Why should you choose EcoTraining over and above all the other game ranger/guide training courses being offered?

1. EcoTraining has been in the business of training guides since 1993. We were one of the first organisations to conduct these formal training programmes. We have been around for a long time and we plan to be around for some time to come still. We are the pioneers and leaders in our field.

2. EcoTraining conducts their courses in great wilderness areas including one of the greatest national parks in the world, the Kruger National Park. We are also the only providers that have Camps in other areas of Africa. Our students spend their entire course living in the middle of the African wilderness, with wild animals potentially right outside their tents. We do not conduct our courses in air-conditioned lecture rooms in urban areas and then take you on "field trips". The entire course is a "field trip". We don't just have "access" to wilderness areas, we actually live in the wilderness areas. Our camps are unfenced and mostly canvas, so you are in touch with the wilderness all the time. (91 000 hectares of stunning wilderness areas in Africa).

3. EcoTraining is owned and managed by two people with a passion for wilderness. Anton Lategan and Lex Hes have both spent most of their lives visiting and living in wilderness areas. They believe passionately in the need for students to come away from their stay with us with an amazing, exciting learning adventure under their belts together with a better understanding of the way wilderness areas work.

4. EcoTraining is a company dedicated to training. We do nothing else, so we stay focused on making sure that our training programmes are of the highest standards.

5. EcoTraining's instructors have been around for a long time. Apart from other factors, we select our instructors based on the number of years of experience that they have had in the guiding industry. EcoTraining is proud of its specialist trainers that are well known to the industry.

6. EcoTraining has been involved in community training with the Africa Foundation and the Makuleke Community, ensuring that local people living on the borders of our national parks gain access to training which will ultimately provide them with job opportunities.

7. EcoTraining has conducted training programmes for top tourism operators such as Wilderness Safaris, Tanzania Wildlife Safaris, KZN Wildlife, Heritage Group and various privately-owned game lodges in southern Africa. We also place students with well known operators as part of our one year program.

8. EcoTraining's course was the subject of a popular 13-part reality TV series called "Safari School" broadcast on Animal Planet. Due to EcoTraining’s access to wilderness areas it features in many documentaries about Africa. EcoTraining made South Africa’s top 12 things to do in 2010.

9. EcoTraining limits the number of students on each course to a total maximum of 20, with a maximum of 10 students for each instructor. This ensures that the students get personal attention at all times.

10. We encourage all students to check the syllabus and modules offered by a training organisation. Can all aspects be covered in the time available? Sometimes a training provider offers many qualifications which look good on paper, but the time available does not allow for thorough training that is sufficient to pass the FGASA exams. At EcoTraining we offer quality over quantity! Ask our past students on the Facebook groups!

This EcoTraining culture is respected and effective and it has yielded good results in terms of reaching a wide audience, the partners and trainers of EcoTraining have trained somewhere around 5000 people over the years in ten different countries, from rural tribesmen in the Gabonese forest in the Congo Basin of West Africa to Royalty from Europe, here are a few of the organisations where our training has been conducted:
 
• Abercrombie and Kent – Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana
• Heritage Hotels – Kenya
• CC Africa – Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa
• Royal African Safaris – Kenya, Botswana
• Lewa Wildlife Conservancy - Kenya
• Ugandan Wildlife Authority – Uganda
• Tanzanian Photographic Safaris – Tanzania
• Wilderness Safaris – Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.
• Conservation Lower Zambezi – Zambia.
• Kwando – Botswana, Zambia
• KZN Wildlife – Emzemvelo (Natal Parks Board) Thembe, Umfolozi, Hluhluwe, Itala Game Reserves
• Milwane, Mkhaya Lodges – Swaziland
• Shamwari and Amakhala – Eastern Cape
• University of Georgia – United States of America
• London Zoological Society / ECOFAC / Lope National Park – The Republic of Gabon
• Koiyaki Guide School – Masai Mara, Kenya
• Kakadu National Park / Northern Territory – Australia
Make sure you book with a service provider that is known in the industry!