Does your gym/health club reimburse you for CEU’s and certifications?
Hi Jane. Yes, one of the places where I provide specialty training services is paying for a specialty certification for me so that I can provide specialty training to their members. The certification costs $975 and they will be paying for the certification and attendant expenses.
I’m not sure which side of the ‘coin’ you’re on (i.e. whether you’re the employer asking this question or a trainer looking to be reimbursed), however what I’d say is that if you’re the trainer, getting reimbursed for this type of ‘professional development’ comes down to starting the conversation with your employer and being prepared to demonstrate how this (paying for your Cert) will ultimately benefit the club.
LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
I think a lot of us would like to work in Jenn’s club. I would love to get 150 $ for training of my choice.
I find it varies.
One club where I teach brings in CPR and First Aid and does it for free, and occasionally offers free in house trainings. They also were open to pay half of a rather expensive training, only because it was something they particularly needed.
Another club offers a lot of free training, but it is all with their own trainers and almost never is going to provide outside CECs.
I used to work at a place that offered very good nationally ranked trainings for a small amount of money for the in house instructors, and a higher rate for others.
The yoga studios are quite variable also. There are some I have heard of (and have upon hearing how things are done never applied to work there) that require the teachers to attend and pay for all in house training (!). Then there are others where the owner pays on a case by case basis. Sometimes it matters how many classes you teach.
The worst was a club that decided to offer one of those prepackaged class formats (“we’ll get more people, awesome”) and said they would pay for the initial cost of the training (sounds good, right?) but that you were responsible for paying the yearly licensing costs (which is significant) and agree to teach 2 classes a week for about a third of what you would make any place else.
I think you have brought up a really important point. A club that offers a training budget is one that is implicitly saying that it sees its instructors as professionals. It is a club that is saying that it values providing an excellent service to its members. It is a club that is building loyalty in both its staff and its membership.
