Lifeguard: Job Profile and Role

Do you love water, working with and helping people? And have you always admired the work of the RNLI or those who risk their own lives to save others? If so, you might want to consider becoming a lifeguard.

In this blog, you will get all the information you need to become a lifeguard in the UK. You will find out which qualifications and skills you need, what salaries to expect, where to apply for a job, and what training is recommended. You will also get your first insights into a typical working day of a lifeguard before we conclude this blog with three valuable tips for thriving as a lifeguard.

Short Summary

• As a lifeguard, you are responsible for ensuring safe water activities. You are also responsible for making sure that swimmers and other water enthusiasts get the attention and rescue they need.
• As a lifeguard, you may need to be an expert on the weather and the sea and should know about the tides and the cliff landscape. This is important if you want to work as a beach or open water lifeguard.
• As a lifeguard, you need to be level- and clear-headed to react appropriately in potentially life-threatening situations. Here, you also need to be able to administer first aid and other life-saving measures, for example, CPR. 

Job description

As a lifeguard, your paramount responsibility is to ensure the safety of water sports people at all times. To ensure this, you need to constantly scan the water and the shores, and be equipped with lightning-speed reactions, fearlessness, and excellent decision-making and problem-solving skills. As a lifeguard, it is also your job to check, maintain, and repair safety equipment and lifeboats (if applicable). Furthermore, it is your job as a lifeguard to be up-to-date with your first aid knowledge and your safety training. You also need to impart your knowledge to pool and beachgoers by giving short and on-point safety prep talks.

Responsibilities

• Supervising Aquatic Activities
• Improper Activity Warning
• Maintaining Equipment
• Administering First Aid
• Emergency Response
• Water Safety Policies
• Rescue Swimmers
• Public Assistance
• Surveillance
• Prevention

Different types of Lifeguards

• Pool Lifeguard
• Beach Lifeguard
• Open Water Lifeguard
• Leisure Centre Lifeguard

Salary

As a UK-based lifeguard, you can earn between￡19,000 and ￡24,000 annually. How much you eventually earn depends on your working hours, your employer, and the location of your employment. Keep in mind that working as a lifeguard can be seasonal work in which case your annual salary will likely be less than the figures we have given you.

Working hours

As a lifeguard, you typically work up to 40 hours a week. However, your weekly workload depends on whether you work full-time or part-time, in which case you may work fewer hours. Also, keep in mind that your workplace may influence your working hours as well. To be more precise, you will likely work during a pool’s operating hours, for example. Moreover, the holiday season can increase your working hours. During these times, you may work more than 40 hours a week.

Employers

As a lifeguard in the UK, you tend to be employed by indoor and outdoor swimming pools and leisure centres. It is also possible to find employment at beaches where you work as a beach lifeguard or an open water lifeguard. Here, your employer can be the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution).

Qualifications

To become a lifeguard in the UK, you can choose between three different approaches: completing an apprenticeship, working towards this job, or applying/working with professional bodies, such as the RNLI or maybe even Swim England/Swim Scotland. Usually, GSCEs, including maths and English, are required to enter an apprenticeship. 

Besides, you need the following qualifications: a first aid certification and health and safety training. You should also be familiar with all safety regulations installed at your workplace. If you work as a beach lifeguard or an open water lifeguard, you should also be proficient with tidal software and look into qualifications that show that you know how to read the sea and the weather.

Skills

When you apply for a job as a lifeguard, you need to check the skills requirements in the respective job posts. Even though there are various skills you should have as a lifeguard, they may vary depending on your employer’s expectations and needs. But we are sure that the following three skills are among those you, as a lifeguard, should have.

Fitness Level/Swimming Skills

In your job as a lifeguard, you will need a strong fitness level and equally strong swimming skills. This can be especially true when you work as a beach or open water lifeguard where you are faced with stormy seas, strong winds, and strong currents. These, you can only weather if you have fitness levels that could conquer Everest and swimming skills that could rival the British Olympic Swimming Team.

Fearlessness

Whether you work as a pool, a beach, or an open water lifeguard – fearlessness is another skill you should have and that could save lives. When someone has gotten into trouble while swimming or during another aquatic activity, the situation can be dangerous, not least because the person who is in danger of drowning will panic and thrash. Being fearless will help you deal with such a situation at once since you will not hesitate to jump in and do everything you can to save said person.

Foresight

Foresight is another important skill you should have as a lifeguard. It enables you to detect potential danger and prepare for both the situation and the measures you need to take. Foresight is once again very important in your job as an open water or beach lifeguard. Here, you need to apply this skill to reading the weather, the tides, and the currents. Your findings then help you assess the overall swimming situation, set into motion safety measures, and issue warnings.

