Alpine Operations

Turn Your Passions into a Career

The University of Maine at Farmington’s Alpine Operations Certificate program helps you turn your passion for skiing and snowboarding into a career.

The UMF Alpine Operations Certificate program partners with Maine ski areas to offer a unique blend of practical, on-mountain experience alongside business and related coursework, including a valuable on-mountain internship. This 18-credit certificate is open to all UMF students, regardless of their major—whether it’s Business Administration, Community Health Education, Outdoor Recreation Business Administration, Secondary Education, Business Psychology, or others.

In addition to full-time students, the program welcomes community members and part-time learners who want to gain the core skills needed for a career in the skiing industry. The certificate also prepares students to earn the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) Level 1 certification, providing a strong foundation for success in alpine operations and ski resort management.

Designed to get you the core skills for working in the skiing industry, the Alpine Ops Certificate also prepares you to earn PSIA Level 1 certification.

Got questions? Ask a professor in this program.

Save more than $5,500 per year in tuition.

Through the NEBHE Tuition Break program, students from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont receive a $5,670 tuition discount on all UMF degree programs.

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Knowledge, Skills and Hands-on Experience

We asked Maine’s top ski area management what they look for in hire-able and promote-able employees and they told us they spot their best talent in their ski school programs — the skiing and snowboarding instructors who work closely with their customers of all ages: children, teens and adults.

Hearing that, we built our Alpine Operations Certificate on the ski school model. Farmington’s Titcomb Mountain (just 7 minutes from campus — you can see it from the windows of our Scott Hall residence hall) will serve as your on-hill learning lab.

There, you’ll be heavily involved in running Titcomb’s successful UMF Snowcats children’s learn-to-ski program. And you’ll also teach young adults, fellow UMF students, and others to ski and snowboard.

I’m a Business Administration major so of course I take a lot of business classes, but I’m able to also complete my Alpine Operations Certificate, which requires me to take different ski classes like ski instruction for adults, ski instruction for youth, theory of snow sports instruction, and more. For me, it’s not JUST about being 45 minutes from the mountains and skiing every day, it’s also about being in a classroom learning about the ski industry with an instructor who’s actually worked in the profession.

Ieuan Howell

Alpine Operations Certificate student
and Business Administration major
Bar Harbor, Maine

Bringing Mountain Experts Into Your Classroom

The Alpine Ops Certificate program will not only bring you to the mountains — it brings the mountains to you. You’ll have industry experts from Sugarloaf, Sunday River, Copper Mountain (CO), Ski Maine, Winterstick Snowboards, Mountain Force Apparel, and others come to your UMF classes as frequent guest speakers.

You’ll get some serious knowledge and make some serious industry contacts.

Contact Us to Get Started!

Office of Admissions
246 Main Street
Farmington, Maine USA 04938-1994

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