Health and Fitness Instructors (HFIs) are the main source to convey exercise-related information to the general public. They provide information and implement counselling in exercise information, exercise prescription, clients’ fitness assessment and guidance. A study developed by the Lithuanian Sports University raised two key questions related to their Professional skills: Do Health and Fitness Instructors working in the Lithuanian industry demonstrate solid competencies, which are important or even mandatory for collaborating with the healthcare and other sectors? And do these competencies align with the requirements of European (EuropeActive) standards?
The main goal of the research was to test professional competencies of the sample from working Health & Fitness Instructors (HFIs) according to EuropeActive’s educational standards at level 3 in the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). It was conducted in fitness clubs throughout Lithuania and included 155 HFIs.
Results revealed that only a minority of the Fitness Instructors (FIs) succeed the Core Knowledge (CK) examination and only three Group Fitness Instructors (GFIs) passed the examination for the HFI’s competencies of the EuropeActive / EREPS EQF level-3 standards. These findings, considered to be one of the first and few the first attempts to examine the competencies of HFIs in Europe, were very disappointing regarding the challenges for the professionalization of the H&F sector.
If you want to read more, you may access the full study here: https://lnkd.in/deEcrSm