Dynamo – Ski instructors make the transition

The context of change imposed by the “ecological” transition, and even by health crises such as Covid-19, can be both a source of vulnerability and opportunity for ski instructors working in the French ski industry. The ski industry generates 120,000 jobs in winter. With 17,000 instructors registered with the SNMSF, the majority union, the world’s largest ski school accounts for 14% of this vitality.

Dynamo combines sociological, historical and economic approaches to :

1. Understand the evolution of the organization and regulation of this profession.
2. Identify the evolution of professional practices and the training process in relation to different contexts (competition, skills, professional recognition, digitization, instructor/union relations, supply and market evolution, generational effects on perceptions of change, mobility).
3. Analyze professional and local networks (organization, influence).

The diversity of the territories involved calls for an analysis of the different French massifs in which ski schools are located. The project is based on a series of archives from training institutions, unions and federations, and on in-situ observations, in order to develop an analysis grid for a qualitative survey. The panel takes into account the population and territories of reference, with a view to understanding and distinguishing the roles of the different groups of players.