In case you missed it… Recap of new and updated qualifications
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The last 12 months has seen our Product Team launch a huge range of new and updated qualifications. To help you to understand what this means for your centre and learners, we’ve pulled together a summary of the key changes
Menopause qualifications (September 2024)
| Qualification | eLearning available? | Manuals available? |
|---|---|---|
| YMCA Level 3 Award in Understanding Menopause and Interventions to Support Health and Wellbeing (610/4378/3) | Yes | No |
| YMCA Level 3 Award in Supporting Participation in Physical Activity: Menopause (610/4379/5) | Expected Q1 2025 | No |
Designed in partnership with UK Women in Action and Rachel Hubbard of RBHFitness, these qualifications provide an understanding of menopause to equip fitness professionals with the knowledge and skills to support individuals at various stages of menopause.
The smaller award is designed to empower learners to engage in initial conversations regarding the menopause and signpost to mainstream medical or alternative support organisations.
The larger award provides learners with a greater understanding of the stages of menopause including the effects of declining hormones and the risks to health. Learners completing this qualification will be able to programme and adapt exercise sessions to meet the needs of individuals at the different stages of the menopause (within their scope of practice).
These qualifications are endorsed by CIMSPA and align to their Women and Girls Population Specialism Professional Standard.
To meet the subject matter qualification approval requirements for these qualifications, centres will need to provide evidence of any training they have completed. We’ll check this against the requirements of the qualification to provide further guidance.
Where no training has previously been completed, to meet the subject matter approval requirements centre delivery staff will be required to register and complete:
- Fundamentals of menopause and implications for health and wellbeing (R/651/2777) is available now
- The effect of declining hormones on health and wellbeing for individuals transitioning through the menopause (T/651/2778) is expected in 2025 Q1.
- The effect of declining hormones on health and wellbeing for individuals transitioning through the menopause (T/651/2778) whilst eLearning is in development. If you complete this training, you will not need to complete the eLearning when in launches in 2025.
Fees for upskilling to deliver these qualifications:
| Qualification | Total (including VAT) |
|---|---|
| YMCA Level 3 Award in Understanding Menopause and Interventions to Support Health and Wellbeing (610/4378/3) Including registration and eLearning | £102 |
| YMCA Level 3 Award in Supporting Participation in Physical Activity: Menopause (610/4379/5) (before Feb 2025) Including registration, eLearning (unit 1), remote training (unit 2) | £172 |
| YMCA Level 3 Award in Supporting Participation in Physical Activity: Menopause (610/4379/5) (from 1 Feb 2025) Including registration and eLearning (units 1 and 2) | £138 |
Padwork qualification (September 2024)
| Qualification | eLearning available? | Manuals available? |
|---|---|---|
| YMCA Level 2 Award in Instructing Padwork (610/4411/8) | No | No |
Based on employer demand, we’ve created a brand-new regulated qualification to support learners to plan, deliver and evaluate padwork sessions. This qualification compliments our existing Kettlebell and Suspended Movement qualifications, enabling learners to work with either a large group, small group or on a one-to-one basis, depending on their existing scope of practice.
Long-term conditions qualifications (August 2024)
| Qualification | eLearning available? | Manuals available? |
|---|---|---|
| YMCA Level 3 Certificate in Supporting Participation in Physical Activity: Long-Term Health Conditions (610/4227/4) | No | Expected Q1 2025 |
| YMCA Level 3 Diploma in Supporting Participation in Physical Activity: Long-Term Health Conditions (610/4680/2) | No | Expected Q1 2025 |
Responding to centre feedback, we’ve replaced our legacy Exercise Referral qualifications with new Long-Term Conditions qualifications. Offered as a Diploma (including A&P) and a Certificate (without A&P), these qualifications remove a lot of the theory content from the legacy qualifications to provide a more focus on understanding the specific health conditions covered, and programming, adapting and delivering exercise for clients with these conditions.
The qualifications partially map to the CIMSPA Long Term Conditions population specialism professional standard, covering:
Centres currently delivering our Exercise Referral qualifications will meet the approval requirements for the updated qualifications and we’ll be running standardisation events throughout November and December 2024.
Pilates Matwork and Reformer qualifications (August 2024)
| Qualification | eLearning available? | Manuals available? |
|---|---|---|
| YMCA Level 3 Diploma in Instructing Pilates Matwork (610/4340/0) | Partial coverage | Yes |
| YMCA Level 3 Certificate in Instructing Studio Reformer: Groups (610/4341/2) | No | November 2024 |
| YMCA Level 3 Certificate in Instructing Pilates Studio Reformer: Groups and one-to-one (610/4342/4) | No | November 2024 |
| YMCA Level 3 Diploma in Instructing Pilates Studio Reformer: Groups, One-to-One and Advanced Repertoire (610/4343/6) | No | November 2024 |
| YMCA Level 3 Award in Instructing Pilates Studio Reformer: The Advanced Reformer Repertoire (610/4344/8) | No | No |
We’ve replaced the Level 3 Diploma in Teaching Pilates (Practitioner) with a new qualification aligned to the CIMSPA Pilates Matwork Instructor professional standard.
During this redevelopment, we took the opportunity to address centre feedback that theory content within our legacy qualifications was not always sufficiently contextualised to Pilates. The new qualification provides learners with the option to complete units shared within our Gym Instructor, Group Exercise Instructor and Personal Training qualifications, or a more contextualised version of the unit.