The Magic Power of Lifeguards

Did you know that as a lifeguard, you know how well a person swims from the way he or she gets in the water? A vital skill to have since it already prepares you for a potential emergency and rescue. As a lifeguard with this superpower, it then typically takes you about 15 minutes to prepare till said emergency/trouble occurs. Note, however, that this time window might be considerably smaller depending on a person’s water abilities and ego.

Career Path

Your career path as a lifeguard can take different directions but usually starts with a newbie lifeguard position. Here, you are taken under the wing of a more experienced lifeguard who quite literally shows you the ropes of the job. With more experience and qualifications, you can think about becoming a lifeguard coach, teaching the future generation of lifeguards. If you work at a sports centre, you can also advance to the position of a leisure centre manager.

Educational Background

You can become a UK lifeguard by completing an apprenticeship, for example, a leisure team intermediate apprenticeship. Here, you also learn about your duties as a gym instructor, a swimming teacher, and a group activities coach.

If you want to work as a beach or an open water lifeguard, your education should include the following qualifications: your NVBLQ (National Vocational Beach Lifeguard Qualification) which you can earn through working with the RNLI, for example. If your dream job is the job of a pool lifeguard, you need to earn your NPLQ (National Pool Lifeguard Qualification).

Entry Level

Starting as a lifeguard usually means starting at entry level. To start as an assistant lifeguard, for example, you may need additional clearance besides your qualifications, including a demonstration of your fitness levels and swimming skills. You may also be tested on your first aid and safety knowledge. Depending on your stamina and your overall performance, you can start looking into more responsible lifeguard positions after about a year or slightly longer.

Continuous Learning

You may already have your NVBLQ and/or your NPLQ which enable you to work as a qualified beach/open water or pool lifeguard. Nevertheless, there are further qualifications and training you should look into if you want to perform more than well in your job as a lifeguard.

Viable options can be training offered by the RLSS (Royal Life Saving Society), where you can get bespoke training, AED (Automated External Defibrillator) use training, and incident management training. You can also check with the STA (Swimming Teachers’ Association) for appropriate courses, such as the International Pool Lifeguard Course.t.

A Day in the Life of a Lifeguard

Ideally, saving lives will not be a daily occurrence in your working day as a lifeguard but something you only have to do once in a blue moon. Nevertheless, there are multiple tasks you will perform daily in this job. Three of those we will now take a closer look at.

Equipment Checks

Since you do not know what your lifeguard working day has in store for you, you need to check all the necessary equipment at the start of the day. You need to ensure that life vests are both on hand and in working order, that inshore and all-weather lifeboats are safe and ready to use and that the appropriate weather and water flags are set out. This way, you have prepared for any eventuality – and the day’s swimmers should know what to expect, at least, in theory.

Waterfront Patrols

As a lifeguard, you will patrol the respective waterfronts daily – be it a swimming pool, a lake, a river, or the sea. Depending on the expanse of water you are dealing/working with, you should have binoculars at hand. In any case, you need to keep your eyes peeled to ensure that you spot at once when someone has gotten into trouble in or near the water. 

Assistance/Safety Prep Talks

As a lifeguard, you not only have to save lives, provide first aid and possibly CPR. As a lifeguard, you also have to assist swimmers, paddlers, surfers and so on. You can help them by pointing out safe areas for swimming and other water sports and telling them which parts to avoid at all costs. You should also make them aware of possible weather changes. This awareness can go hand-in-hand with a safety prep talk in which you stress the importance of always taking all necessary precautions when going in the water.

Tips for Thriving as a Lifeguard

Improving your fitness levels and swimming skills are two ways to thrive as a lifeguard. Besides, you can do a lot more to ensure that you stay on top of the lifeguard game. In this section, we will now give you three tips that help you thrive as a lifeguard:

• Know your protocols
• Keep up-to-date
• Stress training

Know your Protocols

When you work as a lifeguard, you need to know all the relevant protocols, starting with your employer’s safety measures, procedures, and regulations. You also need to know how to work and use safety equipment and which safety plans there are and how and when to put them into action.

Keep Up-to-Date

Keeping up-to-date refers to your first aid certifications and your safety training. Both need to be in working order at all times and might need regular fresh-ups where you retake the relevant courses. This is important to keep fit in first aid and safety measures and to know if there are new and maybe better ways to help a person in need of medical assistance.

Stress Training

In your job as a lifeguard, you deal with a lot of stress and pressure regularly. The more exposed your position – for example, at a beach – the more stressful your job will be. This is down to having to be constantly alert, the need for ultra-fast reactions, and exposing yourself to situations that can easily endanger your life. Even though you may already have strong resilience, it never hurts to take part in stress training where you can learn new and more efficient techniques to deal with your stress levels.

Frequently Asked Questions