Freedom Leisure has renewed its partnership with the Institute of Swimming to support the growth and development of its swimming teacher workforce, as part of an ambitious aquatics plan to grow its Learn to Swim programme by 15% by March 2020.
The strategic plan requires Freedom Leisure to considerably increase its swim teaching team to cover the additional lesson delivery, and the partnership will see the Institute of Swimming recruit and train prospective teachers, as well as providing high quality training to existing members of staff. This focus on quality leads to outstanding lesson delivery and ultimately customer satisfaction and increased retention.
The Institute of Swimming is thrilled to be working closely with Freedom Leisure to ensure its staff are supported and valued throughout their aquatic career, providing mentoring to develop staff’s aquatic knowledge and experience via Continuous Professional Development (CPD), both online and face to face.
Alyson Zell, Freedom Leisure Group Aquatics Development Manager says:
“As a community leisure operator our key objective is to support more people to be more active, so swimming is high up on our agenda. Many children and adults are missing out on the opportunity to learn to swim due to a national shortage of teachers and we therefore put a huge emphasis on providing everyone within our community the opportunity to learn to swim or develop their aquatic skills.
“As our lesson programme expands we need to invest in future teaching talent. The partnership with the Institute of Swimming will provide us with recruitment and training support to ensure we have the highest quality teaching staff for our Learn to Swim Programme, and ensure we can continue to deliver a best in class aquatic programme to our local communities. We have a fantastic proven working relationship with the Institute of Swimming and we are extremely confident of its ability to deliver high quality teacher training.”
Rebecca Cox, Managing Director, Institute of Swimming says:
“Aquatics is at the heart of what Freedom Leisure provides its community, and our continuing training and recruitment partnership will help support and nurture both their staff and their community. Together we will help grow their aquatic offerings and deliver a workforce that will enhance Freedom Leisure’s Learn to Swim Programme and to help its community to be more active more often.”