Many of our alunmi have become Registered Maine Guides. A guide license is necessary in Maine to receive any form of payment for your services in the field. It is a state license which is granted at the end of a testing process. In recent years students on long courses have tried to get all the requirements needed to go and take the test during the course. I want to encourage anyone interested to take the test, but also to look into the requirements before you arrive at the field school.

Here’s a link to the official requirements: https://www.maine.gov/ifw/programs-resources/registered-maine-guides/becoming-guide.html

In a nutshell, you will need:

– A current first aid and cpr certification
– fingerprints/background check

The fingerprints take time. You cannot send in your application for the test until a month AFTER you have been fingerprinted. Then the wait begins to be scheduled to take the test. In closing, if getting a guide license is something you want to do, start this process early. Ideally you’d have taken care of the requirements and sent in your application before you arrive at the field school. Then it is our job to train you to pass the test.