Swim coordinator
Also known as; Swim lesson coordinator, swim programme manager
A swim coordinator is typically responsible for organising and overseeing swimming programmes, lessons and activities at a facility such as a leisure centre, school or swim club.
What could I earn as a Swim coordinator?
Your earnings will depend on the hours you work, your location, level of experience and whether you are employed or self-employed. To give you an idea, the data presented reflects the earnings listed in job advertisements across the UK from January to December 2024, as gathered via Lightcast (March 2025). Average annual earnings reflect full-time roles (>32hours/week), however average hourly earnings are a reflection of data collected from full-time, part-time and flexible hours vacancies.
Average UK earnings
Avg. annual earnings
Avg. hourly earnings
total job postings
Evenings, weekends and holidays
60% of job adverts were hiring for full-time positions
What does a Swim coordinator do?
The key responsibilities of a swim coordinator role include:
- Programme management: Planning and scheduling swim lessons, training sessions and aquatic events.
- Staff coordination: Supervising swim instructors and lifeguards, ensuring they are properly trained and certified.
- Heath and safety: Ensuring all activities comply with health and safety regulations, including pool safety protocols.
- Customer service: Communicating with parents, swimmers and staff to handle inquiries, feedback and concerns.
- Administrative tasks: Managing bookings, maintaining records and sometimes handling budgets or reports.
The role of a swim coordinator is aligned to the CIMSPA Entry Manager occupational professional standard.
Skills and behaviours
The following common or transferable skills are most frequently asked for by employers in swim coordinator job adverts across the UK:
| Skills and behaviours | % prevalence in job adverts |
|---|---|
| Customer service | 43% |
| Communication | 43% |
| Coordinating | 40% |
| Planning | 31% |
| Coaching | 31% |
| Professionalism | 29% |
| Teaching | 29% |
| Mentorship | 20% |
| Swimming | 20% |
| Management | 11% |
To find out more about the minimum knowledge and skills an individual must understand and demonstrate to become a swim coordinator, you can look at the Entry Manager professional standard in our professional standards library.
How to become a Swim coordinator
There are several ways you can become a swim coordinator. Look at the options below to explore what might work best for you.
Complete qualifications with a training provider
There are no mandatory qualifications required to become a swim coordinator. However, employers often look for the following qualifications when hiring:
- Level 2 Teaching Swimming qualification (or willingness to work towards this)
- Pool lifeguard qualification
Although not compulsory, you can also choose to complete the following qualification to gain the knowledge, skills and abilities to be an effective swim coordinator.
- Level 3 Swim Coordinator qualification
You can search for the above CIMSPA-endorsed qualifications on our training directory.
Workplace-based development
If you're currently employed in a relevant swim-based leisure role – such as a lifeguard or swim instructor – your employer should support your career development by providing training, mentoring and supervised experience. This will help you to build the knowledge and skills needed to progress toward a swim coordinator position.
College or university
Some colleges and universities have embedded swimming teacher/entry manager qualifications into their learning programmes which can help you work towards the role of a swim coordinator.
In the CIMSPA endorsed training directory, 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 information on how to apply.
Apprenticeship
The leisure team member apprenticeship offers options to become qualified not only as a swimming teacher, but as a gym instructor, pool lifeguard and first aider. This will support you in your career path towards the role of swim coordinator. You can find out more about completing a leisure team member apprenticeship in via The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) website.
Professional Standards
CIMSPA is the guardian of a single professional and apprenticeship standards framework for the sport and physical activity sector – outlining the minimum knowledge, skills and behaviours an individual must understand and demonstrate for every occupation and job role in the sector.
This standards framework is driving the development of quality education products for our workforce and supporting employers in assessing which job roles an individual is qualified for.
What's the best role for you?
Check out the Training Accademy
Career paths and progression
Career pathways
Career progression
Career progression
As well as exploring new career pathways, as a swim coordinator, you can also choose to progress your career by completing further training or continued professional development (CPD) in your role. This training can be added to enable entry managers to show their expertise in additional populations, in different environments and with technical specialisms.
Find a job as a Swim coordinator
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.