guidance notes for instuctors

I doubt that anyone would disagree that learning to dress flies should be enjoyable, educational and rewarding.  If you, as an instructor, were not achieving these criteria it is very unlikely that your branch would thrive.  So, first and foremost, on behalf of the FDG and our membership I thank you for giving your time, skill and knowledge to the art of fly dressing.

Time has come to gain recognition/accreditation for what you have been doing within your branch (in some cases for many years) as without such recognition the future could become very difficult indeed.  With this in mind the FDG wants to support you with an accreditation framework so that, as an organization, we can achieve the recognition you deserve.

You already work to a syllabus, a structured plan to take your student from tyro to wherever their abilities will take them.  The FDG now needs to provide an audit trail of instruction so that the appropriate standards can be awarded to your students.  Each student will need to record their progress.  The record of training will be kept and simple as possible.  In the example given you can see that the student has covered care and storage of materials in Module 2 of the instructor’s syllabus for Bronze and the instructor has signed to show completion by the student.

To be credible to any accreditation body the standard of these records must be consistent and legible (handwritten is fine) and any work completed for final assessment must be completed in the presence of the instructor.  I am not suggesting that anyone would want to cheat but we have to show that we keep the opportunity to an absolute minimum.

I sincerely hope that we can keep the paperwork to a minimum and that this is a good start in that objective.  Should anyone have any questions or require assistance in turning their syllabus into deliverable modules (for example) please do not hesitate to contact me (membership@the-fdg.org).  Whilst I am probably the worst tier in the Guild I do have experience of syllabus preparation.  The thing to remember is you are already doing it!

September 2009