Active Swim celebrate major milestone as they continue positive impact on aquatics

Hertfordshire-based Active Swim are this year celebrating a significant milestone – their 15th anniversary.

The Swim England Approved Training Centre, who operate out of three pools in the Rickmansworth area, have been committed for the past decade and a half to developing the next generation of swim teachers, as well as teaching thousands of children and adults the joys of swimming.

With highly experienced, passionate tutors, Active Swim provides technical expertise within a perfect environment for candidates to gain the experience and knowledge needed for a rewarding career in aquatics.

They are aiming to have more than 50 Level 1 and Level 2 graduates by the end of the summer, whilst their swim school currently has in the region of 2,000 learners on their programmes.

Ray Lau, Active Swim’s director of education and development, said: “Active Swim, as an Approved Training Centre, is quite unique in its own entity because it is attached to the swim school, which in turn has close links to Rickmansworth Swimming Club.

“It’s almost like it’s the training arm of Active Swim’s swim school so we have opportunities to be able to recruit the teachers we train on our programmes onto our workforce as well. It’s a win, win situation as we know the quality of the teachers we are taking on.

“We operate out of three centres that are all within a 10-minute radius of each other and we have a seven day a week programme, employing in the region of 30 teachers at present.

“It may not sound much but we regard as ourselves as an independent swim school that’s growing and expanding.

“Our owner, Hamid Anwary, is passionate about swimming and he sees our role as an Approved Training Centre as an opportunity to train the best teachers out there to bring into the business and support the local market.

“We’re acutely aware of the number of vacancies there are for swim teachers nationally and the impact that is having on children and adults and them having access to lessons and we’re committed to doing our bit to help.

“We operate in very diverse communities and we attract a mixture of people from different faiths, backgrounds and cultures not only for the Level 1 and 2 training courses that we run but also the Swim School.”

Ray Lau’s association with the world of aquatics stretches back even further than Active Swim’s history.

“I’ve been a qualified swim tutor for almost 30 years – back in the days when Swim England was the ASA,” he explained.

“I believe I was the youngest swim tutor in the country at one time and I have always aimed to grow and develop as a tutor.

“I have written a training manual, I have presented at international swimming teaching and general coaching conferences in Sweden and in Portugal and I am currently actively conducting PhD research to improve the quality of swimming teachers through developing communities and how to tackle some of the local and national issues.

“I’m actually music degreed trained, a professional business coach and was a secondary school principal, but now in my role with Active Swim, I’m basically responsible for the teacher and coach education programmes and the professional development of Active Swim’s workforce. I love what I do.”

Images: Will Johnston Photography