June 2018
The UK’s No 1 fitness industry magazine
Training needs to improve, report claims By Oliver Dyson MORE needs to be done to improve training in the fitness industry, according to the newly published Raising the Bar report. The report, produced by Future Fit Training and supported by ukactive, showed that most people think there is still a long way to go in terms of training provision, assessment of fitness professionals and upskilling. The report showed that 73 per cent of employers believe personal training qualifications and assessments should take no longer than six months to be completed, with 100 per cent of operators surveyed believing the CIMSPA professional standards for fitness will have a positive impact on raising the quality of personal trainers entering the industry. A total of 92 per cent of employers surveyed revealed they provide additional training to ensure fitness staff are work ready and 87 per cent believe candidates enter the sector with unrealistic expectations. Major skill gaps identified within the industry were newly qualified professionals lacking commercial knowledge, social skills and behaviour change skills, issues which respondents felt could be solved with more robust, employer-focused approaches to that initial training and
development. Future Fit Training managing director Rob Johnson said: “Raising the Bar 2018 is our most thorough report to date, consulting with more fitness operators and industry experts on more topics than ever before. “We have seen great progress in attitudes and willingness to implement change since our last report but recruiting and retaining high-quality fitness staff continues to be a challenge for employers. “CIMSPA, ukactive, awarding organisations, training providers and employers must now come together to address these skills gaps to further professionalise the industry workforce.” This year’s report also looked at the ability of fitness professionals to engage disabled people in physical activity. Currently, disabled people are almost twice as likely to be inactive as non-disabled people. The report revealed that confidence in the industry’s ability to engage with disabled people must be improved. 86 per cent of the report’s respondents didn’t believe most exercise professionals were adequately trained to work with disabled people. And 61 per cent of operators didn’t know what percentage of their membership was disabled.
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Elevated numbers at this year’s conference
Celebrity personal trainers and former Gladiators Wayne Goodwin and Jenny Pacey will host the 2018 National Fitness Awards, Workout can reveal. Taking place at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool on Friday December 8, the NFAs celebrate excellence in all parts of the sector, rewarding clubs and individuals for all their hard work, with over 20 trophies up for grabs. Enter now or find out more at www. nationalfitnessawards.co.uk and see page 4 for more details about this year’s event.
A RECORD number of attendees visited Elevate. More than 8,133 professionals from 36 countries came to this year’s event, held at the ExCeL London, a 94 per cent increase on 2017. Social prescribing, open data and community-wide behaviour change were the major themes discussed. The Thought Leaders Conference, sponsored by MINDBODY, saw keynote speakers including Tracey Crouch MP, Dr Michael Mosley and Sir Muir Gray CBE debate the issue of inactivity. And panellists discussed how GPs can integrate social prescribing into their clinical care model, what the implications could be for the physical activity sector and the relationship between the sector and primary care professionals. A panel session which included Dr William Bird, MBE, CEO and founder of Intelligent Health, revealed the statistic that 51 per cent of all GP referrals for social prescribing are for loneliness. And Fiona Bull MBE, from the World Health Organisation, previewed WHO’s global action plan on physical