Insights into Pilates instructor training
The UK Fitness Industry recognises you as a Pilates Instructor by First Qualification – all additional Pilates skills need only be CPD!
It’s about time, The Instructor Insurance companies have turned their attention toward the training needs of the Pilates Instructor, rather than the rules of the Pilates Training Companies. Previously, the UK Insurance Industry treated Pilates very differently from ‘Mainstream Fitness’ and they were prepared to follow the requirements of the Individual Pilates Companies.
If one company stated that you must do 10 hours of CPD each year from within their range of Workshops to maintain your qualification then the Insurance companies accepted that this was the rule. Consequentially, the School you chose to first train with had total control over you, unless you choose to fully retrain with another ‘School’ in order to jump ship. Only in the last five years has the Insurance industry fully moved their attentions away from the ‘Training School’ and towards the ‘Individual Instructor’.
The Insurance Industry now sees the Pilates Instructor in the same way that the Fitness Industry sees a Gym instructor – once the initial qualification is obtained you are a Pilates Instructor. No need to Certify again purely because you wish to teach ‘The Method’ on a Reformer, Tower or Chair rather than just the Mat for example.
The way it works now is that the Qualified Pilates Instructor must take a formal course taught by a recognised training School who, in turn, have had their course accredited by an organisation like CIMSPA or accepted by the underwriters of the main Insurance companies themselves. These courses need to cover the basic induction on the kit to know how to teach safely on the apparatus and then learn a range of Repertoire. However, other than a certificate to say that you have fully attended or learned the material on the course and you are deemed safe to teach the Repertoire there is absolutely no requirement for you to take a further examination before gaining insurance. Of course, you are limited to what you can teach on the Apparatus – No inventing your own exercises or learning from the internet. Those who want to widen the scope of what’s teachable have the option to undertake further qualification in their chosen discipline as opposed to just CPD.
If you find yourself worrying that you’ll lose your Pilates Instructor status unless you undertake your training School’s brand CEC courses, you have nothing to fear. In the eyes of the UK Fitness Industry, and its insurers, once you’re a Pilates Instructor, you’ll always be a Pilates Instructor, provided you continue to take ongoing training and maintain professional standards in areas that you choose with a training provider of YOUR choice rather than a requirement of the Brand you initially trained with.
Mbodies Training Academy accepts qualified Pilates Instructors wherever you undertook prior learning and offers Reformer, Tower, Chair and Barrels training on a modular system either as CPD or, if you prefer, as a qualification (online/ part online/part face-to-face/fully face to face). This seems to be a route that other brands will be forced to follow – about time too!