Validation programme for professional qualification as a guide

The guide informs visitors about the geographical, historical, cultural and natural features of a tourist site in an accessible, interactive, inspiring and entertaining way.

The guide:

• possesses in-depth content knowledge of art and cultural history, general and political history, landscape and nature to enable visitors to discover, understand and experience the site in all its aspects during a guided tour.
• collects in advance all practical and substantive arrangements, on the basis of which they develop a programme.
• performs administrative formalities, books, invoices and follows up on reservations.
• evaluates the tour and makes adjustments as necessary.
• masters one or more foreign languages in a fluent manner, allowing for spontaneous and high-quality dialogue with his visitors.

A tour often has a limited time; the guide must quickly assess the group and deliver the story within the allotted time. Tours often take place at weekends or in holiday periods, in all weather conditions and in a wide variety of locations. They therefore need to respond to unexpected changes in the context of guiding (road diversion, heavy rainfall, changes to the landscape, accident, complaints etc.).

You can find detailed info about the validation programme in the validation standard for guide (in Dutch)(PDF file opens in new window) (in Dutch).

If you want to demonstrate your experience as a guide at a validation body, you can do so through a practical test, a role-play and an interview using a portfolio. A portfolio shows what skills have already been achieved and how a person did it.

The language of instruction for the tests is Dutch.

You must:

• give a guided tour of about 1 hour for a minimum of 10 people at a location in a city quarter or region in Flanders
• develop the tour programme in terms of content and organisation for the visitors or travellers
• present the geographical, historical, natural, and cultural peculiarities of the programme
• use a foreign language on the tour.