Swimming is one of the most valuable skills for anyone to have, with a whole range of benefits to speak of. From improved physical health to numerous mental gains, learning how to swim can offer positive carryover in many aspects of your life. Swim instructors are people who understand this and as such, want to help others reap the same benefits. But what if you don’t know how to become a swim instructor? In this article, we’ll answer all your questions related to this line of work.
What Does A Swim Instructor Do?
Starting with the basics, what does a swim instructor do, anyways? First and foremost, a swim instructor’s role is to help kids and babies learn to swim while instructing them on matters concerning water safety. According to Seek, this includes teaching basic swimming strokes, as well as getting learners comfortable in the water, better at staying afloat, and better at diving.
While the focus always remains on helping others learn to swim in a safe, comfortable manner, there are a few other tasks a great swimming instructor takes up.
- Planning and developing teaching strategies that help teach swimming to kids and babies in a safe, controlled way
- Documenting every child’s progress to provide evidence of improvement and feedback where needed
- Teaching foundational water movement that gradually translates into the main swimming strokes
- Supervising kids and baby swimming classes to ensure safety for learners
Above all, it’s important for a swim instructor to be patient with learners. Whether a baby, kid, or adult, swimming can feel unnatural and uncomfortable at the start. A great swim instructor takes this into account to ensure students achieve their goals in the pool.
What Are The Benefits Of Becoming A Swim Instructor?
Sense Of Accomplishment
Above and beyond, the greatest benefit of becoming a swim instructor is the sense of accomplishment that comes with the job. Like we already mentioned, swimming is one of the most valuable skills for a person to have. As a swim instructor, you are directly contributing to a student’s confidence and development by helping them attain this skill! There are only a select number of jobs in the world that promise such fulfillment.
A Range Of Career Opportunities
While a swim instructor’s job might sound one dimensional, really, the work offers a range of career opportunities. For one, you can start when you’re a teenager, which makes it a good way to start working. From there, there’s a wide range of choices, whether that be one-on-one classes, group classes, to being a swim teacher at your local school. The further along you make it into your career, there’s also room for more managerial roles that involve actually running a swim school!
A Flexible Schedule
The last benefit we’ll mention is the flexibility of a swim instructor’s schedule. Based on your availability, you could choose to provide swim lessons early in the morning, in the afternoon, or late at night. More so than that, seasonal changes also offer various opportunities for work. For example, summertimes might allow for an increase in the number of students and hours you teach, whereas winters could be less so. These factors can affect swim instructor salary, too!
What Are The Requirements For Swim Instructors Before Beginning Their Journey?
While the job of a swim instructor isn’t the hardest to get into, there are of course a few things you need before beginning. So let’s find out how to become a swim instructor.
1. 16 years old
You must be at least 16 years old when you apply to become a swim instructor. Taking this a step further, you should possess a reasonable level of fitness and swimming ability. Regarding your swimming ability, this is all up to your employer. Be sure to check with them to find out.
2. Accreditation Course
You should have also completed an accreditation course to provide evidence of your swimming ability. This can be something like the Swimming and Water Safety Teacher (SISSS00132), which ensures the base-level qualification required to be a certified swimming instructor.
3. Additional Certifications
Besides the aforementioned requirements, having additional certifications puts you in a much better position when applying for a swim instructor job. These could include the CPR certificate, Working with Children Check, First aid training, and others. Once again, it’s imperative you check with your employer what’s required. Finally, you should also be renewing your teaching accreditation every 3 years!
What Qualities Should A Swim Instructor Have?
Key Personality Traits
Swimming is difficult. That’s why a great swim instructor should be encouraging and supportive. Students shouldn’t feel any pressure as if they do, there’s no way they’re going to feel comfortable swimming.
A swim instructor should also be attentive. They should be able to pick up on student’s mistakes and signs of discomfort and quickly address these pain points. One way Shapland Swim School helps instructors be more attentive is with their specialized lessons that only allow 3 students per class.
Finally, patience is important for a swim instructor. Regardless of whether a student is a child or adult, swimming can be scary so an instructor should understand it takes time to learn.
Water Safety & Rescue Skills
Besides the obvious swimming skills, a quality instructor must have water safety and rescue skills too. It’s vital they possess sufficient knowledge of CPR, first aid, and self-rescue skills like floating and treading water to conserve energy. Beyond this, they must know how to teach someone to escape dangerous situations like rip currents and manage more extreme scenarios like when they’re afflicted with hypothermia.
How Much Is A Swim Instructor’s Salary?
A swim instructor’s salary in Australia depends on a number of factors, from experience, position, location, to hours. According to Jooble, the average salary of a swim instructor in Australia is $66,363 per year.
Where Can You Find Swim Instructor Jobs? – Choosing The Perfect Swimming School To Teach
Similar to salary, your swim instructor job depends on what you’re looking for. It’s useful then to separate the jobs available into 3 separate categories:
- Jobs for those looking for casual roles
- Jobs for those wanting to make the most of teaching experience
- Jobs for those opting for private swimming classes
Shapland Swim Schools Is Looking For Dedicated, Water-loving Instructors!
If you’re unsure of where to look for a job, how about starting with Shapland Swim Schools? Established in 1947, Shapland is proud to call itself a swim school with 8 decades of teaching! Starting with toddlers all the way to an advanced class, we’re sure you’d be a fit for at least one of our levels.