REPs Members Annual Survey : 

More than 1,650 REPs members have taken part in the Register’s first Annual Members’ Survey. This was only open to REPs’ members and was designed to give an accurate picture on issues voted as most important to them by REPs’ members.  A full breakdown of the results, including views and comments from the REPs Members’ Council will appear in the September edition of the REPs Journal, and will feature at a special presentation at LIW.

Some of the initial findings show:

• More than half of those taking part work in London, the South East and the South West.
• More than one third of respondents work as Personal Trainers or Advanced Instructors (level 3).
• An overwhelming 93% of respondents described their ethnic status as white. The remaining seven per cent were mainly Mixed and Black / Black British workers. Black / Black British show above average proportions in the work categories of Physical Training Instructor and Personal Trainer. Gym Instructors have above average levels of Chinese and Asian / Asian British workers.
• 9 out of 10 of those questioned said they expect to remain in the industry for the next 3 years and most added they were generally satisfied with their current roles.
• More than 3 out of 5 REPs members are paying for their own training, particularly for Yoga, Pilates and KFA teachers, Group Exercise and Aqua Instructors / teachers and Personal trainers.

Registrar Cliff Collins said: “This survey shows, as the Working in Fitness survey has done in previous years, that our members take their careers, training and remuneration very seriously indeed.  ”What we need to do now is ascertain how seriously the rest of the industry takes them. It has been important to separate findings for our members so we can really see the trends in the industry in such important areas of pay and job satisfaction.

“Already we are seeing levels of remuneration improving for our higher-qualified members and the general expectancy for how long exercise professionals intend to stay working in the industry is also increasing.”   The survey was run in conjunction with SkillsActive and Leisure-net Solutions.  With an average gym subscription costing £46 per month, this equates to a potential £404.8 million in lost sales per month for gyms and health clubs who fail to accept cash or cheques.

Health and fitness operators could be losing out on millions of pounds worth of revenue, research claims:

By failing to offer customers the option to pay in cash, operators could be losing almost £405m a month, according to findings from the Post Office. Almost 6 million UK households use cash or cheques to pay their bills, either through choice or lack of access to banking services. But many health clubs are excluding these people by limiting payment to direct debit only, said Post Office marketing director Gary Hockey-Morley: “Failing to offer a cash payment channel means that businesses are restricting the size of their potential market." There are 2.8 million UK adults (1.9 million households) without a bank account who rely on cash payment methods to pay their bills. A further 6 million people with bank accounts (4 million households) actually prefer to choose cash over direct debit to pay their bills. Combined, these people represent 14.6% of the UK population.

Breaking Records at REPs : 

For the second month running the Register has broken its forecast targets for registration and re-registration.
Cliff Collins said: “The Register has consistently broken targets but the last few months have completely out-stripped previous successes.

“We are in a fortunate position to enjoy excellent support from training providers and employers which makes all the difference and we are very lucky that the majority of our members are very loyal to the register and we currently have a 70% re-registration rate.”