Field Guide Training

GVI presents FGASA accredited programs on the Mahlahla campus at Bushwise Field Guides, in Limpopo, South Africa. The FGASA Professional Field Guide Course runs for 23 weeks, with an optional six month work placement, along with a job offer guarantee for South African students.

The course was created to develop students into highly skilled professionals in the area of field guiding, conservation, research, adventure tourism or lodge management, by providing a well-rounded, specialised education which focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects of wildlife conservation and guiding. The curriculum also includes practical application of subjects such as conservation, ecology, reserve management, geology and animal behaviour.

GVI’s sister company, Bushwise, is a Field Guide College in the heart of South Africa’s bushveld. Bushwise is an accredited FGASA training provider with the highest success rate in passing the FGASA exams, and also securing field guiding jobs post-internship.

Bushwise’s Story

Co-founder Sophie Newman joined GVI in its infancy, where she set up and ran the GVI Karongwe Wildlife Expedition. Back then, GVI consisted only of Sophie in the field and the founder of GVI, Richard Walton, who manned the office in the UK. As GVI grew Sophie went on to set up and run wildlife and community conservation programs across Africa. These included predator projects in Venetia, South Africa, community and marine conservation programs in Kenya, and SANParks internship programs, to name a few.

During her 8 years as a Regional Director for GVI, she found it a constant battle to find staff with the qualifications, skills, and ethical professionalism GVI required. There was clearly a great need to assist young passionate conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts in getting these skills and qualifications to start their career. So, Richard and Sophie embarked on setting up Bushwise Field Guides. The vision was to develop a high quality, all-inclusive training course, which offered a platform for students to gain all the relevant qualifications, practical experience and importantly, develop the professional ethics and soft skills.

Bushwise ran its first course back in 2006 at Mahlahla campus, and looking back to the early days, Bushwise’s ethos and vision has remained the same, but the program has evolved tremendously. Over the years we have focused all our attention on the long-term courses, which provides the best platform to gain the quantity and quality of knowledge and skills needed. We work closely with the lodges to develop and tweak the program as the industry changes. This ensures our students get the necessary experience to benefit not just their employment but also adhere to the lodges’ standards. We have added numerous qualifications, fine-tuned the training, refined our soft skills development, and built an exceptional Bushwise team.

We will continue to work proactively with the lodges in this ever-changing industry, to ensure our Bushwise course is the most relevant and of the highest standard. We also guarantee that our graduates are of the highest standard possible. Not only do we have a lasting relationship with our alumni, but Bushwise plans to develop additional courses and programs to build on their skills, and further their careers.