This is not, in my opinion, as straightforward as it seems. I think that there are two distinct areas involved in the stalking, the private and the Government sectors.
The private sector ranges from huge estates where your every wish is catered for, if you can afford it, to a small farm where some lucky person gets to cull the deer for free. So we have prices that vary from the astronomical to the free. Nothing wrong in that landowners have to have a return on their money, whether that is just keeping the deer damage down on their small farm or for paying the wages of stalkers etc on the big estates. I have no problem with this. If you can afford it and you enjoy it, go for it.
Then we have the FC and the like, here they put the leases out for tender and guess what, the big money wins every time. Not only are some of these syndicates that win entirely unsuitable as stalkers, they never even go to the ground. This means that the FC and Co have to put their own stalkers in to cull the deer, and then charge the syndicate for doing it. It is a win, win situation for the Fc and Co, the syndicates don't really care and the poor bloody genuine stalker can't get a look in.
Then there is the "must have" qualifications which are a lot of money for your average man. This is after all a hobby for a lot of people and comes a long way behind, the mortgage, food, clothes etc all essentials to put before a hobby.
I think that there should be some sort of system in place that would relate to public land whereby a stalk or whatever could be purchased at a sensible price, or tenders put out to genuine stalking syndicates, who are capable and live close enough to do the job. I think that level 1 should be the minimum qualification necessary to allow any such stalking. I cannot understand how achieving a qualification that clearly states you have demonstrated a knowledge of skills in, Deer ecology, the law, stalking techniques, firearms safety, consistent accurate shooting, and meat hygiene etc, is alright but not good enough. I know that some of you will say that the level one is interesting but not really comprehensive enough ,but it is better than nothing. Also as good as level 2 may be how long before that is considered not enough. Training is a good thing but not if it is beyond the reach of the majority, trainig combined with experience is the thing that is needed, as in all aspects of life, so lets give the average stalker a chance without the poor bugger having to jump through more hoops than a circus dog.
Well, that would be my opinion
John