Inside
1 The 133 days of a season
2 What matters most to you
3 Every internship, in one table
4 Why you would choose one over another
5 Dos and don'ts
6 When an internship is the wrong product
The honest arithmetic
A Nineteen Week Season Has 133 Days In It.
Nobody ever writes that down, so here it is. On a standard internship those days land roughly as follows. Not a contract, not a promise, just our own arithmetic from a normal season schedule, and close enough to plan a winter around.
~29
days coached and examined
Twelve Level 1 training days, a three day Level 1 exam, eight to ten Level 2 training days on the standard internship, and the four to six day close out, modules and a two day exam for skiers, a continuous assessment for snowboarders. Front loaded, mostly before Christmas.
~55
days on shift, getting paid
Around fourteen weeks of paid work, typically four days a week. Christmas and half terms are relentless. Mid January is thin. The average hides both.
~50
days that belong to you
Days off, shoulder weeks and the quiet stretches. Far more free skiing than most people expect from the word internship, but it arrives in lumps rather than evenly.
So the honest headline is roughly one day in five coached, two in five working, two in five yours.
Change the internship and you change that ratio, sometimes dramatically. Nova Scotia is nearly all work, and it is worth being clear that it is not really an internship in the same sense as the others. It is an independent employment position, without the trainer network, the built-in social group or the resort backbone that comes with a standard or hybrid programme at one of the bigger mountains. The hybrid is a third, a third, a third. That single choice matters more than the resort you pick, and it is the thing people research last.
Start with what you want
What Matters Most To You?
Pick one. Not two, not all four. The whole point of this guide is that you cannot have every priority at once, and pretending otherwise is how people end up in the wrong resort.
If money is the priority
Nova Scotia, Level 1 and job placement
Thirty to forty five hours a week at about CAD 22 an hour across an eight week work phase, CAD 5,280 to 7,920 gross across the placement, and the lowest course fee of any full season internship we run at £4,900. Nothing else in the portfolio comes close on earnings.
The catch. It is not really an internship in the same sense as the others. It is an independent employment position, on a small eastern hill, without the trainer network or built-in social group of a bigger resort. It is Level 1 only, and the hours are close to triple a standard internship. You will finish with money and real teaching experience, not with a Level 2.
Side by side
Every Ski Instructor Internship In Canada, In One Table.
Prices are for winter 2027/28. Hours are what the snow schools plan for, not a guarantee, and every one of them swings with snow, school holidays and how good you are by February. Wages track provincial minimum wage, so read them as a floor. Prices, dates and booking for each are on our ski instructor internships in Canada page.
Programme
Discipline
Weeks
Training days
Hours a week
Wage and work phase
Panorama StandardLevel 1 and 2, from £6,950
Ski and snowboard
19
12 for L1, 8 for L2 plus modules and exams for skiers, 10 for L2 plus 4 exam days for snowboarders
18-20
CAD 18 to 22 an hour at Level 1, across roughly 14 paid weeks
Sun Peaks StandardLevel 1 and 2, from £7,200
Ski only
19
12 for L1, 8 for L2, plus modules and exams
20
CAD 18 to 22 an hour at Level 1, across roughly 14 paid weeks
Big White StandardLevel 1 and 2, from £6,950
Ski only
19
11 for L1, then 10 for L2 plus 4 module days and 2 exam days
13-17
CAD 18 to 22 an hour at Level 1, across roughly 14 paid weeks
Panorama or Big White HybridLevel 1, 2 and 3, from £10,650
Ski and snowboard at Panorama, ski only at Big White
20
12 for L1, 16 to 18 for L2, plus 9 days of Level 3 training
Part time
Paid work only when the resort is busy. We cover your accommodation all season
Panorama 13 WeekLevel 1 and 2, from £8,900
Ski and snowboard
13
12 for L1, then 18 for L2 plus modules and exams
Christmas only
Paid teaching over Christmas, about 50 to 70 hours, roughly CAD 1,050 to 1,470 gross
Nova ScotiaLevel 1 plus job placement, from £4,900
Ski and snowboard
14
Level 1 training and exams out west, then east to work
30-45
About CAD 22 an hour at Ski Martock or Cape Smokey over an 8 week work phase, CAD 5,280 to 7,920 gross
Sun Peaks Level 3Second season, from £5,200
Ski only
8 plus work
30 days over 6 to 8 weeks, built around your shifts
20-25
CAD 19 to 23 an hour across 12 to 13 weeks. Requires Level 2
One line worth reading twice. Big White plans for thirteen to seventeen hours a week, Sun Peaks for twenty, and Nova Scotia for forty to forty five. Over a fourteen week work phase that is not a rounding difference, it is thousands of dollars and dozens of free days.
