Industry insights on skills needs
According to the Sport and Recreation IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast, the following form the top priority skills required across the industry:
- Teamwork and communication
- Problem solving
- Self-management
- Technical/Job-specific skills.
Additionally, other skills and knowledge gaps identified included online and social media, marketing, initiative and enterprise (i.e. small business management) and sports administration.
The following generic skills were also identified as highest priority for the Sport and Recreation industry:
- Customer Service/Marketing
- Communication/Virtual collaboration/Social intelligence
- Learning agility/Information literacy/Intellectual autonomy and self-management
- Design mindset/Thinking critically/System thinking/Solving problems
- Managerial/Leadership.
The importance of communication skills is supported by findings from the job vacancy data, in which communication was identified as the most in demand advertised generic skill in the Sports and Recreation Activities industry, followed by energetic, organisational skills, planning and detail orientated.
According to job vacancy data the most advertised occupations were for Fitness Instructors, followed by Swimming Coach or Instructor and Information Officer, and the top two employers were YMCA and Anytime Fitness.
There is significant opportunity for the fitness industry to take advantage of Australia’s increasing population and rising discretionary income. Australians are also becoming more health conscious and are looking for avenues to increase their physical activity. These continuing trends should create further demand for fitness products and services in the future, of which the Sport and Recreation IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast highlights that workforce shortages currently exist for fitness instructors, with the high demand for people to fill this role expected into the future.
According to the AusPlay: State of Play report around one third of the Australian population aged 15 plus currently participate in fitness/gym activities with a high proportion of this participation being organised or venue based (i.e. at a gym or organised fitness).
Advancements in technology continue to provide opportunities to the fitness industry according to the Sport and Recreation IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast, particularly with regards to the tracking personal activity, training and health data and being able to access and use this customer focused information to provide niche and individualised services.
FutureNow’s report shows results from a survey conducted in April 2020 revealed that nationally, 80% of sole traders and 100% of boutique and multi-service facility gyms reported drops in revenue with private training in demand and large group training reduced as clients remain concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic. However, during lockdown technology provided a lifeline to organisations in this industry, allowing the delivery of virtual fitness classes.
The Australian Institute of Fitness’ report reveals the top fitness trends predicted for 2022 include Wearable Technology (such as devices to monitor steps, sleep, heart rate and more), Exercise is Medicine (a global health initiative encouraging health care providers to include physical activity assessment and associated treatment recommendations as part of every patient visit), and Online Training, such as mobile apps, online on-demand workout libraries and virtual PT training. The report also acknowledges that it is unlikely things return to the way they were pre-pandemic, and instead a combination of old meets new will become the norm as technology continues to drive evolutions in gym and personal training.
