INSTITUTE vs APTG
Interesting to see Adam Smith on the new £20 note - he it was who said that when people of the same profession or trade get together, if only for social purposes, it is not long before they start to conspire against the public. Or, as G B Shaw put it more pithily, the professions are a conspiracy against the common man. I thought of this when confronted with the statement from the Insitute about the Westminster guide course which APTG and the Guild are supposed to have endorsed, but which APTG immediately repudiated.
After a few years as a civil servant, I became a guide to get away from bureaucracy - but now I find that bureaucracy is following me into this profession. Briefly (?) the Institute of Tourist Guiding is under pressure to undermine/eliminate the Westminster Guide Course run by City University - particularly from mebers of APTG who do not want a rival to the blue badge course which they feel would undermine their status and position. At first I shared some of these concerns but now I am not so sure.
The reason is that the new Westminster course does not do much more than qualify you to conduct walking tours (which anyone can do - you need no qualifications for these kind of tours which are totally unregulated). It does not include Wesminster Abbey, the obvious site, which only blue badge guides can conduct tours in, so it seems a relatively minor threat to the badge.
The fact that it does not include the Abbey or any other site means that it is not accredited by the Institute as an official course, although that does not necessarily mean it has no right to exist. To complicate matters, it is run by Lucy McMurdo who is on the accreditation committee of the Institute and who thus has a conflict of interests.
Hell hath no fury like a) a woman scorned and b) a qualified professional person who feels his status is under threat. I work mainly in extended touring and should be careful not to dictate to full-time guides what they should be concerned about but the tussle over this course seems to be a million miles from making sure that people have a good day out or extended tour.
This wone will run and run...
After a few years as a civil servant, I became a guide to get away from bureaucracy - but now I find that bureaucracy is following me into this profession. Briefly (?) the Institute of Tourist Guiding is under pressure to undermine/eliminate the Westminster Guide Course run by City University - particularly from mebers of APTG who do not want a rival to the blue badge course which they feel would undermine their status and position. At first I shared some of these concerns but now I am not so sure.
The reason is that the new Westminster course does not do much more than qualify you to conduct walking tours (which anyone can do - you need no qualifications for these kind of tours which are totally unregulated). It does not include Wesminster Abbey, the obvious site, which only blue badge guides can conduct tours in, so it seems a relatively minor threat to the badge.
The fact that it does not include the Abbey or any other site means that it is not accredited by the Institute as an official course, although that does not necessarily mean it has no right to exist. To complicate matters, it is run by Lucy McMurdo who is on the accreditation committee of the Institute and who thus has a conflict of interests.
Hell hath no fury like a) a woman scorned and b) a qualified professional person who feels his status is under threat. I work mainly in extended touring and should be careful not to dictate to full-time guides what they should be concerned about but the tussle over this course seems to be a million miles from making sure that people have a good day out or extended tour.
This wone will run and run...
posted by tourguideddie at 3:25 AM
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