EA Fitness Project enters final stages

The European Accreditation – Fitness project is an unprecedented initiative to establish a pan-European benchmark of standards for trainers in the health and fitness sector, is entering its final stages with only four months left to run.

The two year long project is led by CYQ, the UK’s leading health and fitness specific awarding body, and by EHFA, the European Health and Fitness Association.
It is a Lifelong Learning European funded project, enabling health and fitness sector training providers and national associations across Europe to be accredited against the European Health and Fitness Association (EHFA) Standards for occupations that include fitness instructing, group fitness instructing and personal training.

A joined up approach

What this means for the industry is a joined up approach to training and qualifications across Europe. For individual instructors, their qualifications can now be recognised across the continent, allowing for mobility and change of location. For employers, it will offer clarity as instructors with overseas qualifications can finally be recognised quickly and easily. Defined standards enable training providers to offer an enhanced product that will benefit not only their business but the industry as a whole.

The partners and training providers involved in the project are based throughout Europe, including the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Lithuania, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Results from the project so far have inspired other training providers to go through the accreditation process, including organisations based in Cyprus, Norway, Belgium and even beyond Europe, in Canada. At the end of the project there will be 26 organisations successfully accredited.

EHFA Standards 

The EHFA Standards are a European benchmark for vocational education and training within the health and fitness sector across Europe. Successfully accredited training providers have demonstrated, through a transparent and independent process of external verification, that they meet these standards.

This is the first pan-European exercise and fitness iniative in which the EHFA Standards are aligned to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) so as to clearly identify the knowledge, skills and competencies required for fitness instructing occupations. It will enable those requiring training, and employers seeking to employ instructors and trainers, to establish quickly and easily whether a programme meets the required standards, which in turn will give greater confidence in the standard of exercise and fitness instruction to the consumer throughout Europe.

The project has also included support for the ongoing development of the European Register of Exercise Professionals (EREPs) which now has an ever increasing membership base with members from across Europe in 28 different countries.

Jenny Patrickson, Director of Awarding at CYQ, said:

"We are extremely pleased with the results of the project so far. The standard of training and assessment in the organisations that have been accredited is very high and many of the training providers have indicated that gaining accreditation has improved their business as a result of the endorsement.

The project has enabled us to streamline the accreditation process,  making it simple and easy to follow, and we have been able to translate accreditation documents into French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and Dutch to make the process more accessible. EHFA Standards have been refreshed and updated to ensure they continue to be current and fit-for-purpose. We are looking forward to presenting the results of the project at our final conference to be held in Brussels on 10th September.”

Survey 

The EA Fitness project also includes research on the trends and perspectives for employment, mobility, vocational education and training programmes within exercise and fitness in at least 8 EU countries – click here to complete the survey.