Five resorts take internships: Panorama, Sun Peaks, Big White, Fairmont Hot Springs and Nova Scotia. We hope to add a Level 3 internship at Revelstoke for 2027/28, but it isn't confirmed yet. Rates track provincial minimum wage, so expect them to move upward rather than down.
Who picks which
Why You Would Choose One Over Another.
Each of these suits a genuinely different person. We have written the honest version, including who should walk away, because a client in the wrong programme is a bad season for both of us.
The default choice
Panorama Standard
19 weeks · ski and snowboard · 18 to 20 hours a week · from £6,950
Pick it if you want the most complete first winter available. Level 1 in the first three weeks, then a paid instructor job at our main training hub once you've passed the ski school's interview, got your visa and passed Level 1, with the biggest WSC crew around you and a twenty minute shuttle. It is the most popular programme we run for a reason, and it is the only standard internship open to snowboarders alongside Fairmont and Nova Scotia.
Walk away if your real ambition is your own skiing. Eighteen to twenty hours a week of beginner lessons is a lot of green run mileage, and a course or the hybrid will move your own technique faster.
The quiet one
Sun Peaks Standard
19 weeks · ski only · 20 hours a week · from £7,200
Pick it if you want the most consistent hours of the standard internships and a resort with a proper community feel rather than a party reputation. The shuttle is about two minutes. Canada's second largest ski area, and the sort of place where the snow school manager knows your name by week two.
Walk away if you ride a snowboard, because Sun Peaks does not take snowboard interns, or if you want a hybrid, because there is not one here. If nightlife is genuinely near the top of your list, look at Big White instead and be honest with yourself about it.
Ski in, ski out, more free time
Big White Standard
19 weeks · ski only · 13 to 17 hours a week · from £6,950
Pick it if you want to live in the village with no bus at all, in shared accommodation we arrange, with the liveliest scene of the three and reliably deep snow. Fewer planned hours means more free skiing, so this is the standard internship that leans furthest toward your own riding.
Walk away if you are counting on wages to fund the winter. Thirteen to seventeen hours a week is meaningfully less money than Sun Peaks over fourteen weeks, and if the party scene is right outside your door you will spend more, not less. The upside is the training. Big White gives you ten Level 2 training days plus four module days and two exam days, which is the most of any standard internship.
A third, a third, a third
The Hybrid Internship
20 weeks · Panorama and Big White · part time work · from £10,650
Pick it if you want course quality training without giving up on paid work. Level 1, the full sixteen to eighteen day Level 2 programme and Level 3 training on top. You work when the resort is busy, free ski when it is quiet, and we pay your accommodation for the entire season, so food and going out is all you budget.
Walk away if the higher up front price is the deciding factor. It costs about £3,700 more than a standard internship, and although free accommodation and fewer living costs claw a good chunk of that back, you earn less because you work part time. Places are limited, and it is ski only at Big White.
The earner
Nova Scotia
About 14 weeks · ski and snowboard · 30 to 45 hours a week across an 8 week work phase · from £4,900
Pick it if earnings are the priority. Level 1 training and exams out west, then an internal flight east to a genuinely full time paid instructor role at Ski Martock or Cape Smokey, at about CAD 22 an hour with CAD 5,280 to 7,920 gross across an eight week work phase. It is also our cheapest full season internship by some distance, but be clear eyed that it is an independent employment position rather than an internship with the network and support of a bigger resort.
Walk away if you want Level 2 this winter, big mountain terrain or deep snow. This is Level 1 plus work, on a small eastern hill, at nearly triple the weekly hours of a standard internship. You will finish it with money and experience, not with a Level 2 and a powder tan.
Second season
Level 3 Internship
Sun Peaks · ski only · 20 to 25 hours a week · from £5,200
Pick it if you already hold Level 2 and want the qualification that changes your career and your pay. Thirty training days over six to eight weeks, built around a work schedule, at CAD 19 to 23 an hour across twelve or thirteen weeks. Sun Peaks gives you the community, plenty of terrain and great mileage. We hope to add Revelstoke for 2027/28, so ask us if bigger terrain appeals.
Walk away if you are hoping to sail through. Level 3 expectations are a step up from day one and the pass rates drop sharply at this level. Most people need more than one attempt, and that is normal rather than a failure.
Learn from other people's winters
Dos And Don'ts.
Do
Ask for the season baseline, not the Christmas number. Any provider can quote you a good week.
Take the hours when they are there. Interns who say yes in December get offered more in March.
Go to the free staff training mornings. They run weekly all season and they are the cheapest coaching you will ever get. Our clients who skip them say so afterwards.
Put your hand up for the race or all mountain programme if you are strong. It brings more hours and better lessons.
