About Nature Guide Training

Nature Guide Training was established originally to train professional field guides back in 2002.

Back in the early 2000’s Lee Gutteridge began assessing for FGASA, and took a post in the Waterberg Mountains at a private reserve as a trainer for the guide team there. Things went so well that he then decided to run open courses, allowing people from around the world to join his guides in their rigorous training programs.

With the extensive development of training materials (our original manual can be downloaded here for free!) and the careful planning of interesting educational courses the production of many excellent and sought-after nature guides began to take place. Many of the field guides trained by us eventually moved on to some of the most prestigious reserves in the industry, and many are successfully working there today in various capacities, such as guides, head guides and even camp management and general management positions.

Some are employed in South Africa and others as far afield as Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya and the DRC.

In 2013, after more than a decade in the north of South Africa, we moved the school from the Waterberg to the world-famous Kruger National Park region of eastern South Africa.

We train strictly to the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA) standards, and enjoy an excellent training reputation with FGASA, who closely monitor all examinations and practical evaluations. We are fully endorsed to train under the auspices of FGASA.

FGASA in turn is endorsed by the Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport, Sector Education Training Authority (CATHSSETA). This allows our instructors to award National Qualifications on the South African Qualification Authority framework.

We also have our own in-house CyberTracker Assessors, as Lee and Kersey are both able to conduct these tests. We have a highly experienced team of nature guide trainers who are responsible for the production of the high standard training we present, all operating under the mentored guidance of the owner, Lee Gutteridge. For more information on the team of trainers please visit the ‘our team’ page. In terms of qualifications we hold, we can boast two senior trackers, SKS wild flowers, a PhD, a specialist in paleo-anthropology, trails guides, SKS Dangerous Game, SKS birding and a FGASA Scout Guide, birding authors, Kruger Park back-pack guides, tracking authors, a reptile author, and two CyberTracker Evaluators…amongst other skills!

We have proudly been associated with FGASA, as professional trainers and assessors for over twenty years, and all of our courses are conducted in and amongst Africa’s Big Game and we see animals such as Lions and Elephants virtually every single day, and in fact they are very often right in front of our rooms!!

We provide, wherever we can, (fully included) services, as we do not believe you have come to the African Bush to spend a lot of time washing pots, cooking food and doing laundry! If you wanted to do that you would have stayed at home, wouldn’t you? With us, for the most part, you need only spend your time learning and experiencing life in the African Bush. A typical day is filled with many hours of instruction, seven days of the week for the duration of our courses! On average we do at least 7 to 10 hours per day in the bush, either on foot or on a game-viewing vehicle!

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