Quite often during our personal trainer qualifications we get asked; ‘Is personal training a lifelong career?’ Well, the answer in short is, yes, it can be. The purpose of this short article is to outline possible career paths for personal trainers as well as to outline other potential avenues you can pursue.

However, before I start I would like to outline the influence you have as a personal trainer on clients and just how important your job is. Most clients look up to their personal trainer, they admire their personal trainer, they confide in their personal trainer and most of all they develop a rapport with their personal trainer. All these things are important, after all when a client has a bad day in either work or in terms of their diet, who do they confide in, their personal trainer. With all this in mind, developing a lifelong career as a personal trainer is a rewarding and an enjoyable career to have.

Although developing that lifelong career as a personal trainer is enjoyable and rewarding, there are other potential avenues you can pursue. This short article will outline several different career paths which a personal trainer can pursue but also outline some options which you may not be aware of.

1. If you are a successful and a knowledgeable personal trainer, then you could look at developing a career in education, similar to our assessors and tutors.

In order to become a tutor, you must complete the Level 3 Award in Education and Training this would then allow you to teach and tutor qualifications which you are competent in, such as the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement. This would allow you to assess the courses taught above as well as deliver them.

A career in education doesn’t need to stop here, you could also progress and become a quality assurer by completing the Certificate in Internal Quality Assurance. The role of an IQA is to ensure that the work carried out by the tutor and assessor is up to standard and complies with the Awarding Organisation.

There are endless opportunities within education, and Training Providers like Fitness HQ are always looking for competent and knowledgeable tutors and assessors. If this is something you are interested in, please contact us as we deliver all these qualifications through our sister company – Education HQ.

Below is a possible career path in education:

Personal Trainer > Course Tutor > Assessor > Internal Quality Assurer > External Quality Assurer

2. Become a Gym Manager or open your own facility. After sustaining a career as a personal trainer you will no doubt have a sound understanding of how facilities and various fitness and health organisations run. As well as this, if you have a large client base there’s nothing stopping you opening your own facility, whether that is a small personal training studio, a larger commercial facility or an outdoor training facility such as a bootcamp centre you will have the knowledge, client base and ability to do this successfully.

3. Specialise in an area such as exercise referral, strength and conditioning or become a weightlifting coach. All these little niches require an experienced and knowledgeable professional. The advantages of servicing niches like this is the supply to demand. These clients and groups of clients require specialists in those areas and with that in mind the potential for earnings increase.

4. Unfortunately, there are several mentors within the fitness industry who are aged 40+, still live at home with their parents, never had a successful career and use other people’s material to pass themselves off as a mentor. However, if you have had a successful career, if you have developed a large client base, if you have mastered the art of fitness marketing and if you truly have the expertise that young, new and eager personal trainers need – then why not pass that wisdom on in the form of mentoring and generate an impressive income in doing so.

5. Higher education. The Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training is a professional qualification, combine this with your life experience, there is nothing stopping you successfully applying to University or College to further your education in a sector which interests you. I have listed potential avenues to consider – Physical Education, Health Promotions, Sport Development, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and so much more.

Above are just 5 potential avenues a Personal Trainer could consider in terms of personal and career development. I hope you found this short article interesting. If you have any questions or if you’d like to investigate the potential possibility of become a tutor / assessor within the Active Leisure sector further, then please don’t hesitate to contact us.