Your Career

There are exciting choices ahead in your fitness industry career so where is it best to begin? 

Training clients to improve their fitness and lifestyle falls into three typical career pathways. With a training course from Complete Fitness Careers you can achieve qualified Personal Trainer, Gym Instructor or Group Exercise Instructor status. We also offer continuing professional development courses for those already progressing in the industry. 

All our awards are officially certified by Central YMCA Qualifications and endorsed by the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPS). For more individual career and training advice, please contact our careers team who will be happy to help and advise you.

Personal Trainers

Personal trainers provide physical fitness instruction, lifestyle assessments and nutrition advice to a wide variety of clients looking to get fit, lose weight or change their body shape in some other way.  Due to increasing public interest in health and fitness, there are opportunities to work in a range of settings.  Personal trainers are either employed by or work on a freelance basis at fitness centres, health clubs and hotel leisure centres.  Some also work in corporate fitness, offering services to employers. Experienced trainers who have built up a reputation may also work privately with individuals in their homes or public spaces.  An increasing number of trainers are also setting up themed bootcamps in local parks and free spaces.

Freelance personal trainers charge their clients on an hourly basis for the sessions they undertake.  Hourly rates vary across the country but they range from £20 – £50 dependent on age/experience/qualifications and location.  Freelance trainers who operate their business out of a gym, health club or other type of leisure centre will usually pay a rent or a commission to the facility.  This rent or commission that the trainer must pay provides them with a license to market their personal training services to the members of the club.

Listen to what our graduate trainers say about working as a Personal Trainer in Liverpool.

Gym Instructor

Gym instructors play a key role in the running of a health and fitness facility.  They are on the front line and interact with members on a daily basis.  Gym instructors are responsible for the fitness and wellbeing of all the members of a health club, in contrast to personal trainers who usually just look after their own paying clients.  Typical daily duties include implementing a health screening process to ensure that all new members are fit to exercise, inducting new members to the health and fitness facility, and devising challenging exercise programs for them to follow.  Other daily activities include maintaining the safe and effective workings of the exercise equipment, administrative/reception duties and even helping the sales team sign up new members to the gym.  If you enjoy meeting new people then this role can be very rewarding, particularly as you are responsible for assisting members to achieve their personal health and fitness goals.

Gym instructors are salaried paid.  This means that they enjoy all the benefits of being an employee of a company such as sick pay and holiday pay.  This is in contrast to personal trainers who, as freelancers are self employed and as such, do not necessarily receive these benefits.

Think you have what it takes to succeed as a gym instructor?  View the job description below to see if you shape up.

Gym Instructor Job Description