Become a Personal Trainer or Gym Instructor |
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To become a Personal Trainer you will need to have a minimum of a REPs Level 2 Gym Instructor Qualification to start you off. You can either complete your Gym Instructor course and gain experience before becoming a Personal Trainer, or you can do a combined course which will blend Gym Instructor and Personal Trainer modules. This is often the preferred option as there is more demand for Personal Trainers in the industry and your earning potential becomes greater straight away.
The Level 3 Personal Trainer qualification can open up many different routes for you to pursue. You can choose to be employed or work self employed/freelance in a gym environment, on the other hand however you may have the ambition to start working for yourself and set up your own business organising a range of activities including personal training, boot camps, group classes and more. All of these options have advantages and disadvantages and it is sensible to go through each of them before making a decision. Below are a few points to consider.
Employed by a gym:
- Access to roughly 5000 members
- You can usually have gym hours if you wish
- You will earn a wage and carry out personal training sessions on top of these which you will split earnings with the gym. It is usually a 50/50 split however it depends on gym.
- You are responsible for finding your own clients and marketing yourself. Clubs will try to help but ultimately it is down to you.
- You will get holidays and sick pay
- Will usually have a certain amount of hours to work per month
- You will be sent on various courses to further your learning (club depending).
Freelance personal trainer:
- Run your own business and work your own hours
- Possible access to gym members. Some clubs allow personal trainers to carry out gym inductions
- If you freelance in a gym you can charge what you wish for personal training and the money is yours
- You will pay a gym rent per month which varies club to club and by location. For example London rent will be more than Birmingham rent.
- You are responsible for your own taxes
- You will be responsible for driving your own clients and marketing yourself. Clubs will try to help but ultimately it is down to you.
- There is the possibility to earn more money as you will keep any money you earn over the amount of your gym rent.
If you are contemplating a career in fitness, consider this last point – do you like working with people? This may sound obvious but we hear time and time again from people in the industry that you have to enjoy working with people. Because essentially working in fitness is all about meeting people and helping them achieve their goals, so if you do take pleasure in seeing others succeed, then this really is right for you.
Please call our Careers team on 0208 543 1017 if you have any further questions about Personal Training in general or any of our courses.
Our Gym instructor and Personal Trainer courses can be offered by two routes:
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