Blue Badge Guides - London's last restrictive practice?
The last restrictive practice left in London?
Can the monopoly that Blue Badge Guides have on guiding in Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and St Pauls Cathedral be justified? I'm not against the Blue Badge guide training system as such - just the fact that it comes with an old fashioned desire to gain a monopoly for its members.
Teachers and lectures cannot point out salient features in some of London's main tourist sites without employing a Blue Badge Guide. Blue Badge guides are not professional teachers, they do not know in detail the content of courses, nor what in particular the educational requirements of teachers and lecturers are. Teachers and lecturers may well be delighted to save themselves a lot of work by employing a blue badge guide, but if they know their subjects, they know they curriculums and their students, the fact that they have to hire a blue badge guide is fairly outrageous.
I suggest 2 solutions:
1. the 3 places involved should give exemptions from the ban on guiding to qualified teachers and lecturers.
2. the blue badge guide organisation should provide a short course at a reasonable price to professional lecturers/teacher to prepare suitably qualified teachers/lecturers for guiding in the 3 places concerned.
The Guild of Registered Tourist Guides - Britain's Blue Badge Tourist Guides
Can the monopoly that Blue Badge Guides have on guiding in Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and St Pauls Cathedral be justified? I'm not against the Blue Badge guide training system as such - just the fact that it comes with an old fashioned desire to gain a monopoly for its members.
Teachers and lectures cannot point out salient features in some of London's main tourist sites without employing a Blue Badge Guide. Blue Badge guides are not professional teachers, they do not know in detail the content of courses, nor what in particular the educational requirements of teachers and lecturers are. Teachers and lecturers may well be delighted to save themselves a lot of work by employing a blue badge guide, but if they know their subjects, they know they curriculums and their students, the fact that they have to hire a blue badge guide is fairly outrageous.
I suggest 2 solutions:
1. the 3 places involved should give exemptions from the ban on guiding to qualified teachers and lecturers.
2. the blue badge guide organisation should provide a short course at a reasonable price to professional lecturers/teacher to prepare suitably qualified teachers/lecturers for guiding in the 3 places concerned.
The Guild of Registered Tourist Guides - Britain's Blue Badge Tourist Guides
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