Qualifi­cations in Fitness and Adven­ture

So, I’ll start this one with an admission – I’ve spent years of my time and thousands of pounds on gaining a whole load of qualifications. I also continue to do so. At the time of writing (November 2020) I’ve just gained another certificate in movement and performance and I’m booked in to talk to a course provider for something pretty hefty in psychology (I need to know more before I stump up the cash on that one though).


The above isn’t to show off my lengthy list of bits of paper but to show that I do know a bit about the subject of qualifications. Further to simply having taken a load of courses over the decades I’ve also written a fair few courses at varying academic levels so know how they go from a quality standards side as well. If you want to see a list of the qualifications I have (at least the ones I remember doing) I’ve popped them at the bottom of this post.

But having got a load of these things under my belt I’m now going to say that the vast majority of them aren’t things I’m particularly proud of having my name on. That’s right, many of them are really not things I value. In fact I’d go as far as to say that some of them have been backward steps at least in part. And here are a few reasons why I’m not impressed with them.

My intention with this isn’t to be unnecessarily critical or to show off. More to highlight where qualifications may not be all they’re cracked up to be. I’ve actually never once been asked for my qualifications by a client (working with kids in the outdoors means there are some legal requirements over provable qualifications but the same isn’t true when working with adults). Prospective clients are generally more interested in whether I can solve their problem (or my preference, guide them to solve it for themselves).

1 - Depth of Knowledge

Simply put, they're too simple. In the past I chose courses because I thought they'd be good for getting ahead in my careers. I quickly found out that while the resultant piece of paper opened a couple of doors or got me through the tickybox filter of a recruitment process the actual courses didn't really help me to do the job in question.


For instance, I once worked for AltaVista as a software engineer. I was working at the bleeding edge of search technology. I sometimes helped out with recruitment of new software engineers and generally found that those coming with no formal qualifications were considerably better coders than those who had a degree. The reason being that the degrees had taught the basic theory but hadn't been able to teach the ability to solve problems which is really all coding is all about - a problem is presented and the coder finds the best way to solve it. I got my coding jobs based on merit and not from a coding course. In fact, an error by a recruitment agency stating I had a degree which I didn't have got me into an interview for my first coding role and once I was there I easily showed them I knew more than most of the people already there simply because I'd been solving computer based problems since I was 8 years old (yes I am a geek but I'm trying to recover now...).

When I choose a course to attend I now do my research thoroughly. I look at the content and ask for samples of the standard of the materials (if they're not already available to download). I look at the assessment and make sure I have to put some real effort into passing (my next planned one says I have a PhD level thesis to put together which is a definite draw). The final piece of paper is never my goal - learning the material and knowing I can apply it afterwards in a beneficial manner are my goals. If the course doesn't give me what I need at a standard I'm happy with then I'd be better off just accessing the journal papers and reading the books available (or even finding and talking to the people on the bleeding edge of a field where the research hasn't made it to mainstream yet - I like to remain ahead of my peers if possible).

2 - Assessment Requirements

Some qualifications are too easy to pass. And by that I mean that many only require the student to do a little basic quiz to make sure they were actually paying attention. This is often the case with the online certificates and especially true of those where the emphasis is on getting volumes of people through. In some cases the quiz is a confidence booster and in some cases it's just about keeping a high pass rate which helps sell more courses.


This doesn't do the student or their future clients any good at all. Would you want to be treated by a doctor who had snoozed through all their lectures and then only had to fill in their name on the assessment form to get the pass? Of course not. You want your doctor to have attended rigorous training, had many months of evidenced practical experience and to have completed a number of exams and case studies to really prove they had what it takes.

The same goes for getting out into remote places. Among other qualifications I am a Mountain Leader. This is a status that requires the candidate is very capable of all the skills required to maintain safety and enjoyment in the mountains of the UK. Client lives are literally in the hands of the leader. They must be able to navigate, to assess changing conditions, to solve problems on the fly, and a whole load of other things. Around the time of my assessment I found out that there were some unscrupulous assessors who would sit down in the pub with candidates and have a bit of a chat over a pint and then sign off on their certificate at the end of it. Appalling behaviour and I'm glad to say not something I've heard of in the industry for many years now.

