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Health club management SkillsActive News
Tom Bell, endorsement manager at SkillsActive, looks at why endorsement of training for CPD (continual professional development) is crucial to maintaining standards
As the industry grows so do the opportunities for fitness professionals to broaden their skill-set and meet the increasingly diverse needs of members. SkillsActive and REPs work to facilitate this growth by liaising with employers and training providers to address these needs, as well as creating links with the medical sector ensuring that we keep ‘the door firmly ajar’ between the government/medical sector and the health and fitness industry. This includes the introduction of the level 4 specialist instructor category and the growing number of training providers who offer courses for fitness professionals who want to work with those with chronic conditions and diseases.
There is also an ever-growing importance for employers to invest in staff training to ensure that the best service and experience is given to the customer.
Recently, we have seen a number of employers take up our Employer Training Licence. This licensing application involves a quality assurance process whereby in-house training provision at levels 2 and 3 is recognised and confirmed as being based on national standards. This allows Licensed employers to react quickly to address skills gaps and immediate training needs, and ensure their in-house training is recognised by REPs and therefore eligible for continued professional development points.
New REPs role
REPs CPD Compliance Manager Dottie Calderwood has taken on a new role within the REPs team, as acting registration manager.
As well as being responsible for the registration
processes and procedures, she now works closely Fitness Managers around the UK helping them with the re- registration of their staff.
Dottie said: “This aspect of my role is together all the strands of communication that come into the REPs office as well as
supporting employers and their fitness managers.
“It’s a great role and I’m really
enjoying working with instructors and managers and finding new ways to help
make their processes of registration and
re-registration easier.
“Over the coming months, my intention is to strengthen relationships with fitness managers within the fitness industry and to make improvements to our processes and the services that we give to them as fitness professionals. “
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