Completing a personal training course is an impressive step in any road to employability, and worth doing just for the learning experience. However, once you have completed this process, you may find yourself wondering what comes next. You certainly won’t want your hard work to go to waste, so it is always worth considering what you want to get out of having this new qualification. You can be confident that you will be able to handle what comes next – after all, you’ve just finished a tough course – and below, you can find out more about what the next steps are.
You can add another qualification to specialise in an area
Having the personal training qualification nailed down allows you to think about what you want to do next. You may, of course, just want to get on with being a personal trainer, but an additional qualification can go a long way to making you an even better employment prospect for gyms and other fitness centres. Maybe you would like to add a business admin qualification, which will assist you in going into business for yourself? Or perhaps you would gain more from adding a further fitness qualification, such as a course in Weight Management, or learning to teach Ayurveda Yoga.
You can send your resume to local gyms
If you want to get employed as quickly as possible, then your new-found qualification will assist you in getting a foot in the door with local gyms, who are always on the lookout for new staff. There is no reason at all that you need to choose between this and upskilling as we’ve described above, in fact; many gyms will find it an asset to have more qualified trainers on staff, so they will often make allowances to assist you in gaining further qualifications. It’s great for any gym to be able to say that they have a weight management or yoga teacher on the payroll.
You can join a professional association
Fitness trainers in Australia can join one of two professional associations, and through doing so can benefit from access to essential information, ongoing learning opportunities, and support throughout a career as a personal trainer. You can join either Fitness Australia or Physical Activity Australia, and for a small monthly fee you’ll be protected throughout your career, including by vital insurance that will make it easier for you to operate as a personal trainer, either independently or with an employer.
You can choose who you work with
Anyone who has sought to become a personal trainer has a reason for qualifying. It might be that you want to focus on helping kids and teens maintain fitness, or that you want to help women in any one of a number of areas from learning self-defence to getting back their body confidence. You might want to work with sports teams, offering your speciality in the knowledge that they will always have use for a wide range of fitness experts. You may want to simply keep upskilling to the point where you can work as a physiotherapist. Either way, you’re in control.
You will want to keep studying
Whether you want to go straight into employment without lengthening your list of qualifications, or you want to keep adding specialist skills to your armoury, the fact of the matter is that you will need to keep learning if you want to make the best of your qualifications. The human body may not have changed much over the years, but we are forever learning more about its capabilities and limitations, and this will change what you can do in a career as a personal trainer. Keeping abreast of the latest information in this regard will make you better at your job, and will keep renewing your enthusiasm for the role.
You will never look at the world in the same way again
Once you’ve completed a personal training course, you’ll see the whole world through the prism of fitness: you’ll see foods in the supermarket and instantly know their nutrient profiles; you’ll see fifteen spare minutes as a suitable slot for a quick workout; you’ll even see missing the bus as an unmissable opportunity for a timely jog. You’ll have a whole lot of information at your fingertips and a thirst to share it. And that’s exactly what you’ll be able to do with the qualification you just earned.
It’s daunting to look at the prospect of embarking on a personal training course, but once you’ve got to the end you’ll have so many more options to consider; all you need to do is choose.