Personal Fitness Trainers: enhance your resumePersonal Fitness Trainers
can boost their resumes at De Anza College.
Many facilities that hire personal fitness trainers have exercise and wellness programs in a swimming pool. If the fitness trainer is also a lifeguard, the pool doesn’t have to hire a separate person to guard during water workouts the trainer leads. Extra hours of work can be had as a guard as well.
Anyone who plans to move to management level at a wellness or fitness center would benefit from having a lifeguard certification for the knowledge to manage the pool, and even to be able to cover for an employee rather than have to shut down a program.
Anyone who plans to move to management level at a wellness or fitness center would benefit from having a lifeguard certification for the knowledge to manage the pool, and even to be able to cover for an employee rather than have to shut down a program.
Basic swimming skill is all that is required for an entry level lifeguard. The new 2007 Red Cross lifeguard training program taught at De Anza includes this entry level lifeguard certification (shallow water attendant) with a prerequisite swim test that requires less than 75 yards of swimming. Students with more moderate swimming ability can also earn a certificate as a lifeguard and those with exceptional endurance can earn a certificate as a lifeguard / waterfront lifeguard.
Basic Water Rescue, (also taught within the lifeguard program at De Anza), which does not require swimming skill, was designed for public safety personnel (police, fire, EMTs), parents, aquatic fitness instructors, aquatic therapists, child care providers, physical therapy assistants, personal fitness trainers, coaches, athletic trainers and others who work around water but don't have the moderate swimming skills required for lifeguards.
 
The Red Cross has this description of the new 2007 program:
"What You Will Learn
American Red Cross training makes learning fun and easy.
Through classroom learning and hands-on practice, you'll learn:
· Surveillance skills to help you recognize and prevent injuries
· Rescue skills - in the water and on land
· First aid training and professional rescuer CPR - to help you prepare for any emergency
· Professional lifeguard responsibilities like interacting with the public and addressing uncooperative patrons
Certifications include:
· Lifeguarding - for lifeguards working at traditional pools
· Waterfront Lifeguarding - for lifeguards at non-surf, open-water environments such as lakes and rivers, as well as traditional pools
· Shallow Water Attendant - for lifeguards that will work only in areas with water attractions up to four feet deep
At De Anza we include not only the required Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation for the Professional Rescuer, Automated External Defibrillation and First Aid, but also Bloodborne Pathogens, Epinephrine Auto Injector Administration and Oxygen Administration.
We work on some skills from Red Cross Small Craft Safety as well as materials and skills developed at De Anza and other programs. There is often the opportunity for certification outside of class time in the Lifeguard Management course, which covers employee selection and training, team building, principles of injury prevention, risk management, emergency response planning and has case studies of legal considerations.
The De Anza College class fulfills the requirement for Area E for your A.A. degree, which means it also transfers to U.C. and State Universities.
A lifeguard certification can mean a great summer or year round job.
De Anza College lifeguard training graduates get jobs.
Graduates of the program who are now head lifeguards or even facility managers come back to help teach the class, give free tutoring and recruit employees. A note from one of them:
"I
took the American Red Cross Lifeguard Training course and American Red
Cross Water Safety Instructor course just for fun. The knowledge
and skills these courses have taught me led me to pursue a career in
Aquatics as a lifeguard and swim instructor. Not only did I
enter the career field fully certified and prepared, but I also
entered it with more certifications and experience than most other
candidates.
The additional training Mary Donahue provided in the
Lifeguard Management portion of the course has helped me advance my
career from a lifeguard/swim instructor to a head lifeguard, and now I
am the Aquatics Coordinator at the Addison-Penzak Jewish Community
Center in Los Gatos.
Not only do I highly recommend these American Red Cross courses to
persons interested in pursuing a career in Aquatics, but I also highly
recommend hiring lifeguards who took their training at De Anza
College. I know that these lifeguards/swim instructors will join
my company with not only the skills and certifications necessary to
ensure a safe pool environment and teach effective swim lessons, but I
also know that they will bring professionalism and strong leadership
skills as well.
Sincerely,
Sylvia Lam
Aquatics Coordinator
Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center"
What do students think about the class?
" I really enjoyed all the extra info we were given. There was never a dull moment in this class. Mary is the most thorough and encouraging instructor I have ever had."
is a comment from student evaluations.
Read more at: P.E. 28A student evaluation comments
P.E. 28A is offered Spring quarters.
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Answers to these questions:
To become a lifeguard, do I have to have a perfect freestyle?
Do I have to be a fast swimmer?
What if I have a bad knee and can't do breaststroke?
If I have the time, what can I do to get ready for class?
Doesn't a lifeguard need a lot of physical strength?
Isn't it difficult to rescue a heavy person who is sinking to the bottom of a pool?
Do lifeguards have to know how to dive?
What do students think about the De Anza lifeguard class?
Why take a lifeguard training class?
How much does lifeguard training cost?
If I don't want, or don't really have the time for a lifeguard job, can I still get experience?
What are the Red Cross certification written tests like?
When is lifeguard training offered?
Can I get the Red Cross swim teacher certification during the same quarter as the lifeguard training class?
And details about the prerequisite swim tests are at: Lifeguard Training FAQs
 
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