Lucy completed her Exercise and Fitness Level 2 Apprenticeship last year at the Trust’s onsite Frank Lee Leisure and Fitness Centre.
She is now employed with them as a fitness instructor.
Lucy chose to do this apprenticeship as she really enjoys sports and she loves to teach fitness classes and to help people achieve their goals. She also feels that it is rewarding to see how happy customers are when they manage to achieve their goals and manage to see improvements in their technique. She was drawn to doing an apprenticeship as she is a practical learner and by doing an apprenticeship it gave her the chance to do something she loves and learn about it was the best fit possible for her.
Lucy says that she doesn’t really have a typical day in her role as every day is different. This is why she enjoys it so much as she isn’t constantly doing the same thing, although there is some structure to her day as she has set classes to teach. These classes take place in the gym for 30 minutes, and she has set classes she teaches on a daily basis. Lucy thinks this is great as members often come to the same classes each week which means she is able to build a connection with them and really understand their goals and watch them achieve the goals over time. She also loves the fact that she learns new things most days from other instructors and that she has so much freedom with what exercises she wants to teach the members.
What advice would you give to others who may be looking to take on an apprenticeship?
My advice to others who are thinking about doing an apprenticeship is to just go for it! It’s a great way to get work experience while learning on the job. Also that it’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do because you don’t know until you try!
For her off the job training Lucy says that educated herself on more exercises and ways to teach so that she could be more knowledgeable for the members. This meant that she was able to give them a better understanding of which muscles are working when and what each exercise will help to improve. She also completed some of her coursework alongside this. Lucy didn’t attend college for her apprenticeship as it was online based so she had 1:1 zoom sessions with her assessor every week so that they could go through the coursework side of the course and prepare herself for the practical assessments.
Lucy’s future intentions are to gain more knowledge and to complete more levels in the sporting industry, starting with a Level 3 Personal Training Apprenticeship and then carry on working her way up.