Friday, September 30, 2011

Non-Traditional Professionals Take to Online CPE Courses

Everyone has heard of online CPE courses that help the medical and legal personnel remain in good standing with his or her accreditation agencies, but how many ever imagined such requirements of fitness professionals? No joke: even health club workers are now expected to maintain a certain level of knowledge about developments in the field!

That's right; those guys and gals whose job it is to get their clients in shape. That's right; "those people!" At least if organizations like the venerable American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) or the American Council on Exercise (ACE) will have their way. The "CPE" in the term "online CPE courses" denotes "continuing professional education." Now most folks don't think of personal trainers as professionals at all - performing heart surgery is a profession; encouraging people to exercise their hearts and lungs is a job. Right?

Not according to the likes of the ACSM or ACE. Due to the fast pace of new discoveries in the field of human health and fitness, the industry wants to make things a lot more professional, more academically rigorous, more upscale and high-value. But such efforts may have hit a plateau. ACSM pioneered the idea of certifying fitness workers back in the 1950s, but even today not much of an industry standard exists - such that most online CPE courses for trainers, coaches, and other industry job titles remain the monopoly of the organization certifying them in the first place.

In fact, certification is only meaningful for insurance purposes. Everyone else, really, don't quite have the perception of trainers as "professional" in the sense of the traditional professions, no matter how hard the certifying authorities try to change that view. Turnover is high while the quality of trainers, despite certification, is often low; many franchise gyms hire teenagers - kids - to advise clients paying eighty dollars and up an hour (of which only twenty to forty go to the trainer).For one thing, many chain gyms have college kids working as personal trainers: hard to see a doctor, lawyer, or accountant regarding such workers as fellow "professionals!"

Okay, having said all that, it's still a nice thing to have, the certification. After all, it shows that the person who holds it has done some homework, so to speak! It's better than nothing, certainly. The most reputable certification-granting organizations in the fitness industry require candidates to successfully complete multiple-choice exams of a hundred questions or so. Though such exams are not too difficult, they do demonstrate that certain standards are in place and must be met for many trainers! But again,all this isn't to be taken too seriously, either.


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Article by Paul Wise, who recommends http://www.cpethink.com for quality Online CPE Courses at discount prices!


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