become an instructor

Credit: Stéphane Terrier

We teach in classrooms and remote wilderness locations.

We look for educators who are growth-oriented and passionate about teaching.

 

 

NOLS Field Instructor

To become a NOLS field instructor, your first step is to complete a NOLS Instructor Course. The Instructor Course is expedition-based training focused on preparing you to teach NOLS’ expedition core curriculum: leadership, risk management, outdoor skills, and environmental studies.

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A circle of course participants listens to a lesson in the Alaskan wilderness.

Alaska Instructor Course This 24-day course combines focused ...

Alaska Instructor Course

This 24-day course combines focused leadership training with a backpacking expedition and exposure to specific Alaska wilderness travel skills.
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Course participants white water rafting at the Gates of Lodore in Colorado.

River Instructor Course You’ll travel in rafts, kayaks ...

River Instructor Course

You’ll travel in rafts, kayaks and canoes through deep incisions of limestone, shale, and sandstone.
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Course participants backpacking in the distance through a field of tall grass in the Southwest.

Southwest Instructor Course This 24-day instructor course combines ...

Southwest Instructor Course

This 24-day instructor course combines foundational leadership training with a 16-day backpacking expedition and focused top-rope rock climbing.
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A student looking out over snowy peaks while mountaineering in the Wind River Range.

Rocky Mountain Instructor Course Build on the technical outdoor ...

Rocky Mountain Instructor Course

Build on the technical outdoor skills you already have as you fine-tune your teaching skills through an in-depth examination of the NOLS curriculum.
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A lake surrounded by distant mountain peaks in the Wind River Range.

Professional Instructor Course - Mountain This course is designed for ...

Professional Instructor Course - Mountain

This course is designed for those who already have extensive experience teaching in the outdoors.
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NOLS Wilderness Medicine Instructor

To become a NOLS wilderness medicine instructor, your first step is to successfully complete one of our two training courses:

  • WFR Instructor Training Course (ITC), designed to train WEMTs to instruct WFR and WEMT programs     
  • WFA Instructor Training Course (ITC), designed to train WFRs to instruct WFA programs

“My grandfather introduced the outdoors to me when I was a kid. I knew I had to make a change and that led me to taking my NOLS Semester and, soon after, my Instructor Course.”

- Nathan Whitcomb, NOLS Instructor

“It’s the absolute best to watch a student act with confidence during a medical scenario, step up to lead a travel day, or push themselves to try something new.”

- Robin Larson, NOLS Instructor

FieldNote-Trees2.png

field-note-arrow-small-mud.png  Meet our instructors

 

 

A course poses with a prop plane bringing them re-ration food and supplies while mountaineering in the Alaska's Wrangell Mountain Range.
A course participant breaks into a smile while backpacking in the desert.
Participant sits in a beached kayak holding the fish he caught for breakfast in Alaska's Prince William Sound.
Instructor teaches rappel class at Cochise Stronghold in Arizona.
Instructor wearing curly wig and climbing gear poses at Lankin Dome in Wyoming.
Students have fun paddling on a flat water section of the Nisutlin River in the Yukon.
A course participant consults a map while skiing in Grand Teton National Park.
Instructor addresses group of seated students with desert scenery in the background.
A student gives their horse a kiss while horsepacking in Wyoming's Wind River Range.