This time last year STA embarked on a new 3-year partnership with Fusion Lifestyle, with the leisure group becoming an STA Approved Training Centre (ATC) as part of their national strategy to attract new swimming teachers to the industry and grow their swimming lesson programmes across its 28 pool sites.

The three-year plan involves internally training new STA tutors so that they can deliver STA’s Level 2 Award and Certificate swimming teaching qualifications to Fusion staff and people interested in a progressive career in swimming.

Twelve months on, and we can report that Fusion Lifestyle, who deliver more than three million swimming lessons every year, have already qualified 5 in-house STA Aquatic tutors and successfully delivered more than thirty Award and Certificate swimming teaching courses.

James Duncan, Head of People at Fusion Lifestyle, said: “In just 12 months, the partnership with STA has helped us unlock the vast potential we have to grow our swimming lesson programmes. By becoming an ATC, we have been able to deliver professionally accredited Level 2 swimming teacher courses internally, and plan and manage the training process based on each leisure centre’s workforce requirements. As a result, we’ve successfully qualified more than 130 new swimming teachers this year, and the plan is to increase these numbers even further over the next 12-18 months.”

Kaylë Brightwell, STA’s Director of Education, added: “It’s been a pleasure working with the team at Fusion over the last 12 months; to see how they have benefitted from becoming an ATC and successfully grown their swimming teacher and tutor workforce. We look forward to continuing our support, and working with the team.”

Safety Training Awards, STA’s awarding organisation, which is regulated by Ofqual, is providing the structure for Fusion Lifestyle to be able to deliver STA’s regulated qualifications to the highest, quality-assured standards. Both STA’s Level 2 Award and Certificate swimming teaching qualifications are also endorsed by CIMSPA.