We had a very interesting conversation with some parents last week, they asked us why we always put “Qualified Instructor” on our advertisements.
The harsh reality is that so many swim schools local to us simply don’t have qualified instructors. During our recent recruitment drive, we had several teachers (now qualified) come from a number of local swim schools, all of which were leaving for the same or similar reasons;
They had been teaching a class on their own as an actual teacher. When they qualified, they asked about a higher rate of pay due to the cost of getting qualified and the fact that they know have the Level 2 award or certificate (they are 2 different courses). Their swim school owners had said that they wouldn’t be getting a pay rise now that they are qualified and that they would remain on the “unqualified wage” like the other “instructors” teaching the children at the swim schools.
It is something that we see more and more of, especially in recent times where a lot of swim schools, both independent, national franchise and council will employ unqualified staff to cut corners and save money. We were shocked to hear one local swim provider would have 1 qualified instructor, 3 groups of swimmers being taught by unqualified members of staff, when questioned by a parent, they were told that the 1 qualified member covers all the children…the mind boggles.
This is also why we brought in our new uniform with our rebrand. All of our qualified Level 2 Instructors wear the blue shirts. The assistants, who are all paid (as we heard many swim schools made them do it voluntary) wear yellow shirts. We also enjoy celebrating when our assistants become qualified as the hand in their yellow top for a Blue one. Even then, they will shadow and team teach a more experienced instructor for a course of lessons. Whilst still getting additional training and investment in their career as an instructor.
Going in to the loopholes that allow this to happen is quite frankly a mine field, so we will stay out of it. But it is these things that put children in danger, I would say that it isn’t the instructor’s fault, many of them are as young as 16 and being left in charge of classes of children on their own. They are being told about the higher rate of pay they will get when qualified, al to just be let go or made to work at the lower rate once they are.
We were also quite shocked that many of the qualified instructors would run sessions with groups of up to 8 children alone in a pool. We made the decision to never run classes with only one instructor. Yes, it would save a large amount on wages, but from a safety point of view, not a chance! Putting not only the safety of the child, but also the instructor. It is this reason that we believe a lot of swim schools have such a high turnover of staff, they simply aren’t supported and trained to deal with these things.
So, rest assured, YES, all of our teachers are qualified instructors, YES, our assistants take pride in what they do, they feel valued and are paid, and YES, we are proud to say that in 42 years of lessons, we have never had a major incident with the tens of thousands of children that come through our doors.