Summit team site
For new instructors welcome to the summit team
We’re excited for winter and to have you onboard.
We hope this page will answer many of the questions you might have about the upcoming season There’s also lots more information within this site to give you a clear picture of how we work and what to expect.
But if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Henry, Erica and Paul
Your contract and hours
Your contract will state your basic rate of pay as well as your rate for request and rollover work.
Your contract refers to the handbook and we suggest you take a look through it before signing to come to Summit. It outlines what we expect of our instructors as well as what you can expect of us.
You only get paid for the hours you teach, so it’s a fair question to ask how many hours you might expect to work.
We can’t make any guarantees for work and how much you do will depend on factors such as:
- How available you are (or how much time off you take)
- How versatile / flexible you are in the types of lessons you’re happy to teach
- How much you rollover clients or create work for yourself through word of mouth.
But to give you an idea, we can tell you what happened in winter 25/26:
The instructors new to Summit averaged 327 hours teaching each over the winter. This ranged from 275 to 385 hours depending on the factors listed above.
Taking a second job? Some of the team take second jobs or casual work to supplement their income (although most seem to make it work financially without doing this). There are several opportunities to make a bit of extra cash and we have no problem with you doing this as long as it does not affect your ability to teach for Summit.
Pre season costs
There are various costs that you will incur at the start of the winter. It’s best you know what they are likely to be to avoid any surprises in December
Accommodation
- Most accommodation rental contracts start at the beginning of November and run at least 6 months.
- If you take the option of accommodation with Summit, the contract will run 5 months from 25th November.
- Most accommodation providers will ask for a minimum of one month rent as a deposit.
Uniform deposit
The deposit for your Summit Uniform and purchase of layers(see handbook) will cost CHF 200.
Work permit
Your work permit will cost approx. CHF 100 (see below)
Lift pass
Your skipass will cost approx CHF 800
(CHF 1000 if you are living in St Niklaus or further down the valley).
Pre season training
We will spend a couple of weeks training with all the new instructors to Summit.
We’ll be introducing you to Zermatt and making sure you know the ski area and restaurants etc.
We’ll be running through what working for Summit will look like and what we expect in your skiing and teaching etc.
We want to get to know your strengths so we can best match you with the right clients.
We’ll also take lots of photos to make your Summit profile look good on the website.
We’ll then we’ll get the full team together for a few days so everyone knows and is comfortable teaching alongside each other before the winter starts proper.
The pre season training is unpaid.
Work permits
You will sign in for the whole season with the Gemeinde (local council) in the village you’re living in. This costs about CHF 100 and means you’re legal to work for the duration of your contract. It also means you can take other jobs (see the Summit handbook) if you want to supplement your earnings.
As with any council (especially Swiss), there is paperwork involved. We will help you do this and make the signing in process as easy as possible for you.
Social charges & Insurances
Tax, medical insurance and pension funds are obligatory in Switzerland and can add up to about 25% of your earnings. More details here
Insurance for medical care is paid through the social charges deducted from your wages. The most you should ever have to pay towards any medical bills is an excess should you get sick (CHF 800). There is no excess on medical bills following an accident.
Liability insurance. While working, we cover all liability insurances so you have nothing to worry about.
The only insurance you might want to purchase:
– Cover for your travel out and for time before you start work / training with Summit.
– Personal liability (outside of work).
– Cover for personal possessions while you’re here.
The handbook
Here you will find the expectations we have of Summit instructors and rules we have in place for our team.
Accommodation
As in most ski resorts, finding somewhere to live is tough. We have some places available for instructors to help make it a little easier. Find out what we have available and what is expected when renting in Switzerland.
FAQ's
Check here for any questions we get asked a lot and if you have another one that’s not been answered just let us know in the form.
Summit team page
Please fill this in if you do not yet have a team page or you would like to update any of yours. I have only made the name a required field so you can then just update one answer if you like.
The team area of the site gets a lot of traffic and people do choose instructors by looking there so please take a moment to do it.
If you need inspiration: https://summitskischool.com/staff
Qualifications, Languages & Uniform sizes
Please fill in this sending us your licence and answering questions about languages you can teach in as well as let us know your uniform & t-shirt size.
Social media
Finally, if you haven’t already, please go ‘like / follow’ the Summit Ski School Instagram / Youtube feeds. Ask your friends / family to do the same too please. It’s a big part of our marketing and a great way for friends and family to see what you are up to through the season!