Fitness Education Academy

Title : The Fitness Education Academy

The Fitness Education Academy is a learning provider based in Penicuik specialising in instructor training for the health and fitness sector, delivering courses at various locations throughout Scotland. Director Annalisa Buchanan's job involves overseeing all areas of the business, including teaching, assessment, administration, marketing, finance and quality assurance.

Annalisa first encountered the national learning opportunities database (NLOD) while working for another training provider. This meant she was able to use her knowledge of PROMT and Skills Development Scotland's services when she set up her own business.

She applied for The Fitness Education Academy to become a Skills Development Scotland Branded Learning Centre, and was able to use this as a quality standard to become an Individual Learning Account (ILA) Scotland registered provider. "The process was quite straightforward.", she explains, "Part of my job role is quality assurance of the training, and I had plenty of documentation of this to submit as supplementary evidence".

On trends within the exercise and fitness sector, she says, "I'm seeing a lot more short courses, accredited by the Register of Exercise Professionals - REPs. This allows learners to collect points towards their Continuing Professional Development, proving they are up to date with recognised qualifications".

"When I started up my own company 2 years ago I was only delivering exercise and fitness courses at level 2. Since then I have added a further 7 courses, which are proving popular. I would like to provide more CPD courses in the future to help learners keep up with changes in the sector. The exercise and fitness industry is quite a low paid profession and ILA Scotland funding really helps learners get the qualifications they need."

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