As the Registrar of the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs), I welcome the publication of stories like those of Dawn Elliot (in the Daily Mail) – the 46-year-old mother of four with chronic lower back problems who enlisted the services of a personal trainer but with painful consequences. That’s because Dawn’s experience raises key issues and illustrates just how important it is to ensure your personal trainer or fitness instructor is a member of REPs.

REPs is a register of qualified personal trainers and fitness instructors who have all met agreed National Occupation Standards developed by SkillsActive – the Sector Skills Council for Active Leisure and Learning. More than 28,000 individuals are on the Register – the largest membership based register in the world.

REPs was set up in 2002 to regulate people working in the fitness industry and to safe-guard the health of people like Dawn. The Register has strict entry guidelines developed in partnership with the industry and everyday turns away trainers and instructors who do not meet the standards. However, REPs membership is not a statutory requirement for those working in the fitness industry, which is why stories like Dawn’s are so common. It is true that anyone in the UK can set themselves up as a personal trainer and it is also true that these unregistered trainers and instructors carry out fitness sessions with individuals who may suffer from a range of chronic injuries or even serious medical conditions – all of which can be exacerbated through poorly designed exercise. And although the Register seeks to minimise risk by setting standards, it is not full proof. Like any industry – even the medical profession – there are professionals who act carelessly and fail members of the public. REPs works hard to minimise such cases in the fitness industry and the more aware members of the public are of the Register, the more effective it can become at protecting them.

It is also important to note here that personal trainers are not out to “wreck your health”; in fact, they aspire to do the exact opposite. They help millions of people around the UK everyday get fit, lose weight, reduce stress, rehabilitate and prolong their lives. They contribute to government agendas to combat obesity and they reduce the pressure on the public health purse by improving the health of the nation. Alarmingly, in the past six months the number of people reporting that they never exercise has increased from 11 to 14 per cent and of those that do, less than a third exercise four times a week or more. Furthermore, the percentage of adults who are doing the government-recommended 30 minutes of exercise each session has fallen significantly from 34 to 29 per cent. I believe Tuesday’s article not only misrepresents the fitness industry, but it was irresponsible as well. The media should not be giving Britons any more excuses not to exercise and instead, be encouraging members of the public to be more aware of the skills, qualifications and training required by the people that prescribe them physical activity.

There is no doubt that REPs has been a major catalyst in the professionalisation and up skilling of personal trainers and fitness instructors. When the Register was set up, there was no nationally recognised structure to regulate people working in the fitness industry and to safe-guard the health of people like Dawn Elliot. Now, everyone from highly qualified instructors working with cardiac rehabilitation patients to keep-fit teachers running classes in a village hall can be professionally recognised by joining the Register. It is my vision that all trainers and instructors aspire to gain entry on the Register and that the public are sufficiently aware of those that do not.

Recently FE News interviewed John McNamara, chief executive of the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils, about what is in store for the future of skills given the recession. He emphasises the importance of training and the continual improvement of skills, along with reinforcing the points of Stephen Studd’s recent blog posts about how employers direct government messages through the Sector Skills Councils and the need for employers to be at the forefront of skills development.

View the video below:

With over 5 million volunteers involved in our sector, and the requirement for 70,000 volunteers in the staging of the London 2012 Olympics, the Personal Best programme has a key role in developing the skills of our voluntary workforce.

Today the Guardian ran a piece, Fresh start to Olympic dreams, focussing on the opportunity for disadvantaged people to gain training and a chance to get involved in the 2012 games. As the Guardian points out, the scheme aims to tackle social exclusion, particularly by attempting to attract people from a black or minority ethnic background, those with a disability, lone parents, women returning to the workplace and individuals with health conditions.

This programme isn’t solely London focussed however, and SkillsActive are heavily involved in helping develop this programme, and its roll-out across the country.

The North East of England was the first region outside London to launch the programme back in March, with Jonathan Edwards CBE, Olympic triple jump gold medallist and world record holder, on hand to support the initiative as you can see below. 

Jonathan Edwards launches Personal Best in the North East

More videos from Personal Best in the North East can be found on the LSC North East Youtube.

