We're excited to share news of an inspiring collaboration that underscores our commitment to making the fitness sector more accessible and supportive for individuals with long-term health conditions. ReferAll has joined forces with Study Active, the UK's leading provider of Gym Instructor and Personal Trainer Courses.
This partnership is especially meaningful to us, as it follows our recent successful collaboration with Everyone Active, one of the UK's leading leisure centre operators. Through our work with Everyone Active, we discovered that Study Active is the main educational provider for GP exercise referral schemes, making this partnership a natural and strategic next step.
James Luscombe, Managing Director at Study Active says: “Study Active are delighted to be partnering with ReferAll as we work together to make the fitness sector a more inclusive place for those suffering from long-term conditions. We hope that this collaboration will benefit all involved including learners, exercise professionals but most of all the health referral clients themselves.”
This partnership exemplifies our shared dedication to creating a more inclusive and supportive fitness sector for individuals with long-term health conditions. ReferAll takes pride in presenting our health referral software, trusted by providers throughout the UK to effectively manage successful health referral services.
Dive into our blog as we delve deeper into this partnership through a Q&A session with James. We explore how this collaboration is set to create a more inclusive, supportive, and health-focused future for all involved.
Tell us about Study Active, what is the Active IQ Level 3 Online Diploma in Supporting Clients with Long-term Conditions and why is it important for the leisure and fitness industry?
From our experience of working with top national gyms, there is an increased need for their staff to be qualified in health referrals. This is not just for any health referral scheme that the gym may be running but also to cater for the clients who join on their own accord, who then declare a long-term condition within the screening process. At this stage it is imperative that there are qualified staff on hand to assist. Our Level 3 Supporting Clients with Long-term Conditions qualification is the most up to date and recent health referral qualification in the sector. It contains a significant extra amount of conditions to any older qualification and also contains the latest guidance from the ever evolving medical world. Our qualification also has the added advantage that it places special emphasis on invisible disabilities and mental health conditions, which are things that may have received somewhat less attention in past qualification versions.
What are the main differences about the course compared to your Personal Trainer qualifications?
A Personal Trainer qualification contains lots of very valuable content aimed at aspiring Personal Trainers, however it only briefly touches upon clients with long-term conditions and a Personal Trainer qualification alone is not sufficient to work with a client suffering from a chronic condition.
A Personal Trainer must consider the fact that even if they do not work on a health referral scheme (i.e. at a local gym) they still are extremely likely to organically come across clients with long-term conditions – and if they want to work with such a client they need to do a relevant qualification – such as our level 3 Diploma in Supporting Clients with Long-term Conditions, otherwise they are not competent to work with such a client.
What backgrounds do attendees have and do they come to you with any popular misconceptions about working in health referral programmes?
We have attendees on our courses from a diverse range of backgrounds. Some work for prestige health clubs wishing to offer a premium service for members whilst others may operate within a low socio economic area where they are looking to improve health outcomes within the local community. Either way, delegates that attend our courses all have a value in common in that they genuinely care about their clients and want to make a positive impact on their health.
Inevitably there are some Personal Trainers that enquire with the wrong end of the stick. Some think (or have been wrongly told) that there is an endless pot of cash that GPs dish out to PTs to train their patients! This is simply not true. GPs don’t refer to PTs, more so they refer to the local health referral scheme, which is usually managed by the local leisure centre. Some GP surgeries may have a small budget to put towards initial membership costs of a referred patient but that is all. Health referral is not about making money – its about helping people improve their health!
What hopes and aspirations do students have and how do they move forward once they have completed the course?
We would always like to think that all of our graduates feel empowered to make a difference in the sector. That’s what studying with Study Active is all about – to be empowered to transform the lives of others through delivery of exercise. With a health referral qualification this is certainly the case and it means the world to us when graduates reach out to us and tell us how they have been getting on in the sector. I would say the majority of health referral graduates we have are motivated to go all out to make a difference to the health of the communities they work within. Most already have ideas and plans as to how they will use their new skills – for example many are employed by a leisure centre with a health referral scheme whilst others have particular clients in mind that they need our qualification to work with.
What are Study Active’s plans and ambitions for the future?
We want to be able to continue the health referral education we are delivering nationwide but on a larger scale. We are encouraged by the national gym chains that proactively reach out to us to collaborate and we are only too happy to positively engage with such organisations. We feel that we are amongst the forefront of providers offering quality fitness education and pride ourselves on delivering high quality workplace skills rather than any kind of “quick fix” certification.
Above all we want to positively influence the sector to do things the right way, we are passionate about quality and are relentless in getting the message across that high quality training is what the sector needs in order to have a fit for purpose workforce ready to deliver the ukactive mission – we all have our part to play!
A huge thank you to James Luscombe, Managing Director at Study Active for providing his invaluable insights.
You can find out more about Study Active and the courses that they offer at: Study Active