In reply to Bob_the_Builder:
I've just returned from a few weeks in New Zealand. While I was there, I paid for five days of instruction on glacial & alpine mountaineering. I don't know if I'll find people to do things with in the future to get the best use out of the skills I feel I have some better confidence in but maybe, just maybe.
I actually paid for five days of guiding just because I happened to be there. I didn't pay for someone to nanny me up to a summit but for someone to teach me skills. I suspect you could find a similar set up in Europe where you could combine holiday with two or three days of hiring a guide to teach you specific skills? Five days worked really well for me. Roughly it went like this ...
Day 1 - out on the hills, crampon use, basic techniques, ice axe arrest, roping up for glacial travel, climbing in crampons etc.
Day 2 - all about the anchoring and the knots
Day 3 - big day out putting skills gained into place, learning about avalanche dangers, basics in how to add your own assessment to the already available information.
Day 4 - I diverted the instruction to half a day of via ferrata then consolidation of skills
Day 5 - navigation, and consolidation of skills, repetition, repetition, repetition
I reckon a 3 day intro would probably have given me what I came to learn. Next step is to get out in the mountains or all I've learned will start to fade.