Instructors need global qualifications

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Impact MD Amanda Brewer reveals fitness legislation plans.

Bahrain is set to be the first country in the Middle East to legislate that all its fitness instructors must be internationally qualified, according to Impact British Training Solutions managing director Amanda Brewer.

She revealed that the Bahraini military is currently focused on aligning itself to the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) in the UK by putting all of its trainers through Central YMCA Qualifications (CYQ) programmes with Impact.

"They didn't want trainers of the military just to have an in-house award; they wanted something international," said Brewer, adding that the work is being spearheaded by Brian Saunders who works with REPs.

"Brian is instrumental in co-ordinating with us in that he'll train them and we'll be the assessment and advisory centre. I think they're looking at gym instructor nutrition and personal training, so they want to take them through the levels so that they can then train their trainers," said Brewer.

"At the moment their PTs haven't had so much knowledge of what to do and it's been quite an old-fashioned style of training and Brian has now come in and said they need standards and that's what's been taken on board," she continued.

"And the knock-on effect of that, according to what everyone is saying, is that once the military go with it then they'll legislate for it across Bahrain so health clubs and hotels will have to do the same," said Brewer.

Having recently returned from the LIFE - Be Part of It fitness convention in Doha, Qatar, Brewer said she was also very impressed with steps to professionalise the industry there.

"We're now aligned with the Aspire Academy and will be running our training courses there," said Brewer.

"The Qatari hotels and people there are so keen to get qualified," she added.

"We had plans for a small programme starting in January but now it looks like we're going to have to up our game a bit and get something out there a bit quicker because there is a massive demand for it.

"They will certainly be getting a gym instructor, nutrition and ante-natal and post-natal fitness courses because they've got the same health issues among the local population, particularly among children, as we have here in Dubai," continued Brewer.

"We're raising awareness of what CYQ does and how it relates to the government and REPs in the UK. And that's what they want - international recognition and a qualification that counts," she added.

Brewer is now responsible for endorsing the CYQ brand in the Middle East and is also set to go to the International Health, Racquets and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) convention in San Francisco in March 2009 to represent the Middle East arm of the International Confederation of REPs (IC-REPs).

"We're having an IC-REPs meeting with representatives from Australia, New Zealand and from Europe and it will be up and running very shortly after that," Brewer added.

Instructors based in the Middle East that have joined REPs in the UK will be able to transfer their membership to IC-REPs, she added.

Brewer also says that she thought that legislation for the health and fitness industry had recently been passed in Abu Dhabi.

"Hotels have contacted us saying it's really difficult to employ staff because they've now got to go through the training. We have heard that the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) has been active in providing legislation for Abu Dhabi regarding health and fitness qualifications and this was meant to have occurred on August 1," revealed Brewer.

If you have further details on this or other health and fitness industry legislation plans in the Middle East, please contact This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

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