Ski instructing in France

With our original plan of going to Canada rather than France, something I was very keen to do was ski instructing. I am already qualified with the CSIA (Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance) at level 1 (out of 4) and I was hoping to get a job and work my way up through the levels. In Canada this is feasible to do given a reasonable skiing ability and enthusisam to teach. In France it is much more difficult, so I had abandoned the idea when we came here. However during thinking about how to get covered for healthcare I started thinking about it again.
The difficult thing about qualifying in France is that every ski instructor has to pass a slalom speed test called the Test Technique to qualify as a trainee instructor and be allowed to teach at all. Then within 4 years they have to pass another race test (GS - Giant Slalom) called the Euro Test to fully qualify and be a full instructor. There are other exams around teaching as well, but these are the tricky bits for anyone who does not have a ski racing background as the level is set very high and most of the people who pass are French locals to the ski areas who have had slalom training from a young age. There is a lot of frustration in the skiing community from people who would like to be ski instructors in France that this test is so based on your ability to race rather than teach (I think many people who have had lessons with the ESF may feel the effects of this) and also that it descriminates against older people wanting to become instructors as a second career as there is no allowance made for age.
We are thinking of taking some racing lessons so we could have an idea of how feasible it might actually be - the internet has a lot about how difficult it is - but you don't know until you try. I think Doug is less keen to be an instructor (he doesn't have my fabulous people skills and love of idiots). Worst case we would have spent some money improving our skiing, and have a taste of something different - Of course I would be very annoyed if he could pass the test and I couldn't. I would have to send him out to be an instructor while I sat around with my feet up...

We have seen three ski schools in La Mongie the ESF, the ESI and Pyrénées Exérience. The first two at least do race training (ESF perhaps only for children) so we will go and speak to them about it sometime after Christmas. We also met a guy (who is a friend of the parents of Raymond who we bought the house from) who used to be a ski instructor at La Mongie and we may go and speak with him too for advice.

I am not quite sure what to say about this poster...