Friday 25 September 2009
Through an industry forum at the recent Aquatics & Recreation Victoria (ARV) AquaSummit Conference in Melbourne, industry representatives made it clear that those who work in the aquatics industry feel undervalued. This was particularly evident with swimming teachers.
“Although swimming teachers provide indispensable aquatic education to the community, they feel both undervalued and underpaid”, said Ian Swan, Chief Executive Officer of ARV.
The forum called for greater recognition of the valuable work that swimming teachers undertake and acknowledgment of the positive influence that aquatic education has on the children, mums, dads, babies and adults who participate in lessons at their local pool.
“The value to establishing both the skills to be safer in and around water and the benefits of being able to participate in a health active lifestyle all begins with swimming classes”.
“ARV is going to proactively pursue the establishment of industry benchmarks for recognising the value of experienced teachers, including the development of a mentor system, ongoing professional development opportunities, adding value to the current AUSTSWIM qualifications and recommending industry rates of pay that are based on experience,” Swan said.
Using ARV’s highly respected statewide VICSWIM program, which will be launched on 1 October, was also acknowledged as a key element in demonstrating the value of learning to swim and swimming teachers.
