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, Fitness Lead Coach at AIF WA 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

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!

AIF

The Australian Institute of Fitness

Note from the author: Where Certificate III in Fitness or Cert III/cert 3 is mentioned, it refers to SIS30315 Certificate III in Fitness. Where Certificate IV in Fitness or Cert IV/Cert 4 is mentioned, it refers to SIS40215 Certificate IV in Fitness. Where Certificate IV in Massage or Cert IV/Cert 4 is mentioned, it refers to HLT42015 Certificate IV in Massage Therapy. Where Diploma of Remedial Massage is mentioned, it refers to HLT52015 Diploma of Remedial Massage.

AIF

At the Australian Institute of Fitness (AIF), we are no stranger to the competitive and evolving nature of the fitness industry. That’s why we remain the #1 fitness educator since 1979. We continuously raise the bar by providing the best education and resources through dynamic and hybrid training methods that mould to your lifestyle. We are strong believers in evidence over fads, so you can be assured your training with AIF will solidify your career for the long-term.