New PSIA-AASI Certification Standards Page is Live!

Set your goals for this season – and upcoming seasons – with the recently updated Certification Standards page, which has the current and newly revised standards.

These standards are updated to meet the changing needs of our snowsports education environment, and now you can see both sets of standards to prepare for your assessments next season (2020-21) and to help you smoothly transition to the new standards, which will be implemented on July 1, 2021.

In a recent podcast, PSIA-AASI National Team Head Coach, Jeb Boyd, and PSIA-AASI Director of Education, Dave Schuiling, discussed the work the Education Leadership Council and the PSIA-AASI National Team is doing to update the standards.

Some top takeaways from the podcast include:

The Strategic Alignment Plan: The new Certification Standards are a key component of the Strategic Alignment Plan, which will create greater consistency across all divisions and disciplines.

Instructors and Examiners Will Benefit from the New Standards: Examiners work to be as consistent as possible in exams. The new standards will make it easier for candidates to train, and also for examiners to determine if the standards are achieved.

How the New Standards Will Go into Effect: The alpine and snowboard standards will be implemented in Fall 2021. “Other than the people skills, we’re not talking about radically new and different standards. It’s more about consistency,” Boyd said.

The implementation of the new standards will also include complementary training. Boyd explained there will be a Performance Guide to educate snowsports school staff, directors, examiners, and instructors on the new standards.

“The Performance Guide will be a common playbook everyone will use to achieve the learning outcomes,” said Dave. “Everyone will be using the same tools to measure the assessment criteria with a common measurement scale. This creates greater consistency and full transparency to reach the standard.”