Baroness Tanni Grey- Thompson’s recent article (HCM Aug 15, p24) is a clear indication that the fitness industry is moving towards a higher level of professionalism.

The standard qualification for PTs in this country – a Level 3 certificate – is on its own not sufficient to prepare people for a role that’s more dynamic and complex than ever before. A host of in-depth skills and knowledge are needed to enable trainers to support clients in their quest for health and fitness, let alone build the foundations for a successful career.

Behaviour change, for example, is a vital area for PTs, and one that requires more than a token mention of motivation strategies – it’s crucial to the role. Outside of technical competencies, business skills are also fundamental, regardless of whether PTs are self-employed or in a paid position.

Aside from a re-evaluation of what trainers should be learning, the assessment process should also be rigorous and fit for purpose, to ensure qualifications are genuinely earned and demonstrate true capability in the workplace.

We’re pleased to be involved with the work ukactive and CIMSPA are doing to address the standards personal trainers must meet.

It’s time training providers acknowledged that, although it’s important personal trainers take responsibility for their own careers, we have a duty to provide fit for purpose qualifications and courses that fully prepare people for work. We must collaborate with employers to achieve this.

Six weeks is not long enough for a PT qualification

Research conducted at July’s Meeting of the Minds event highlighted that a six-week intensive diploma was not an appropriate timeframe for an individual to become a successful Level 2 Gym Instructor and Level 3 PT. Eighty-six per cent of attendees agreed on this, with 96 per cent rating ongoing education beyond Level 3 ‘very important’.

It’s our job as a training provider to ensure PTs are prepared for the rigours of their roles – not only for the sake of the individuals, but also the integrity of the profession and the credibility of the industry. That’s why we’re ceasing our six-week intensive Level 2 & 3 combined programme.

By working with CIMSPA – which has been tasked with standardising qualifications – we can help drive quality of qualifications and improve pathways for learners to thrive. It’s only by taking positive action – a unified and simplified approach – that we as an industry can flourish.

Tanni Grey-Thompson made some great points about quality assurance, and the need to raise credibility and standards in workforce development, in the August edition of HCM.

Her first objective was to deliver a single, unified skills and workforce strategy. Now is the perfect time to achieve this, as on 30 September the Qualifications and Credit Framework closed, clearing the way for the new Regulated Qualifications Framework. This gives us a chance to take control of how our qualifications look.

But this requires whole industry collaboration. One particular area of controversy is the standard time taken to qualify. Ofqual has said new qualifications need total qualification time specified – the number of hours a learner will undertake. But it’s unlikely Ofqual will give clear parameters for how many of these, if any, must be face-to-face guided learning hours.

This leaves the sector open to great risk, with less scrupulous companies promoting the cheapest, fastest courses with no face-to-face interaction or tutor support, resulting in lesser skilled graduates without the soft skills the sector needs.

Tanni also spoke of a new Chartered Physical Activity Professional title to raise the sector’s profile – a great idea, and one that provides CIMSPA with the chance to set parameters for training providers; learners will want to take a respected course to meet this level of qualification.

The intent of ukactive to clarify job roles and create a capability grading structure within the fitness professional is an excellent one. How can it be that a male aged 35, with no significant clinical history, could walk into 20 separate gyms and be given 20 separate recommendations of how to train? The reality is that he will find variations of training not just between facilities, but between equally qualified colleagues in the same gym.

What ukactive is seeking to achieve is increased confidence from the medical profession and general public that you can ‘enter here with peace’: well-groomed (that’s important) fitness professionals shouting ‘send us your frail, your hypertensives, your metabolic syndromes, your obese…and we will deal with them in a consistent, evidence-based and (dare we dream) outcome-focused way’.

This is an excellent ambition for the sector – but while there is of course room for progress in the standardisation of delivery, I believe that’s actually too narrow an intent. We’re still talking about fitness and activity and they simply don’t sit, or work, in isolation.

Because even with this structure in place, there are still questions to be asked. Can this new generation of trusted fitness professionals pick up with their clinical clients on the lifestyle elements left behind by medicine? To whom do they refer the ‘tired all the time’ client, or the ‘can’t get to sleep’ client – back to the doctor who sent them to us in the first place? Or out into the open arms of the complementary medicine professionals, who sell time and empathy dressed in a cloak of questionable methodologies? Can a successful lifestyle and medical framework really leave room for £200m annual spend on herbal medicine and homeopathy?

I believe our sector must step up to occupy this gap between illness and wellness – and we have the capacity to do it, with a wealth of eager intelligent minds who can fill it at Levels 8 and above.

The editor’s letter in the August 2015 edition of HCM is thought-provoking and spot on as far as it goes: it’s true that new technology and innovation is opening up a world of possibilities and raising the expectation of the consumer. But I believe the title of the piece, ‘demographics are dead’, is a little misleading.

Demographics on their own do have limitations, but they have been superseded by geodemographics – the integration of data from more than one source to aid the profiling of consumers.

The current cross-channel classification system used by The Leisure Database Company segments the UK into 66 Types, and it becomes powerful when we add the supply of fitness sites and facilities to the supply/demand model which estimates latent demand. It’s even more tantalisingly accurate when the data is customised and layered with live consumer data. It’s powerful because we’re all human, and many of us are creatures of habit – not just one habit, but lots.

The examples given in the editor’s letter are appealing to a growing number who are breaking down the habitual and allowing change into their lives; the fitness industry, like many businesses, is in transition while working out how it meets and anticipates consumer demand in this technology-led world.

But meanwhile, customer profiling and segmentation using geodemographics remains key to understanding your consumers, their habits and their propensity to participate in sport/fitness.

I felt compelled to respond to the 2015 State of the UK Swimming Industry Report, highlighting the decline in pool provision for a third consecutive year.

Pools are particularly expensive to run, with frequent demands for maintenance work. Many facilities are also coming to the end of their lifespan. This, combined with the growing financial pressure operators have running these pools effectively, is leading to more and more closures.

However, swimming is a vital life skill, and we must address this downward trend. Developing more cost-effective facilities across the country is key to this.

Pool construction in Europe uses steel tanks as opposed to concrete. These offer greater accessibility for maintenance and servicing, which contributes significantly to their longevity. For many years, I’ve used tanks as a way of teaching children to swim in deprived areas, and I know this innovative pool technology can be used commercially too: we’ve delivered successful projects for local authorities including Dumfries & Galloway, East Riding of Yorkshire and Bury to replace or increase their aquatic provision across communities, resulting in hundreds of thousands extra swims a year.

In the case of Bury Council, a replacement pool was constructed after the previous facility was closed for 12 months due to structural damage. The local authority was facing repair costs in excess of £2.5m, but the installation of a replacement swimming facility for under £1m provided community access to a high standard facility for at least 15 years.

I recently returned from Russia and the FINA World Championships, where the two temporary 50m pools in the Kazan Arena Stadium were further examples that showcased what can be achieved using the latest pool technology.

As a business led by Olympians, we’re committed to providing a sporting legacy. Collectively, more can be done to address pool provision in this country so operators have effective and affordable alternatives to closures of wet-side facilities.