Kirklees Active Leisure (KAL) has partnered with STA to launch an STA Approved Training Centre (ATC) this month. This will facilitate the in-house delivery of STA’s professional swimming teaching and pool plant qualifications across its six leisure centres across Kirklees.

By transferring over to STA and creating an in-house training model for their aquatics team, KAL, a not-for-profit charitable leisure trust, will have the flexibility, and the freedom to plan, budget and manage the delivery of STA’s accredited and CIMSPA-endorsed Level 2 swimming teaching and pool plant qualifications, based on each leisure centre’s requirements.

Safety Training Awards, STA’s awarding organisation, which is regulated by Ofqual, is providing the structure for KAL to be able to achieve this. The plan, starting this month, is to internally train new STA tutors who will then go on to deliver STA’s qualifications to existing staff and people in Kirklees interested in a progressive career in aquatics.

Gemma Hill-Wood, Activity, Projects & Partnerships Manager at KAL, whose charitable vision is ‘improving health & wellbeing’, said:

“This is an exciting partnership, and by working with STA, we will benefit from the flexibility their in-house training model provides; meaning we can recruit and train high quality teachers as and when required. In turn, this will create greater efficiencies across all our leisure sites, ensuring we continue to offer an excellent value-for-money service for the benefit of the communities we serve.

“The training model, will also help us plug the skills gap in swimming teaching left by the pandemic so that we can continue to grow our aquatic programmes – and with swimming being such an all-inclusive beneficial activity for everyone, this too, meets our strategic focus for improving health & wellbeing.”

“Furthermore, for our staff, the internal training model creates new options for personal development and growth, as well as opportunities to become qualified STA tutors in swimming teaching and pool plant management,” confirmed Gemma.

Zoe Cooper, STA’s Commercial Director said: “This is the start of a great new partnership, and as an educational charity dedicated to ‘preserving human life by the teaching of swimming, lifesaving and survival techniques’, we are looking forward to sharing our experience and helping the fantastic team at KAL.

“By creating new STA Tutors, and having internal control of their training needs, we know our proven training model will make it much easier and more cost-effective for them to develop and expand their aquatic workforce – this also loops nicely back to support our charitable objective, as the team at KAL will be able to continue to grow their learn to swim programmes, and give more people in Kirklees the opportunity to learn a key skill. We look forward to a long and successful partnership.”