Russian guides are waiting for recertification: will it be possible to become a guide from scratch

From July 1, storytellers for tourists will be required to have new certificates

From July 1, everyone who conducts excursions in Russia must have a certificate of a new type. Only 2 months left before the end of the opportunity to receive it. These requirements puzzle not only an ordinary tourist (in our country, whoever offers an excursion and owns a question is the guide), but, as it turned out, professional guides. All of them, without exception, passed state accreditation before going to work.

We found out exactly how and why to recertify already working guides and is it possible to become a guide from scratch?

– No one has ever worked for us without state accreditation, even in the 90s, – explains the tour guide with 30 years of experience. – Especially when it comes to foreign bands. Under the Soviet Union, one could become a guide-interpreter only after graduating from the translation department of Inyaz and passing all levels of checks. Then it became easier, but still an amateur tour guide can hunt only somewhere in the wilderness, where there is no mass tourism.

According to the pros, the current certification is the completion of the introduction of amendments to the law “On the basics of tourism activities in the Russian Federation in terms of legal regulation of the activities of tour guides (guides), guides-translators and instructors-guides”. The changes themselves came into force as early as July 1, 2022, and the industry was given a year to recertify the guide brethren according to the new procedures and with their subsequent mandatory entry into the Unified Federal Register on the website of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. Today, there are only 2,485 people there, and according to approximate estimates of the competent departments, about 5 thousand guides take guests to Russian sights. Where are the rest?

– In St. Petersburg, 288 people were certified, and not a single one in Moscow, – the capital’s guide-translator admits. – To be honest, we still do not really understand what and how. For example, I specialized in French and German-speaking groups, which now do not exist. And recertification implies something like an exam in a certain region with tickets. For example, the Nizhny Novgorod region. I won’t be able to pass the Nizhny Novgorod region, I don’t know it so well! For foreigners, I have no special deepenings, but interesting information throughout the country.

Meanwhile, official instructions assure that “certification for compliance with qualification requirements” is required for all Russian guides without exception, during which they will check not only their knowledge of the country’s history and communication skills, but also documents. Those who pass the test will be issued new certificates.

“Everything is changing in the world and in the country, new accents and new facts appear,” says a representative of the attestation commission of guides in one of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. – The guide is a very lively profession. It is impossible to learn and repeat the same thing to all tourists from year to year, some information becomes outdated.

– Do I understand correctly that the ranks of guides want, on the one hand, to clean up those whose knowledge is outdated, and on the other hand, anyone can come and pass an exam on knowledge of the history of their native country and its attractions?

– Not really. Guides with experience provide a detailed package of documents about the education received and all places of work. In some areas, they launched an accelerated online course for guides to their interesting places, theoretically anyone can listen to it. If after that he passes the exam at the professional level and looks for an employer, then, probably, he will also be included in the register. Anyone can apply for certification through the portal of public services. But there have not yet been such precedents, since the exam is difficult.

– Guides with experience working with foreigners complain that they will not be able to pass a single narrow-profile exam in domestic tourism. None of them specialized in any one area.

– They can pass an inter-regional qualification exam, allowing them to work in any field. All the same, there are few foreign tourists now, it’s time to reorganize. Let them study in depth some one region or region, they still have 2 whole months.

According to industry statistics, today, in terms of guides who have confirmed their knowledge, St. Petersburg is in the lead with its 288 tested guides, followed by Crimea (255 certified guides) and Tatarstan with 126 specialists with confirmed qualifications. Further Krasnodar region (109), Leningrad region (63), Kaliningrad and Nizhny Novgorod regions (45 each), Stavropol region (40), Vladimir region (2)2, Moscow region (19). According to the St. Petersburg authorized department, their city is in the lead not only because the Northern capital with its sights will always feed the guides, but also due to the fact that exams are held in the city three times a week, and those who pass them are immediately entered in the register. The flow of applicants is so large that today free dates are only for June. In St. Petersburg, you can also pass an interregional exam, having received a certificate for a period of 5 years for driving excursions not only in Northern Palmyra, but also in the Leningrad, Vologda, Novgorod, Pskov regions and Karelia.