Blue Badge, Green Badge, White Badge
If you have travelled to the UK frequently and researched online to find the best possible tour you will have almost certainly heard the expression Blue Badge referred to as a gold standard of guiding practice in the UK. As a Green Badge guide I would like to explain why Green Badge holders wear their badges as proudly as the Blue Badge holders.
The Institute of Tourist Guides trains and awards three types of qualification to Guides. White, Green and Blue
A Blue Badge guide
A Blue Badge guide will have a longer study program than a Green Badge because their range will include a number of counties. Training is intensive and in-depth and can last for 18 months or more. Some guides hold a number of different Blue Badges and sometimes a Green Badge guide too. Why?
Green Badge Guides are accredited to guide in a city.
Although the training is not as lengthy, typically lasting 6 months a Green Badge will in certain respects be more deep, focusing as it does only on one city.
Green Badge guides have privileges in their city not available to Blue Badge guides and therefore keen and conscientious Blue Badge guides will sometimes also study for an additional 6 months to earn their Green Badge.
White Badge Guides are accredited to guide in one site.
Training is typically flexible and requires a minimum of 28 hours of instruction on site for the ITG White Badge. Volunteers who give their time freely to a particular site may be given an opportunity to take this qualification as an act of generosity and conscientiousness by the site’s manager. A nice gesture of appreciation for volunteers, it is also guarantees an institute standard.