STA’s wins FAB innovation award for STAnd Up initiative

Safety Training Awards, the awarding organisation of the Swimming Teachers’ Association (STA), has won the ‘Innovation of the Year’ award for its STAnd Up for Swimming campaign at this year’s Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) Awards.

STAnd Up for Swimming was launched by STA in 2022 as a charity campaign in response to the swimming teacher shortage. As the cost of training is seen as the biggest barrier for people to take up a career in swimming teaching, the charity provides funds to train more than 900 swimming teachers for free, with two-thirds of the learners being new to the leisure industry.

As the campaign needed to make an immediate impact, STA offered learners the opportunity to gain an accredited Level 2 Award in Teaching Swimming qualification, making sure that those who qualified were able to gain employment in either the public or private sector. This approach resulted in 86% of the STAnd Up for Swimming learners quickly finding employment.

STA’s CEO, Dave Candler said: “STAnd Up for Swimming came just at the right time; a time when swim schools were struggling to find qualified swimming teachers to meet the post-pandemic demand for swimming lessons. “