STA is ready to get, set, go after signing a new partnership agreement with the GetSetGo! Group Limited in London.

The partnership includes the swim academy setting-up a new STA Approved Training Centre (ATC) called GetSetGo Training Academy, which will deliver all of STA’s professional aquatic qualifications covering lifesaving, first aid, pool plant and swimming teaching – including disability and baby and pre-school qualifications.

To get them off the blocks, STA is working with the Academy’s founder Claire Harrison to embed an in-house tutor workforce so that they will be able to train new recruits and up-skill existing staff, as and when their business requires – and not have to rely on waiting for external training courses to be available. Instead, as an ATC they will now have full control of planning and managing the training process internally; and the flexibility too, as the Academy operates its own purpose-built, luxury swimming pools in Golders Green and Putney.

GetSetGo offer private, shared and small group lessons for babies, children and adults from its state-of-the-art facilities, and Claire said: “As part of our mission to deliver the best holistic swimming lesson experience possible for our customers, and our ambitions to build more swimming pools and keep expanding our learn to swim portfolio, we are thrilled to be working with STA, a national governing body for swimming.

This strategic partnership with STA enables us to consolidate and commercially manage all of our future aquatic training programmes. Crucially for us, our in-house STA tutors will have full control over the quality of training being delivered, thus raising teaching standards further – and it gives us the opportunity to upskill staff and recruit and train new swimming teachers and lifeguards in support of our growth plans,” confirmed Claire, who has more than 20 years teaching experience.

Safety Training Awards, STA’s awarding organisation, which is regulated by Ofqual, is providing the structure for GetSetGo to be able to achieve this. The flexibility of STA’s ATC training model means the new GetSetGo Training Academy can deliver a high standard of professionally accredited ‘CIMSPA-endorsed’ qualifications across swimming teaching, lifesaving, first aid, pool plant.

Zoe Cooper, STA’s Commercial Director who has been working with GetSetGo to get things up and running, said;

“GetSetGo has the most amazing venues, and their dedication to providing the best swimming teaching experiences shines through the moment you walk through the door. We cannot wait to get them set up as an ATC and use our experience to help them grow further, so that they can teach even more people an important life skill, in line with our own charity objectives.”