Swimming Teacher: Job Profile and Role

The job of a swimming teacher could be your perfect job if you have always been a water rat, so to speak, and love nothing more than being in the water. The job of a swimming teacher could also be suitable for you if you love working with children, adolescents, and adults. 

In this blog, you will find out if this job is a good fit for you. We will give you important information on the qualifications and skills you need to become a swimming teacher in the UK. You will also get your first information about the expected annual salaries and your potential future employers. After giving you a first glimpse into the working day of a swimming teacher, you will get three tips that will help you thrive in this job.

Short Summary

• As a swimming teacher, you are responsible for teaching your students various swimming techniques, both theoretically and practically.
• As a swimming teacher, you are responsible for ensuring the health and safety of your students at all times. For this, you should be water safety trained and proficient in first aid.
• As a swimming teacher, you are asked to monitor your students’ swimming progress. This, you can achieve by setting and grading exercise tasks and by giving consequent feedback.

Job description

As a swimming teacher, you are tasked with various responsibilities, one of them being that you need to plan and deliver engaging and safe swimming lessons. Here, you teach your students different swimming techniques and what to be aware of when being in the water. As a swimming teacher, you need to be very safety-conscious and proficient in first aid in case an emergency occurs. Your job as a swimming teacher will also include setting and grading swimming assignments which enable you to give valuable feedback which, in turn, helps your students to improve and progress in swimming.

Responsibilities

• Ensuring Safety
• Planning Lessons
• Providing First Aid
• Equipment Maintenance
• Helping Students Improve
• Compliance with Regulations
• Assessment/Progress Tracking
• Instructing Swimming Lessons
• Positive Learning Environment
• Demonstrating Swimming Techniques

Different types of Swimming Teachers

• School Swimming Teacher
• Aquatic Fitness Instructor
• Swim Safety Instructor
• Swimming Instructor
• Swimming Coach

Salary

As a swimming teacher with both work experience and full-time employment, you can earn between ￡26,000 and ￡42,000 per year. You should always be aware that your annual salary will be affected by various other factors, such as the location of the teaching institution you work for and your employer. Both factors usually mean that your annual salary can be both higher and lower than the numbers we have quoted.

Working hours

Your typical working hours as a swimming teacher in the UK range from 36 to 38 hours a week but will likely vary depending on your exact teaching post. If you work as a primary or secondary school swimming teacher, you work 37 hours a week, excluding lesson preparation and marking, for example. Working hours will likely be higher if you work in a leisure or swimming centre. Here, your working hours depend on the centre’s operating hours. You will have the highest influence on your working hours if you work as a self-employed swimming teacher, in which case you can easily work fewer hours per week.

Also, keep in mind that you may also have to teach swimming in the evenings, at the weekends, and during the holidays. This, again, highly depends on your post as a swimming teacher.

Employers

As a swimming teacher, you can be employed by sports, swimming, and leisure centres where you are teaching swimming to various age groups. As a swimming teacher, you can also look for job vacancies at schools which can be both private and state schools. You also have the option to apply for a job at a swimming academy or a university.

Qualifications

There are two ways for you to become a swimming teacher in the UK: applying for and completing an apprenticeship and working with a professional body, for example, Swim England. Here, you can earn your Level 1 and Level 2 teaching qualifications. If you want to complete an apprenticeship, you usually need GCSEs, including Maths and English. To enter a Level 1 qualification, for instance, you typically need GCSEs at grades 3, 2, 1 or D, E, F, G.

Moreover, you should have the NRASTC (National Rescue Award for Swimming Teachers and Coaches), First Aid qualifications, the relevant training, and a DBS check (Disclosure and Barring Service).

The Average Costs of Becoming a Swimming Teacher in the UK

Depending on your approach to becoming a swimming teacher in the UK, you need to factor in considerable costs for your education and qualifications. The prices may vary depending on the professional body offering the qualifications. They can start at around ￡400 but can easily cost several thousand pounds. It may therefore make sense to look into scholarships and other ways of funding your education to become a swimming teacher in the UK.

Skills

As a swimming teacher, your most important skill will be a love for water. Moreover, you should have a high fitness level which goes hand in hand with the willingness to spend time on improving said fitness. As a swimming teacher, you should also be empathetic and understanding – skills which will help your students through various swimming-related struggles and fears. What other skills you should have or develop as a swimming teacher is what we will be looking at in this section.

Also, keep in mind that your future employer may require different skills which is why you should always pay extra attention to this part in any job post.

Safety Awareness

Your teaching will take place in or around water and therefore comes with potential dangers, even for students who are highly skilled in swimming. As a swimming teacher, you need to be very safety aware. This includes knowing all about first aid and the safety methods you need to have in place before your first swimming lesson of the day starts. As a safety-aware swimming teacher, you should always spend time on gaining the latest health and safety qualifications and refreshing your first aid skills regularly.

