Online CPE Courses Created for New Professionals
There isn’t a person in the world who doesn’t know about 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? Yes, those guys and gals at the gym barking at their clients to DO ONE MORE GIVE ME ONE MORE JUST ONE MORE ONE MORE ONE MORE NOW DO IT DO IT DO IT NOW!!!!
Yes, personal trainers. Yes, them. That is, if industry movers and shakers such as the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) or the American Council on Exercise (ACE) will have anything to do with it. The “CPE” in the term “online CPE courses” denotes “continuing professional education.” Of course, gym workers aren’t often thought of as “professionals” by most people, much less the kind of professionals that need to be recertified periodically. Right?
Again, not if ACE or the ACSM can help it. Citing the ever increasing knowledge base that personal trainers must possess, these organizations have tried to promote a more professional image for such fitness industry workers; indeed, continuing education credits are already required of those they certify as trainers. Unfortunately, the idea is not likely to gain much more traction than it currently has. Yet after all these years, the number of different certifications available on the market has skyrocketed to little discernible benefit for everyday consumers despite, now, the endeavor to require online CPE courses for trainers, coaches, and other industry job titles remain the monopoly of the organization certifying them in the first place.
To be honest, it’s really the insurance companies that are most interested in certifications, for use as a possible shield in case of lawsuit. 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!”