What Are CECs and Do I Need Them?

Once you complete your course at the Australian Institute of Fitness and begin your fitness career, you may hear the acronym ‘CECs’ floating around. David Mitchell, WA Regional Training Manager at AIF explains why this is an important part of your ongoing career.

There are two main associations for fitness professionals in Australia. These are Fitness Australia and Physical Activity Australia. To maintain a current registration with these associations, members need to show that they are still learning and staying up-to-date with the latest information relevant to the fitness industry.

You can do this by completing 20 Continuing Education Credits (CECs) for Fitness Australia members or 6 Professional Development Points (PDPs) for Physical Activity Australia members every two years.

Continuing education and professional development help advance your career by improving your existing skills or develop new ones. They will also increase you knowledge as a Personal Trainer and increase your Scope of Practice. By adding boxing, CrankIt or Kettlebell exercises to your sessions for example, you will have the potential to expand your business and clientele base.

CECs or PDPs can be gained through a wide variety of sources, these include, but are not limited to:

• Workshops, e.g., Rehab Trainer or CrankIt
• Boxing courses, e.g. Punchfit
• Seminars e.g. SmartShape
• Conferences e.g. FILEX and WAFIC
• Online quizzes with PTontheNet
• Magazine subscriptions

AIF offers a huge range of CEC accredited courses via Network, the leading ongoing education platform, covering areas including nutrition, strength training, functional anatomy, and more!

Generally a full day workshop will gain you 7 CECs or 2-3 PDPs. There are over 850 recognised providers throughout Australia and these can all be found under the resources tab on the Physical Activity Australia website or under the CEC directory tab on the Fitness Australia website.

Members must keep a record of their participation or completion of all activities. This can be done by an academic transcript, certificate of completion, code, receipt or statutory declaration. Failure to obtain the required CECs or PDPs can lead to have a Personal Trainer’s membership with their association being suspended or even cancelled. This can affect their employment status and even may require them to complete their fitness certification all over again.

Remember, continuing education and professional development help advance your career, expanding your business and clientele base, so always look on it as a positive thing!

• Bio

AIF

The Australian Institute of Fitness

The Australian Institute of Fitness (AIF) is the largest and longest established fitness training organisation in Australia, with dynamic training methods and expert course coaches nationwide - spanning fitness, massage and nutrition. The AIF qualifies more fitness professionals than any other provider in Australia, as well as offering a broad range of continuing education courses (CEC), upskilling resources and partnership programs for existing industry.