Interpersonal Skills

Every teacher needs to have very strong interpersonal skills which means that you, as a swimming teacher, also need them. You will be working with people daily – not only with the students who you teach how to swim but also with your superiors, official bodies, and parents or guardians. Knowing how to address them and deal with them in potentially fraught situations is vital if you want to succeed as a swimming teacher.

Professionalism

Professional conduct is something you need to adhere to at all times – a skill which applies to pretty much every job but which might be especially important for teaching PE and swimming. We are in no way implying that you will be prone to misconduct or inappropriate behaviour but you need to be more than 100 % sure that all your actions are beyond contestation and do not run the risk of being criticised or worse.

Career Path

Your career path as a swimming teacher in the UK can take different directions but always starts with an entry-level position, so to speak. Your first job is where you gain your first teaching experience which sets you up for progressing in your profession. Depending on your ambitions and career goals, you can look into training future swimming teachers as well as running your own swimming school or becoming the head of the swimming department or a swimming club.

Educational Background

As a swimming teacher, you are not required to have completed a specific academic degree. Note, however, that you might need your qualified teacher status (QTS) if you want to work at a state school. That aside, you can complete a leisure team member intermediate apprenticeship.

By completing this apprenticeship, you also gain one of the following qualifications: Swim England Level 2 in Teaching Swimming or the Swimming Teacher Association (STA) Level 2 Certificate in Teaching Swimming. Similar qualifications are available to you by working with professional bodies, like Swim England or Swim Wales. If you want to work in Scotland, you should look into earning your SSTQ (Scottish Swimming Teacher Qualification).

Teacher Training

Depending on your future career as a swimming teacher, you may want to look into earning your QTS and/or a PGCE (postgraduate certificate in education). We recommend that you check whether these two qualifications are required by your future employer. Also, you should enquire about your ITT (initial teacher training) which may be mandatory or not.

Continuous Learning

To be a good and successful swimming teacher, you should always invest time in your personal and professional development. In the UK, there are several qualifications you can earn to improve your skills, including various CPD courses. Here, you can look into child safeguarding, appropriate handling techniques, foundations of inclusivity, or a safeguarding refresher with mobile devices in a sports setting module. 

Further qualifications are offered by Swim England and Scottish Swimming, for example. You can also become a professional standard swimming teacher with a CIMSPA (Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity) qualification. Furthermore, it will help if you look into a H&S (Health & Safety) at Work Certificate.

A Day in the Life of a Swimming Teacher

Your day as a swimming teacher may start with a bit of workout to set you up for the day ahead. After arriving at your teaching facility, you will perform various tasks that shape your day as a swimming teacher. In this section, you will learn more about three typical tasks which you will perform in this job.

Setting up Equipment

Before your first swimming lesson starts, you need to make sure that all the needed equipment is in place and can be used safely. Combined with this, you also need to ensure that the swimming pool is clean and that all the necessary safety precautions are in place. After that, you can greet your students and start your first swimming lesson. During the lessons, you need to stay alert to your students’ swimming activities and be on hand in case of an accident or emergency.

Collaborate with your Colleagues

It can also be a part of your working day as a swimming teacher to collaborate with your colleagues. For example, you can meet to discuss a swimming contest or other swimming-related activities for both the students and their families. Your combined teaching knowledge and skills will go a long way towards engaging everyone involved and developing motivating and interesting lessons and activities.

Demonstrate Swimming Techniques

As a swimming teacher, you are not only tasked with the theoretical knowledge behind swimming techniques. You are also tasked with showing your students how they are done. This means that a great part of your day as a swimming teacher will take place in the water where you actively show your students how to do a breaststroke, for example. Also, you are responsible for giving support where needed and to again make sure that your students are safe and comfortable at all times.

Tips for Thriving as a Swimming Teacher

We are pretty certain that, as a swimming teacher, you want to thrive in your dream job. Besides the qualifications you can earn, various other ways ensure that you will thrive in this profession. In this section, we will look at three of those helpful tips:

• Define your age group
• Engage and motivate your students
• Stay informed about legal requirements

Define your Age Group

As a swimming teacher, you are by no means restricted to teaching primary and secondary school pupils. As a swimming teacher, you can also teach adults, babies, and toddlers. This youngest age group requires a certain set of teaching techniques and skills. If this is the age group you want to teach, you should look into the relevant qualifications needed to be an effective swimming teacher, for example, tailor-made courses for baby and toddler swimming classes. The same principle applies to all other age groups which is why you should define which age group you are most comfortable with before setting out on your respective educational path.

Engage and Motivate your Students

Engaging swimming lessons is a sure way to both thrive and be popular with your students. Successful ways of ensuring interesting and engaging lessons are swimming contests, water sports, and games that both motivate and challenge your students. This way, your swimming lessons will go down like a storm and also ensure that your students are willing to improve and progress.

Stay Informed about Legal Requirements

When working as a swimming teacher, you should always be aware of the relevant legal requirements and regulations. These can range from child protection policies to data protection. Also, you should always be aware of legal regulations concerning the appropriate conduct with your students to avoid legal repercussions, such as harassment lawsuits.

Frequently Asked Questions