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The role of the gym instructor is to engage, facilitate, educate and support clients in the gym environment. Gym instructors can choose to complete additional training to become fitness instructors.
practitioner
Gym Instructor
The role
The role of a gym instructor is varied. They are responsible for a wide range of day-to-day activities in a gym environment. Working both independently and as part of a wider team, they have a key role in customer experience and member retention, as well as supporting and motivating clients to commit to exercise to support long-term, health-related behaviour change.
Some of the responsibilities of a gym instructor are:
What it takes
The following common or transferable skills are most frequently asked for by employers in Gym instructor job adverts across the UK:
| Skills and behaviours | % prevalence in job ads |
|---|---|
| Teaching | 69% |
| First aid | 66% |
| Communication | 10% |
| Customer service | 10% |
| Enthusiasm | 7% |
| Interpersonal communications | 5% |
| Operations | 5% |
| Cleanliness | 4% |
| Sales | 4% |
| Teamwork | 4% |
To find out more about the minimum knowledge, skills and behaviours an individual must understand and demonstrate to become a Gym instructor, you can visit our occupational professional standards library.
Getting in
There are several ways you can become qualified as a gym instructor. Look at the options below to explore what option works best for you.
You can get qualified as a gym instructor by completing a
If you plan to become a gym instructor as a pathway into becoming a personal trainer, then a good option might be to complete the following certification which combines the gym instructor and personal trainer qualifications into one course:
You can choose to complete your gym instructor course online, in person or via a hybrid delivery format (online and in person). The total course cost, study time and guided learning hours will vary depending on the delivery format, qualification and training provider you choose.
Some colleges and universities have embedded gym instructor qualifications into their learning programmes. You can browse our CIMSPA Endorsed Training Directory to check for colleges and universities that are recognised by CIMSPA for providing quality training to students. Here, you can also check what courses our endorsed colleges and universities offer as well as course entry requirements, a summary of course content/material and more information on how to apply.
The Leisure Team Member apprenticeship offers options to become qualified not only as a gym instructor, but as a pool lifeguard, swimming teacher and first aider. You can find out more about completing a Leisure Team Member apprenticeship via The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) website.
Training
Typical earnings
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Demand
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Typical working patterns
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As well as exploring new career pathways, as a gym instructor, you can also choose to progress your career by completing further training or continued professional development (CPD) in your role. This additional training will enable gym instructors to deliver specific activity-based fitness sessions such as:
You can also choose to focus your CPD on gaining expertise in working with additional populations, in different environments and with technical specialisms. Examples of specialisms that may be added are:
The content of the job posts displayed on the CIMSPA jobs board are pulled in through feeds from websites which are not under the control of CIMSPA.
CIMSPA will not be liable for any false, inaccurate, inappropriate or incomplete information presented on the jobs board.