Personal Trainer Qualifications

The UK has finally got the professional registration of gym instructor and personal trainer qualifications all sorted out. Although, over the last 35 years in the fitness industry,  I have seen the ‘official registers’ come and go, but let’s hope for the best this time. After the last 5 years with the confusion of having the ‘old register’ ‘REPs’ being run alongside the ‘new’ register CIMSPA, we finally have ONE official Government register for fitness instructors and personal trainers – CIMSPA (the Chartered Institute for Sport and Physical Activity). REPs members are now CIMSPA members. Also, be aware because there are a lot of private ‘companies’ out there that appear to be official ‘registers’, but you only need to be registered with CIMSPA from a legal standpoint.

HFI’s Fitness Instructor and Personal Training qualifications enable you direct registration with CIMSPA as either a CIMSPA ‘Affiliate’ (for Fitness Instructors) or CIMSPA ‘Practitioner’ (for Personal Trainers. The titles ‘Level 2’ and ‘Level 3’ used to be used instead of Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer as are the old ‘REPs’ titles so the qualifications can still be called ‘Level 2 Fitness Instructor ‘ or ‘Level 3 Personal Trainer’.

A Fitness (Gym) Instructor is someone who is employed by a gym or health club. They would supervise the gym and be on hand in case any members need reminding about their gym exercises or need a few words of encouragement. The Gym Instructor would get registered in the CIMSPA ‘Affiliate’ membership category. The Fitness Instructor would usually purchase public liability insurance along with their CIMSPA membership as most employers require this, even though you would be also covered under the company’s insurance as you are an employee.

The role of the ‘Personal Trainer’ is someone who can either employed by a gym or self-employed who takes on private clients and works with them on an on-going basis. The client would pay an additional fee to the gym or directly to the trainer, depending on how the personal training service was set up by the gym. The Personal Trainer would get registered in the CIMSPA ‘Practitioner’ membership category. The Personal Trainer would purchase public liability insurance along with their CIMSPA membership as they will need this regardless of whether they are employed by the gym or self-employed.

For more advice about how the fitness industry is structured, how gym businesses work with personal trainers  and how you can make this your next great career move, please get in touch.

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