Budget the January lull. Quiet weeks are real, and rent is not.
Turn up fit. The first three weeks are the most intense of your winter and fitness buys you focus.
Check the discipline rules before falling for a resort. Sun Peaks and Big White are ski only. Snowboarders have Panorama, Fairmont Hot Springs and Nova Scotia.
Don't
Don't pick on price alone. The cheapest headline is often the fewest training days and the most work.
Don't assume more hours is better. Forty five hours a week at Martock is great money and very little free skiing. That is a trade, not a bonus.
Don't book a standard internship expecting to transform your own skiing. That is what the hybrid and the courses are for.
Don't treat standby as a day off. It pays less than a lesson but it still ties up your morning.
Don't plan to spend your days off skiing every single one. Fifty free days sounds infinite in October. It is not infinite in February when your legs are done.
Don't aim past Level 2 in your first season. Ambition is good, arithmetic is better.
Don't book the hybrid late. Limited places, and it is the first thing to go.
The part most companies leave out
An Internship Is The Wrong Product If...
We would rather lose the booking than put you somewhere that will not work. Read this list properly. If two or more of these are you, ring us and we will point you at a course, a camp or another company.
Your main goal is your own skiing or riding. Do a course or the hybrid.
You do not enjoy being around children. Most of your lessons will be children.
You cannot get an IEC working holiday visa. No visa, no paid work, no internship.
You have fewer than thirteen weeks free. A nine or twelve week course fits better.
You are doing it on a shoestring. Wages help, they do not cover a winter.
You have never been away from home for long and the idea worries you. Be honest now rather than in January.
You want Level 3 this winter without holding Level 2. It does not work that way.
You are a snowboarder set on Sun Peaks. It is ski only, and no amount of asking changes it.
Asked on almost every call
Six Questions About Hours And Time Off.
Are the hours guaranteed? +
The job depends on three things: passing the ski school's interview, getting your visa and passing Level 1. With our help, 97% of our interns get through all three. The hours are not guaranteed, and no honest provider will tell you otherwise. What we publish is what the snow schools plan for. A thin snow year, a quiet half term or a slow booking week all move it. Plan on the lower end of each range and treat the upper end as a good year.
How do days off actually fall? +
Unevenly, and that surprises people more than the total. Your first three weeks are training heavy, so days off are scarce but the mountain is quiet. Christmas through New Year you will barely stop. Mid January can be so quiet you are looking for shifts.
Training days are set by each resort's snow school manager and can move at short notice. Your published schedule is indicative rather than carved in stone. Changes are usually minor and you will be told in good time.
Which internship gives the most free skiing? +
The hybrid, comfortably, because you work part time by design. After that, Big White Standard on thirteen to seventeen hours a week. The least is the Nova Scotia job placement at forty to forty five hours. If free skiing is genuinely your top priority though, the honest answer is that a course beats every internship on this measure.
Is the hybrid worth nearly four thousand pounds more? +
Depends what you are buying. You get roughly triple the Level 2 training, Level 3 training on top, and your accommodation covered for the whole season, which is a real saving of several thousand dollars against a standard internship where you pay rent from January.
What you give up is earnings, because part time work is part time pay. If your goal is a career in this industry, the training is the better investment. If your goal is a season abroad that pays its way, the standard internship is the smarter buy. Both are defensible, and we will tell you which we think fits you.
Do snowboarders get fewer hours than skiers? +
Generally yes, slightly. Demand for snowboard lessons is lower than for ski lessons, so snow schools carry fewer snowboard instructors and the hours reflect that. It also means fewer resorts take snowboard interns at all, just Panorama, Fairmont Hot Springs and Nova Scotia. The training you receive is identical in structure and quality. Book earlier than a skier would.
One place snowboarders do better is the exam bill. The CASI Level 2 costs CAD 690 to 760 against the CSIA Level 2 at CAD 390, so that one goes the other way. Book the CASI exam early and you save the difference between those two figures.
Can I change internship once I am out there? +
Rarely, and not reliably. Snow schools build their winter staffing around confirmed numbers, and hybrid places in particular are capped. Upgrading before you fly is usually possible if a place exists. Once the season starts, assume the answer is no and choose properly now. That is exactly why this guide exists.
One next step
Tell Us Your One Priority. We Will Tell You Where To Go.
We spend an hour on the phone with most clients before they book anything. We ask the questions, then we shut up and listen. If we have not got the right venue for you, we will say so and point you elsewhere.
"We got on a call with Rik and he right away put mine and my parents' minds at ease, answering all our questions. I did the Level 2 internship and WSC set me up with plenty of training from great instructors."
Suzanna, Sun Peaks Level 2 internship · five stars on Trustpilot
Prices are for winter 2027/28. Updated November 2026.
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