback to you.

Observed mentoring: One of Life Cycle’s National Standard Instructor Trainers would come out and watch you teach, chat to you afterwards and give you written notes as feedback. This is similar to but not a Post Course Assessment – see later.

  • Guided ride training:

Life Cycle rides on-road with trainees. Before you are able to lead this activity you need to have specific training. This is un-paid.

  • Post course assessments:

To achieve full accreditation you must have two post course assessments. One is mentored, the other is assessed. The cost for these assessments would normally be £100 per visit. If you work for Life Cycle we would pay for these assessments.

Still interested?

Fill in the application form and email it to