Last April one could read on the EuropeActive’s blog about the need for fitness professionals (~90,000) in the member states of the EU. An update of these numbers came in recently, by CEDEFOP's work on analysing recent job vacancies. The find: the current European labour market has 103,481 online vacancies for fitness and recreation instructors.
By analysing online job vacancies published between 1 July 2018 and 31 December 2018, the Center for the Development of Vocational Training – CEDEFOP – stated that approximately 70,000 fitness and recreation instructors and program leaders were needed in seven EU member states, making up 79% of the EU employment market.
A fast-growing industry
These figures were recently updated by 11 more countries, giving a more complete picture about the current European labour market situation: 103,481 online vacancies for fitness and recreation instructors and program leaders were published between 1 July 2018 and 31 March 2019 in 18 EU countries. Driven by annual growth rates of 3-4%, the European fitness sector is a highly dynamic and fast-growing industry. To keep up the positive developments, human resource development and the further professionalisation of the sectors is needed.
Same Standards everywhere
Due to the differences in demand across the member states, harmonised qualifications are key to assure quality, transparency and create trust among employers and professionals. EuropeActive’s accreditation programme facilitates this process by applying qualification levels (EREPS levels) to national and sectoral qualifications which are informally linked to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).
EU-project on qualifications
Furthermore, the organisation runs an EU-funded activity (Blueprint project) which currently explores possible ways to link fitness and outdoor qualifications to National Qualification Frameworks (NQFs). The overall goal of the project is to support labour market mobility within the European fitness sector.