Swim England and the Institute of Swimming partner with Nottingham Swim School to boost and upskill its aquatic workforce

Nottingham Swim School is undertaking a third Swimming Teacher Recruitment Academy with Swim England and the Institute of Swimming following the successful recruitment of 24 Level 2 swimming teachers.

 

Nottingham Swim School, which is part of Nottingham City Council, launched the first Recruitment Academy back in September 2021 to help boost its aquatic workforce and reduce swimming lesson waiting times across the region.

 

Now, under an official partnership, Nottingham Swim School is starting a third Swimming Teacher Recruitment Academy with Swim England and the Institute of Swimming, hoping to recruit and train a further 20 teachers ahead of a January 2023 start, with a vision to create a more diverse workforce.

 

The brand new, two-year partnership is about both the recruitment and the retention and up-skilling of existing staff, and so will also see Nottingham Swim School’s swimming teachers given access to the Institute of Swimming’s Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and bespoke teacher up-skilling, following tutor-led swimming teacher observations.

 

The Institute of Swimming has already run teacher observation days, where its team of experts watched and reviewed Nottingham Swim School’s existing lessons, before creating a bespoke training day to reinforce key swimming teaching methods and improve any areas of concern. The Institute of Swimming will provide this training for all Nottingham Swim School’s swimming teachers, with quarterly observations.

 

Rebecca Cox, Managing Director, Institute of Swimming, explains: “This approach not only secures new swimming teachers for the area, but ensures the existing swimming teachers are the very best they can be.  Happy and invested in swimming teachers equate to a more cohesive and long term workforce, who deliver fantastic swimming lessons, resulting in happy students, parents and operators.”

 

Cllr Pavlos Kotsonis, Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture for Nottingham City Council, said: “We are passionate about delivering high quality swimming lessons across the city of Nottingham and are delighted to have partnered with the Institute of Swimming to expand our aquatics offer. This partnership will go a long way to help grow and diversify our swimming workforce, as well as increasing the number of children learning to swim in our city.”

 

Claire Sullivan, Swim School Officer for Nottingham Swim School says: “We currently deliver swimming lessons to approximately 4,800 children and 200 adults per week, and also have a waiting list. This partnership will allow us to build and grow our current workforce of 65 swimming teachers, and grow our established relationship with Swim England. We have already run two highly successful Institute of Swimming Recruitment Academies and are excited to launch a third Academy with a focus on creating a more diverse workforce. It is important to us to break down barriers and ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn to swim. By offering funded training opportunities through the Recruitment Academy, we aim to find passionate people who wish to embrace a career in swimming teaching.

 

“We welcome applications for the funded training from all backgrounds and are keen that applications reflect our city’s cultural diversity. Nottingham Swim School aims to promote positive role models within aquatics, challenge the negative status quo and tackle stereotypes.”

 

Cox explains: “By actively engaging with the local demographic of a specific region we have had a lot of success finding new swimming teachers. The Institute of Swimming’s inclusive approach makes a real impact on who attends our courses. It means the participants are a broader mix in terms of experience, career history, gender and ethnic diversity.  It is so important the leisure sector is representative of the communities it serves.

 

“Like many operators, whilst the demand for swimming lessons is increasing, Nottingham Swim School is feeling the impact of national swimming teacher shortages. Our partnership will proactively develop a move towards a more sustainable model of recruitment, delivering the best candidates and the best trained swimming teachers.”

 

The Institute of Swimming’s Recruitment Academy gives people the chance to become a swimming teacher for only £79, compared to the usual £1,000, and takes them through the Swim England Level 1 Swimming Assistant (teaching) Course and Level 2 Teaching Swimming Qualification.