editor’s letter
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Editor
Kate Cracknell +44 (0)1462 471906
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healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 3
seize the day
Political, social and economic changes are presenting the health and fitness industry with a new set of challenges – not only how to address issues such as obesity and an ageing population, but also the broader question of how to align ourselves more closely with both the medical sector and governmental agendas. But with all of these challenges comes huge opportunity. The latest opportunity comes in the shape of the new
Department of Health-led Responsibility Deal (see p18). The government is working hand-in-hand with the fitness industry on this initiative, which is designed to drive the nation towards a more active lifestyle; the fitness sector as a whole will asked to sign up to pledges that could lead to a much more diverse membership base coming into our facilities. This will require a broadening of our skillsets to encompass more specialist knowledge, enabling us to cater for people with more medicalised needs, and fits in well with the advances already being made towards co-operation with the medical sector. Experts have suggested that ‘now is the time’ for our industry. At the EHFA EU Associations Forum in
November, for example, professor Alfonso Jiménez, chair of the EHFA Standards Council, stressed that, if we want to live up to our full potential – co- operating with the medical sector, acting as a government delivery partner and providing a hub for healthcare in the broader community – we have to act right now, before the opportunity disappears. If we don’t take this chance, he warned, the door that’s currently been left tantalisingly ajar by both government and the medical sector will be closed forever. We have to act now, and act credibly. Staff training will be vital to this, so perhaps
If our sector wants to live up to its full potential, we have to act right now, before the opportunity – the door that’s currently been left ajar for us by government and the medical sector – disappears
now is also the time to re-assess our priorities. Should we be setting aside more budget to prepare staff to deliver on these opportunities?
The recent proliferation of Level 4 courses – in mental health, for example (see p36), and cardiac
rehab (see p48) – will begin to give us the tools we need to prepare our workforce. And yet training remains some way down the list of many operators’ priorities. Indeed, in the Working in Fitness 2010 survey, only a quarter of all training was reported as being fully paid-for by employers. The total amount of training undertaken in the previous 12 months had also declined to an average of five days per worker. Reluctance to invest in training is understandable given that staff could walk out of the door at any
moment, taking their skills with them; the fitness industry workforce is admittedly a transient one. However, could that vicious circle – don’t invest, because it’s potentially money lost – be turned into a virtuous one? It would be a particularly brave decision in these tough economic times, but there’s surely a huge commercial opportunity for those operators willing to think longer term and invest in their people. By enhancing our in-house skillset, we will be able to cater effectively for the currently inactive masses who may be driven our way by today’s new opportunities; new membership revenue will be there for the taking, but only if our staff are truly able to deal with the increasingly specialist needs of a diversified membership base.
Kate Cracknell, editor
katecracknell@leisuremedia.com
FRONT COVER: WWW.
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM / © STÍGUR KARLSSON
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