As both a leading provider of qualifications and an awarding body, YMCA is well placed to create an app that revolutionises the way in which people learn and train for a career in fitness. Gym instructing and personal training qualifications make up around 60% of the market for qualifications in the fitness sector. By making these ‘digital-first’, they aim to empower anyone with a mobile device to develop the required skills and qualifications to practice safely.
This project aims to reimagine online gym and personal trainer learning provision by building a new application which combines learning, peer and coach collaboration and accreditation. Feedback from learners highlights that current online learning is often done alone without access to subject-matter experts or peers, assessments don’t reflect real-life work environments and there is little requirement for learners to demonstrate correct application of skills. Fitness professionals, and their employers, need to train clients safely and the app will require learners to ‘teach it back’ via skills videos to show their competence. A messaging function will give experts and peers the ability to offer support, and bitesize learning modules will be available as interactive videos, audio and written. Intended users are young people and those changing career or needing a new vocation which suits their skills and passion. They will all be able to learn and qualify at their own pace, in a style that suits their needs.