Harrington Park resident Cassie Kiggins says TAFE offering the Diploma of Sports, Aquatics and Recreation Management online is just what the doctor ordered.
Ms Kiggins says she has long had an interest in health and fitness and has hopes of becoming an occupational therapist.
The 21 year old has enrolled in the diploma course to gain a deeper understanding of the fitness and recreation industries, and to gain credit towards doing a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy in 2025.
“It’s a great stepping-stone to what I want to do and being able to study the course online means I can balance my studies with my full-time job,” says Ms Kiggins.
“It’s been so interesting to learn about stakeholder management and what’s involved in running a fitness business, and my teacher actually owns his own gym so is speaking from experience.”
It is the first time this course has been offered online and will cater to the surging demand in the health and fitness industry.
According to Jobs and Skills Australia, the fitness and recreation industries have been in a steep growth phase since the end of the pandemic, with 152,300 people employed in the industries as of August this year.
The diploma, which is enrolling now for semester one 2025, includes units in stakeholder communications, leading teams, and planning major sport or recreation events.
TAFE NSW Fitness Teacher Jared Kahlefeldt said the course filled an important gap in the industry for those wanting to progress into leadership roles.
“A lot of entry level fitness jobs are very practically based so to have to step up into a management role and look at budgets and manage teams can be a bit foreign,” he said.
“We know fitness and recreation are growing industries and there’s still a bit of a skills gap in terms of finding people to manage facilities.”
