YMCA Awards and many of our partners have had enormous successes lobbying policy-makers, but what if we could combine our efforts and provide a platform whereby the industry’s highest performing providers and sector experts could speak as one?

It was this question that prompted us to launch the YMCA Awards Vanguard Group, a new, bespoke and exclusive service for YMCA Awards highest performing clients, with the aim of influencing policy-makers and driving meaningful change within the sector.

Even small changes can make a big difference when it comes to enhancing the learner experience, and following key stakeholder feedback, we’ve made some significant improvements to the finer details of one of our top qualifications.  

To support the development of new qualifications and education products, we need your help to gather input from the wider fitness professional market.

CIMSPA and other industry bodies are effectively gathering the feedback and views of employers and training/education partners to develop new professional standards and define the educational landscape within the sector. We are keen to augment their work by gathering the views of the self-employed fitness professionals, who make up a significant percentage of the workforce, so educational products can better serve the whole sector.

Points make new relationships possible!

YMCA Awards is always looking for new, creative and innovative ways of supporting our customers, and we are very pleased to announce that YMCA Awards have now partnered with CIMSPA to offer CPD points on all programmes that gain endorsement approval. Centres with quality CPD programmes can now endorse their programmes with us and gain points.

Benefits of this offer are:

· Courses listed on the CIMSPA training and events directory and displayed to CIMSPA members and partners.

We’re delighted to share some great news with you about three of our most popular qualifications. We now have brand new manuals available to support the delivery of: 

YMCA Level 1 Award in Fitness and Physical Activity.
YMCA Level 1 Award in Body Image and the Relationship to Wellbeing
YMCA Level 3 Diploma in Teaching Pilates

Pilates

Following our first notification of the Assessment Workbooks introduction back in the June eNews, we are now pleased to announce the official launch of our Level 2 Mandatory Units Assessment Workbook.  The assessment workbook is available in the following formats:

• Paper-based document (download and print)

• Y-Mark (auto-marking) via Moodle.
  

There are two sections to the Assessment Workbook:

• Workbook 1 - Health, Safety and Welfare in a Fitness Environment

Back in July 2017 we told you about the changes to our first aid qualifications.  Here is a quick reminder to ensure you are ready for 1 October 2017.
 
We constantly refresh and revise our qualifications to make sure they meet industry requirements and our own high standards. From 1 October 2017 we are replacing the Emergency First Aid at Work and First Aid at Work qualifications with new, improved versions to bring them up to date with the latest guidelines.

What’s the difference between the old qualifications and the new versions?

We're delighted to announce that on September 1st 2017 we launched our high quality, nationally recognised qualifications in Sport, Increasing Participation, Working with People with Disabilities, and Stewarding – at Levels 1, 2 and 3. These fantastic new qualifications are aimed at equipping learners with the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed to keep themselves and others fit, active and healthy.

Y-Mark, Y-Go and our online learning games have all been recognised for their contribution to driving innovation in the sector

On the 19th October 2017, YMCA Awards will be at the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) Awards ceremony with our fingers crossed that our Y-Mark digital marking platform can claim the title of Innovation of the Year. However, if we are lucky enough to be chosen, it won’t be the first time that we have been recognised for our commitment to driving innovation and change within the sector.