The new breed, of course, are those young people emerging from college programs where they have studied the problems of ski resort and mountain management. To find out whether these programs actually meet the needs of the ski industry we asked a number of graduates who are now working pros if their classroom training was effective.
“No school can prepare you completely for what you find on the job,” says Brian Wilson a 1972 graduate of Colorado Mountain College, now assistant manager of Powderhorn ski area in Colorado. “What it can do is familiarize you with the problems, the machinery and the various aspects of outside work.”
Wilson started as assistant mountain manager of this 1,600-foot-three-lift-area right after his college training. “I would like to see the colleges screen potential students better and not take kids who just like to ski into these programs,” he says. “They should have a prerequisite of ski area work.”
Wilson says the on-the-job training is extremely valuable, not only to apply what is learned in the classroom, but to find out what it’s like to work at a ski resort. “A lot of guys think it’s just skiing and fun. They need to know about working all night on an emergency when you get cold and tired and greasy,” he says.
Randy Schoonmaker went back to Mt. Snow, Vermont, after working there for his summer internship requirements at Lyndon State College. Schoonmaker didn’t spend much time on the greasy, cold mountain jobs, although he did study for a half year at a technical school and took lecture courses from Jim Branch of Sno engineering. He says the internship should be one year long and for pay, rather than for credits as was his experience.
“The college courses are good background, but they aren’t a substitute for experience,” he says. “I knew I wanted to be in skiing — I specialized in that — and after my summer’s work, I knew I wanted to stay in marketing.” Schoonmaker, who graduated in 1977, is now marketing administrator at Mt. Snow.
David Blake had worked at resorts before attending Gogebic Community College in northern Michigan. In the summer he’s a golf pro and in winter, manages the ski shop at Mt. Telemark, Wisconsin.
“No question about it, I believe in the curriculum,” he says. “It gave me a good mix of business, accounting and a thorough understanding of the sport and the complexity of the year-round aspect of it.”
He says the leads he got for jobs after graduation in 1975 were invaluable, but he also suggests up-grading the standards for enrollment in the programs.
Most of the programs limit the number of students to from 15 to 30. And, although the number of applications have been increasing over the years, the administrators say many more of the first-year students have previous work experience at ski resorts.
William J. Penhallegon, who runs the program at Wenatchee Valley College in Washington, says he is getting more college graduates in his program. “We’re seeing older students, many with college diplomas who have worked at ski resorts and want broader background,” he says. The Wenatchee program is two years long with work experience at small ski areas that the students actually run. The on-the-job training is getting more complicated, according to Penhallegon with the students rotating to different jobs.
Second year students at Wenatchee Valley work at Mission Ridge ski area in a variety of jobs. Students at Lyndon State college work at Burke Mountain on a similar basis during part of their college training. While these and other ski areas have been willing to take students for training, some resort managements grumble about these requests.
One area personnel manager said, “We don’t want to train people we’ll never see again. A lot of these students are part-time employees. To train them we have to take the time of our regular personnel and we just don’t get enough pay-off from them.”
This sentiment is definitely not echoed by personnel managers at Vail, Copper Mountain, Steamboat, Breckenridge and Keystone, Colorado, all of whom have active internship programs for ski area management students.
Keystone, for instance, takes six to eight students who have finished their college training for five months of winter internship. The students are given mountain jobs with regular employee salaries and benefits. They work a forty hour week and on their own time examine the operation of other departments in the resort complex. These visits, which the management helps them set up, may result in later jobs and on rare occasions in actual transfer to different jobs as interns. The interns get together twice a month for three-hour sessions of discussion and sharing of experiences.
Bill Hanisch, personnel director at Keystone (formerly in Ralston-Purina management), recruits students for this internship program each spring. “Rotating people can be expensive,” he admits, “but with this system there isn’t a big loss of time for the students or for our regular employees.
“I think the biggest advantage is that these people have a strong interest in the ski business to begin with — they are career oriented, more than students from other disciplines. People like these grow in our business because they have a goal.
“We find that about half the students remain here after the internship period. Others go back to their home regions to work at ski resorts. Over the years, those who have stayed have worked out very well. We promote from within and they do seem to have faster tracks.”
Curriculums
As the ski area management study programs lengthen from one to four years, the college catalogs reflect changing philosophies in course descriptions. Where all the colleges give courses described as “principles of,” “introduction to,” or “survey of,” only the four-year programs have any “trends and issues,” “impact of” or “concepts in” descriptions. The shorter programs tend to use the terms like “applied,” “technical” and “operation” in describing their courses.
Despite this difference in language and the inclusion of more core courses like English, foreign language, math, psychology and economics in the two-and fou r-year programs, there are many similarities in the curriculum offerings. All, for instance, require some kind of on-the-job training — a semester off, summer work or part-time work during the school year — and all require first aid. There is very little emphasis on skiing, per se.
Typically, the ski area management student studies: accounting, advertising, marketing-publicity, personnel management, business law, speech, English composition, ski area layout, lift operation and maintenance, snow vehicle maintenance, snowmakvng and slope grooming and food and beverage management. From there they might study electricity, arc welding, blue print reading or more business courses — depending on the student’s area of interest.
Colleges offering ski area management study programs
Four-Year Degrees
Lyndon State College
Lyndonville, Vermont 05851
A four-year program leading to a B. S. degree. Students work at Burke Mountain and may take a year’s study at Vermont Technical College. Program is administered under the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies.
Franklin Pierce College
Rindge, New Hampshire 03461
Recreation Management program includes courses in ski area management and related topics. Students work at the college’s rope tow area and at other ski areas in the region.
The University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont 05401
Under the Recreation Management Department, students can elect to orient studies toward ski area management with emphasis on business administration. One semester of work at a ski area.
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan 48824
Operated through Park and Recreation Resource Course of Study is called commercial recreation development. Students are not required—but usually do—work at ski area. Also take courses in Hotel School.
Two-Year Degrees
Colorado Mountain College
Leadville, Colorado 80461
Resort-Ski Area Management study leads to A.A.S. degree. Emphasis is on management and mountain operation skills. Students work at Vail, Copper Mountain, Ski Cooper and Keystone.
Gogebic Community College
Ironwood, Michigan 49938
Associate degree in Ski Area Management study has a curriculum designed to cover mountain operation and management as well as business courses. Students work at college area, Mt. Zion, as well as other ski areas.
Wenatchee Valley College
Wenatchee, Washington 98801
Two years of study leads to an Associate in Applied Arts degree in Ski Resort Management. Emphasis on work experience at Mission Ridge, Squilchuck, Leavenworth and Echo Valley ski areas. Students also take business and recreation courses.
One-Year Certificates
Humber College
Rexdale, Ontario M9W 5L7
Canada
Designed principally for people who have work experience at ski resorts, two semesters are spent studying business and mountain topics. Winter quarter students can return to work at their home ski area or another one.
North Country Community College
Saranac Lake, New York 12983
Classroom emphasis on business courses, while internship work experience deals with mountain operation. Students work full time from late December through January and part time from February through March; attend classes in fall and spring.
