New national standards for training high-ropes instructors as demand grows for such activities

SINGAPORE — New national guidelines on the training standards of high-ropes instructors were launched on Tuesday (Jan 18) in a bid to have a common syllabus and certification structure.

Under this new standard course by the Singapore Sport Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, practitioners will have to go through a tiered approach to be certified. 

Mr Rasip Isnin, secretary-general of the federation, said that current trainers and instructors are certified according to the syllabus provided by various operators, which may result in different teaching methods in areas such as safety management.

When asked if the move was spurred by the death of a 15-year-old student last February, who lost his footing while at a height during a school camp programme, Mr Rasip said that it was not so.

He added that the new standards guide has been a work in progress for several months now and the move was due to the increasing interest in high-ropes courses.