Kerry Jury, ERCA Master Trainer

We thought it might be interesting for you to get to know our trainers a bit better – often you just see them in “training and assessing” mode – and to be honest they’ve got pretty interesting life stories to tell.

So kicking us off is Kerry Jury....

Kerry grew up in one of Dorset’s (and in fact the UK’s) most deprived wards and attended Kemp Welch Secondary School (now called St Aldhelm’s Academy) – she left school and home at 15 and worked in Bournemouth as a trainee chef. Realising that she really needed to get some qualifications under her belt she went back to college studying and passing with fairly good results.

She spent her summers working in 3 different jobs and winters travelling all over Europe and North Africa and got involved in the outdoor industry quite by accident – helping out after a waitressing shift with an overnight camp with a small Purbeck company called Pioneer Spirit.

Realising that she wanted to make a career out of working in the outdoors she started work at an outdoor company with sites in Dorset and Devon where she gained a number of basic outdoor qualifications and a heap of experience working with variety of groups and colleagues.

She then moved on to a centre in north Wales where in her own words she worked and partied hard – we’ve all been there! After a few years she moved to Hong Kong working for Outward Bound Hong Kong which she absolutely loved – not only the work but also the ability to go climbing in Thailand and mainland China. The travel bug hit hard and she found herself in New Zealand where she wild camped, cycled everywhere, climbed epic mountains and generally had a bloody brilliant time!

Having fallen in love with Asia, she returned home to the UK for a short while to work for the Venture Trust with young offenders to earn money to continue travelling – setting off again she travelled from Beijing, across northern China, through Pakistan and into India – think Levison Wood - Walking the Himalaya’s and you won’t be far off the mark.

Arriving back in the UK she continued working as a freelance instructor, qualified as a ropes course inspector and wire ropes examiner working for both RCD and High Time and in the winter months climbing in France and Spain.

In 2002 she had her first of two children and took a conscious choice to take time out of work and be a full time parent.

She became a volunteer Rope Rescue Technician for Swanage Coastguard in 2013 and has helped in more than 150 rescues. She is responsible for all the rope rescue equipment, trains the Coastguard team and is in charge of competency too. As well as being a mud rescue technician, she is trained in water rescue, search and rescue.

In 2014 she qualified as an ERCA European Ropes Course Association Trainer for both Traditional and Adventure Park and now works for Vertex as one of their trainers delivering ERCA Instructor and Rescuer courses. Training can vary from young instructors starting out at an outdoor centre, to senior officers at Britannia Royal Naval College, she’s even delivered training for Prince Harry's Charity Sentebale in Lesotho.

In September 2016 she became the first female to be appointed as an ERCA Master Trainer to the ropes course industry. The ERCA Master Training Team is responsible for ensuring the quality of training for ropes courses and adventure parks across Europe. She will train the trainers who deliver instructor training to owners and operators of ropes courses across Europe.

In her own words….”Being part of the Master Trainer team is a huge privilege. I’ve had to be very driven to balance being a mum, trainer and coastguard over the years and the outdoor industry is still male dominated so I’ve had to shine brighter to be recognised. It’s great to be the first female in the role and I hope I can inspire others to follow in my footsteps.”

Not bad for a girl who grew up on a deprived council estate, left school at 15 and found her own way in the world.