There isn’t a person in the world who doesn’t know about online CPE courses that help the medical and legal personnel remain in good standing with his or her accreditation agencies, but how many ever imagined such requirements of fitness professionals? No joke: even health club workers are now expected to maintain a certain level of knowledge about developments in the field!
That’s right; those guys and gals whose job it is to get their clients in shape. Yes, them. At least if organizations like the venerable American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) or the American Council on Exercise (ACE) will have their way. The “CPE” in the term “online CPE courses” refers to “continuing professional education.” Of course, gym workers aren’t often thought of as “professionals” by most people, much less the kind of professionals that need to be recertified periodically. Isn’t that so?
Not according to the likes of the ACSM or ACE. Citing the ever increasing knowledge base that personal trainers must possess, these organizations have tried to promote a more professional image for such fitness industry workers; indeed, continuing education credits are already required of those they certify as trainers. Unfortunately, the idea is not likely to gain much more traction than it currently has. ACSM pioneered the idea of certifying fitness workers back in the 1950s, but even today not much of an industry standard exists – such that most online CPE courses for trainers, coaches, and other industry job titles remain the monopoly of the organization certifying them in the first place.
To be honest, it’s really the insurance companies that are most interested in certifications, for use as a possible shield in case of lawsuit. Everyone else, really, don’t quite have the perception of trainers as “professional” in the sense of the traditional professions, no matter how hard the certifying authorities try to change that view. Turnover is high while the quality of trainers, despite certification, is often low; many franchise gyms hire teenagers – kids – to advise clients paying eighty dollars and up an hour (of which only twenty to forty go to the trainer).For one thing, many chain gyms have college kids working as personal trainers: hard to see a doctor, lawyer, or accountant regarding such workers as fellow “professionals!”