In a first for the sector, we also launched the first regulated Studio Reformer and Pilates Studio Reformer qualifications. These qualifications are designed to meet the EMD UK scopes of practice (Pilates-based and Pilates method) created in conjunction with the ‘Society for the Pilates method’.
Mental Health and Wellness qualifications (August 2024)
| Qualification | eLearning available? | Manuals available? |
|---|---|---|
| YMCA Level 2 Award in Supporting Mental Health: Early Intervention (610/4380/1) | Expected Q1 2025 | Expected Q1 2025 |
| YMCA Level 2 Award in Supporting Wellness (610/4039/3) | TBC | Expected Q2 2025 |
| YMCA Level 3 Certificate in Supporting Wellness through Lifestyle Behaviour Change (610/4040/X) | TBC | Expected Q3 2025 |
Designed in partnership with MH1 Global and employers, we’ve expanded our mental health awareness qualification into a suite of products aligned to the CIMSPA Health Navigator professional standard.
Health navigator’s signpost and support new or returning participants to physical activity or other lifestyle interventions. Designed to target the universal emerging role within the NHS’ comprehensive personalised care model, these qualifications enable learners to:
We recognise that there are not many subject matter qualifications currently available to support deliver of the following units:
Therefore, to support centres to meet the approval requirements, we’ll be holding 3-hour training events to get your staff up to speed on this content and its delivery.
Direct to occupational competence Level 4 Sports Massage Therapy qualification (March 2024)
| Qualification | eLearning available? | Manuals available? |
|---|---|---|
| YMCA Level 4 Diploma in Sports Massage Therapy (Soft Tissue Dysfunction). | Partial coverage | Yes |
This qualification combines the learning content from our Level 3 Diploma in Performance Massage and Level 4 Certificate in Massage Therapy (Soft Tissue Dysfunction), enabling learners to access roles as a Sport Massage Therapist with no requirement for a prerequisite qualification. This could be used to support a career change or further learning to become a Sports Therapist or Rehabilitation Therapist.
This combined qualification embeds our next generation qualification principles into the qualification design to streamline assessments and to provide greater access to deliver using a blended learning approach.
Bridging the gap to EMD UK professional recognition (February 2024)
| Qualification | eLearning available? | Manuals available? |
|---|---|---|
| YMCA Level 2 Award in Anatomy, Physiology and Fitness Principles for EMD UK Professional Membership (610/3661/4) | Yes | Yes |
Designed in collaboration with EMD UK, this qualification provides an easy-access, low-cost pathway to upskill learners who have studied non-regulated or licensed group exercise programmes. By completing this qualification, learners will meet the minimum requirements for membership to the national governing body for Group Exercise, EMD UK.
Made up of two units, this qualification shares content with the larger YMCA Level 2 Certificate in Exercise and Fitness: Group Exercise Instructor (610/2791/1). This means that it is fully supported by our next generation eLearning in Suada and centres approved to deliver the Level 2 Certificate in Group Exercise Instructing have already been approved.
The price for centres for this qualification is £25 for the qualification and £35 + VAT for the Learning.
If you wish to offer this qualification to learners, you must charge £245. This price has been set by EMD UK to ensure a level playing field for this CPD course.
Next generation Exercise and Fitness qualifications (January 2024)
| Qualification | eLearning available? | Manuals available? |
|---|---|---|
| YMCA Level 2 Award in Exercise and Fitness: Group Exercise Instructor (610/2792/3) | No | Partial coverage |
| YMCA Level 2 Certificate in Exercise and Fitness: Group Exercise Instructor (610/2791/1) | Partial coverage | Partial coverage |
| YMCA Level 2 Diploma in Exercise and Fitness: Group Exercise Instructor (Professional Studio Instructor) (610/3583/X) | Yes | Yes |
| YMCA Level 2 Diploma in Exercise and Fitness: Gym and Group Exercise Instructor (Circuit Training) (610/2793/5) | Partial coverage | Yes |
| YMCA Level 2 Diploma in Exercise and Fitness: Gym Instructor (610/2784/4) | Yes | Yes |
| YMCA Level 3 Award in Delivering Physical Activity in Different Environments: Outdoors (610/4041/1) | Yes | Expected November 2024 |
| YMCA Level 3 Diploma in Exercise and Fitness: Gym and Group Exercise Instructor (Circuit Training), and Personal Training (610/2794/7) | Yes | Yes |
| YMCA Level 3 Diploma in Exercise and Fitness: Gym Instructor and Personal Trainer (610/2789/3) | Yes | Yes |
| YMCA Level 3 Diploma in Exercise and Fitness: Personal Trainer (610/2787/X) | Yes | Yes |
Our suite of next generation Gym Instructor, Group Exercise Instructor and Personal Trainer of qualifications re-imagine how we prepare fitness instructors for the workplace. Designed with employers, we created these qualifications to empower learners to build strong links between knowledge and skills, better preparing them for the real world.
These qualifications have been designed to develop fitness instructors who are:
We do this through our staged approach to assessment, which empowers learners to build confidence throughout their course. Our new assessments better support learners to build links between knowledge and skills, preparing them to work with real clients.