National Lifesaving Academy

You will hopefully have seen that we successfully launched the National Lifesaving Academy (NLA) to the leisure industry in October and have since launched the NLA to the public in February.

We have worked with Olympians including triathletes and Olympic gold medalists Alistair Brownlee MBE and Jonny Brownlee MBE; gold Paralympic swimmer Ellie Robinson MBE; and former Olympian and Sports Scientist Professor Greg Whyte OBE. They have all endorsed the NLA and have shown their support for the academy by appearing in our promotional videos which we hope you have enjoyed!

Instructors - Still need to update?

Award Structure

If you’re a current lifesaving instructor who would like to continue to deliver our senior lifesaving awards, we’ve created a simple online training course to update your qualifications and become an NLA Lifesaving Instructor. You should already have had an email inviting you to complete your NLA Lifesaving Instructor, Tutor, or Mentor update.

It is free to update your qualification to the latest version via the online update, so we hope that you’ll make the time to update your knowledge to enable you to teach the new National Lifesaving Academy awards!

For more information on how to update, visit www.rlss.org.uk/become-a-national-lifesavingacademy-instructor.

Become part of the National Lifesaving Academy

If you are 12 and over, you can, through your local lifesaving club, begin working your way through the NLA award journey, starting with the Bronze Lifesaving Certificate, through the Bronze Stars, to the Bronze Medallions, and finally securing the Distinction Award.

To learn more about NLA head to www.rlss.org.uk/ NLA, watch our videos, read about the pathway and begin your journey!

To encourage a year-on-year increase in sport participation at an introductory stage, whilst supplying a framework that supports individual athlete growth

Stage 2

Sport Masterclass

The Sport Masterclass will be a future development of the pathway and will focus on athletes who are competitive at national and international level

Skill Bolt-ons Stage 1

Skill bolt-ons are specific, providing coaches with the structure to focus on athletes’ strengths in a single discipline or focus across multiple disciplines. Some of the bolt-ons will be designed around milestones, rewarding the progression of lifesavers as they improve their time and technique.

Introduction To Lifesaving Sport

Introduction to Lifesaving Sport will be an entry level into sport and will include information on welfare, fitness and health. It will provide athletes with an overview of sport and introduce them to some of the core skills needed to progress in lifesaving sport

National Lifesaving Academy: Lifesaving Sport

We’re working hard behind the scenes on launching a new set of awards for Lifesaving Sport that will be part of the National Lifesaving Academy. Since the Survive & Save programme was launched over a decade ago Lifesaving Sport has gone from strength to strength. We decided it was time to produce a new set of awards that would provide a better pathway for candidates to progress from lifesaver to athlete.

We hope this new Lifesaving Sport development pathway will enable a new generation of athletes to progress to compete on the international stage while embedding the core RLSS UK ethos of enabling everyone to enjoy water safely.

The new pathway will provide a broad introductory award in all the techniques needed to participate in Lifesaving Sport, before then allowing athletes to specialize in their chosen discipline. Athletes can pick and choose the elements they most enjoy and are suited to, enabling them to concentrate and excel in these specialist areas.

These awards are part of a new long-term strategy for improving the quality of training and resources available to our Lifesaving Sport athletes, as well as a way for clubs to offer something different to those candidates who might be interested in sport alongside or after they have completed the National Lifesaving Academy awards.

In addition, we hope to offer additional training to Lifesaving Sport Instructors in the future to enable them to deliver these new specialist awards more effectively. We recognise that our volunteers, instructors, and clubs are vital to the continuing success of Lifesaving Sport here in the UK.

We are still in the Lifesaving Sport award pathway consultation period, so we welcome feedback on the new structure.