In 2020, Glasgow Life partnered with STA to set up as an Approved Training Centre (ATC) with the purpose of rolling-out our Pool Lifeguard qualification across its 12 swimming pools; and such has been its success, they have agreed to extend the partnership until 2027.

Glasgow Life is a charity working for the benefit of the people of Glasgow. Delivering culture and sport services on behalf of Glasgow City Council, their programmes, experiences and events range from grassroots community activities to large-scale cultural, artistic and sporting events which present Glasgow on an international stage. Their work is designed to promote inclusion, happiness and health, as well as support the city’s visitor economy, in order to enhance Glasgow’s mental, physical and economic wellbeing.

As part of this portfolio, the charity operates 12 swimming pools across the city through the Glasgow Club, which is one of the most significant public sport operations in the UK and Scotland’s largest health and fitness network with 40,000 members and employing around 250 lifeguards.

Glasgow Life started rolling-out STA’s Pool Lifeguard qualification in January 2020 following a comprehensive review of the course syllabus. They believed the CIMSPA-endorsed qualification to be robust and detailed in line with their workforce needs; and with STA taking the industry lead at the time by aligning the three-year Lifeguard and First Aid at Work revalidation process, they could see that it would create huge time and cost efficiencies.

Alan Milner, Glasgow Life’s Head of Sport, said: “The three-year revalidation was crucial to our decision to take on STA’s Pool Lifeguard qualification in 2020. STA’s requirement for 24 training hours over a three-year period in order to revalidate made sense, and it has since proved to be successful for everyone involved.

“For Glasgow Life, partnering with STA and becoming an ATC for Pool Lifeguard and First Aid with Safety Training Awards, has provided us with many strategic and operational benefits over the last four years. Fundamentally, with STA’s support, it gave us the structure we needed to be able to transform how we manage and deliver Pool Lifeguard and First Aid training across all our sites, in line with our workforce needs and with minimum disruption to customers.”

Zoe Cooper, STA’s Commercial Director, said: “We are delighted that Glasgow Life has successfully embraced our approach to pool lifeguard training, and are reaping the benefits of becoming an ATC. As they mention, our pro-active approach to Pool Lifeguard training was created with the industry in mind; to create far-reaching and tangible benefits for both the employer and learner. Glasgow Life is a clear testament of this approach, and we look forward to continuing to work with the team and supporting their continued success.”