My assessment was a five day continuous affair with a mixture of written papers for things like meteorology, flora and fauna, safety in the hills etc and then several days spent out in the mountains of Wales camping, showing navigation skills in pitch darkness, dealing with random problem scenarios etc. There were 4 of us being assessed and 2 of the others were deferred due to not being quite confident enough. It was stringent and I chose that assessor team because I knew they were tough - I don't want an easy ride of something important like that.

And even then the better courses have a requirement for ongoing professional development. Some of the ones I'm more proud of having require at least annual topping up on industry knowledge or regular reassessment of existing skills and knowledge. That's what keeps clients (and me) safe.

3 - Content is Wrong or Out of Date

The process a decent level course needs to go through to achieve proper accreditation is lengthy. A course writer has to decide on what's going in to it, how it'll be assessed, what outcomes are going to be met, what awarding body to have it accredited by and a bunch of other steps (not to mention the actual writing of the materials etc). This can take months for something low level or years for a degree or above standard course to get out there available to students. With the pace that research happens at this most likely means that (certainly in the case of technical or science based content) it's just out of date before it even starts. And then you've got the 2-7 years of study time for completion.


And that doesn't account for the content that has to conform to certain guidelines and requirements. I'm not going to bash any particular industry here but in my experience of nutrition based qualifications the content is limited to the politically driven knowledge over the science. So a lot of what is taught to the students and then used as the basis of professional practice is simply not how the human body works. OK, I did bash the nutrition industry a bit there but they're not alone.

You look at personal training and sports coaching - we're all told to do a warm-up at the beginning of a session. Common sense and basic course content. What we're not told is why we do it (other than it's always been done that way and we'd be classed as negligent if we didn't). Yes there's a need to prep for movement but just doing a bunch of star jumps and walking around in circles is not going to do the job. Only when a coach looks at how the human body actually works and understands it can that coach specify a warm up routine that'll actually be of benefit (rather than many warm-ups which will hinder performance or create a scenario for injury to happen).

4 - Course Modules are Irrelevant

If you want to find out how to teach an athlete how to finish a marathon you need to look at the things which will actually help that athlete. Physical preparation, nutrition, mindset skills, equipment choices, race rules. These things are relevant but only if you apply them to marathon running. Doing the same things you would for a sprinter are not relevant. The diet for a sprinter will be vastly different from that of a marathoner. The equipment will be different. The skills will be different. The stride patterns will be different. The mindset will be different. So just learning how to coach running won't help either person. If all you know is how to train people on a running track then for the marathoner you may as well be trying to teach a pig to sing. Oh, and you should probably understand a bit about running tracks as they're a great place to cause injuries.

My Qualifications List

The ones I'm actually proud of having because they took effort and are of a solid standard are highlighted. The rest are maybe useful ticks in a professional status box or simply there to pad out a CV. If you're looking for a degree in there you won't find it - I did attend university for a while but the whole course peaked with things I'd learnt when I was 12 so I headed out sailing instead (I thought I may as well learn something useful while I'm in the area...).

Adventure

Mountain Leader, Single Pitch Award, Level 3 Kayak Coach, Level 2 Canoe Coach, Leadership in the Outdoors, Bell Boat Helm, RYA Powerboat Driver, Field Archery, Mountain Bike Leader, Level 2 Raft Guide, and a few more besides...

Health and Fitness

OTA Online Trainer Certificate, Level 3 SMARTT Performance Coach, Level 3 Personal Trainer, Level 1 Precision Nutrition Coach, Sports Nutrition Coach, Bootcamp and Circuits Coach, Exercise Referral Specialist, Sports Psychology Diploma, Community Sports Leader Award, and a few more besides...

Teaching and Training

Certificate of Education (Qualified Teacher Status)

Other Things

Level 5 Management Diploma, some various techie certificates for specific products such as the StreamServe/Exstream Consultancy that I deliver training in and a bunch of other certificates in the folder that aren't worth the time to hunt out...