The South East of England also offers the programme, and other regions will soon follow. You will be able to keep updated on the development of Personal Best through our website section at www.skillsactive.com/personalbest

If you are looking to get involved with Personal Best,  the best port of call for Londoners should be the Personal Best website while elsewhere you are advised to go through the local JobCentre Plus or by contacting one of the regional LSC leads, who are:

• South East: Suzanne.Aldridge@lsc.gov.uk
• North East: Eleanor.Porter@lsc.gov.uk

The governments’ recognition of play and the importance of playworkers has seen an increasing emergence of agencies to deliver to the sector. As the Sector Skills Council for playwork, SkillsActive’s role is to improve the quality and range of play opportunities for children and young people through the professional development of the playwork workforce. The skills agenda is a devolved matter; with this in mind we work to influence education and skills policies across the four nations, ensuring their relevance to the sector, and advising government on how to prioritise its funding, as well as re-directing funding into the sector.

We are a coordinated voice for the sector, which is reflected in a coherent and evidenced demand for skills, and we work with deliverers and suppliers of vocational education to meet the skills and training needs of the sector.

SkillsActive’s vision is more people, better skilled, better qualified; we believe that in order to deliver quality services it is imperative that employers commit to investing in the their workforce. The playwork sector is central to our work and we have an integrated mission across our footprint – to promote healthy and active lifestyles, alongside a child’s right to play.

Playwork is not driven by prescribed education or care outcomes however, like sport, outdoor and adventure activities, play allows for active learning. It lays the foundation for an active and healthy lifestyle, and is provided in settings that are shared across the whole of the active leisure and learning sector – leisure centres, recreation centres, community centres, holiday playschemes, outdoor activity centres and recreation grounds.

To ensure the sector’s ongoing success, we are delivering on five priorities identified by playwork employers within our Sector Skills Agreement – to improve recruitment and retention of the workforce, to upskill and professionalise the existing workforce, to match training and supply to employer demand, to redirect and secure new funding for training to meet employment needs, to increase sector investment in our people – these priorities shape our work within the sector across the UK.

Funding for 4,000 places on training courses has been offered to Playworkers in England as part of the Government’s commitment in the Children’s Plan to develop a professional Playwork workforce.
This is an encouraging response to all those with a stake in Playwork and a ringing endorsement of the role that skills and qualifications have in improving quality of services, productivity and relations with children, young people and their parents and carers.

Moreover it is recognition of the value of individual Playworkers’ contribution in playwork settings.  Training results in a sense of job satisfaction, outward recognition and presents scope for career progression in the Children’s Workforce. Professional, well-trained playworkers are a key part of the children’s workforce.

There is no mistaking that this is a difficult time for the economy. As we move into spring, more job losses and redundancies are reported, along with the downturn in consumer spending and rise of repossession figures amongst homeowners – there really isn’t much to celebrate.

Let’s not forget that over the last ten years sport and active leisure however, has outperformed the rest of the UK economy four fold in terms of GVA and employment. Yet the period of recession that we are now in will put immense pressure on the sector to maintain its position in the economy.

We are a service sector and therefore we attract discretionary spending. Consequently there is now a real concern that this spending will be hit. Prior to Christmas there was no clear evidence of this and there is a view that fitness and physical activity is now more resilient and the benefits are better appreciated by the consumer. Recently there has been anecdotal evidence that customers are being more cost conscious and looking for more value of money with their gym and leisure centre memberships. However, both privately and publicly owned and run clubs and centres are in the same boat. Local authorities are not immune to the lack of public spending and face the same business pressures as privately owned health clubs after all; people still pay for leisure services.

During this time it is crucial for SkillsActive to work with employers, to help them through this period of turbulence and maintain their status within both the economy and government agenda.

We’re taking a four ‘R’ approach. Retain: where possible encourage employers to retain their staff, facilitate opportunities to access funding for training and keep people on the ‘shop floor’. Re-skill: proactively broker training solutions for employers to introduce new skills in the workplace. Re-deploy: encouraging perhaps smaller employers to share both expertise and workplace training. For example, if an Apprenticeship programme cannot be completed within one organisation, linking with another to ensure the apprentice can finish the programme. Re-engagement: encouraging employers to open their doors to people who have perhaps been made redundant and offer volunteering places, coaching hours or similar to engage them with the sector. 

The fact is recession or no recession, increasing the number of people participating in sport and physical activity and adopting an active lifestyle is the key success for all parts of the sector and is an agenda shared with government. And although the last economic slowdown back in 1997-98 did have an impact on the sector, and we witnessed negative growth in employment, I am confident that ten years on consumers are more health conscious and physically active. That doesn’t mean we don’t need to stop encouraging them back through the door. A workforce with more people, better skilled, better qualified will help. And although we will inevitably come up against challenges over the coming months, working together we can and will overcome them.