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Discover fresh approaches for adapting and delivering fully-inclusive exercise programmes
Enquire todayToday's exercise professionals must be equipped with the skills to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population, including older adults, pregnant women, and clients with disabilities.
See what our students have to say about our Special Populations courses.
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Your direct route to success with a range of special population groups. Expertly-delivered courses, cutting-edge content, interest-free payment plans and hands-on training at a nationwide venue. Please note that the Level 3 Nutrition for Physical Activity and Level 3 Anatomy and Physiology are not included with the Special Populations Diploma.
Discover how to help clients manage chronic illnesses and conditions.
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Train more clients, tackle more conditions, become a more inclusive professional.
Interest-free payment plan - £117 per month
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Lead the way and be at the forefront of making a difference in the community.
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Making exercise truly inclusive requires a detailed level of knowledge and understanding about the population group and individual you are working with. Featured below are two of our most popular special populations courses. Who will you help?
Exercise referral, also known as GP referral, is a qualification designed to equip exercise professionals with the knowledge and skills to support clients with a range of chronic illnesses and conditions. This is an essential qualification for progressing to Level 4 and beyond.
If you want to work with pre and postnatal clients, you’ll need to develop specialist knowledge about how to adapt exercise for each stage of pregnancy, including post-birth. This essential qualification will give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to do all of this and more.
Becoming an inclusive fitness professional requires a holistic and well-rounded understanding of a range of populations, medical conditions, and how individuals are affected by these. Listed below are some other special populations to may be interested to further differentiate your training services to clients.
Our ageing population is growing rapidly as people live longer. Staying fit and active is important to preserve quality of life and independence. Get the specialist knowledge, skills and qualifications to work effectively with older adults.
Learn how to meet the diverse needs of a range of people with disabilities with this YMCA Award qualification. Be at the forefront of promoting inclusion equality within your fitness training services with this IFI accredited programme.
Exercise and physical activity play a huge part in improving the health outcomes of people suffering from the effects of COVID-19. Play your part in the recovery process with this interactive online programme.
Equip yourself with the knowledge and understanding to recognise, support and signpost clients that have, or at risk of, eating disorders with this HFE exclusive online programme.
Discover how to provide optimum evidence-based nutrition advice and education to pregnant women and those breastfeeding. This online interactive course will teach you all you need to know to tailor your healthy eating advice and nutrition advice.
Our range of special populations courses are designed, developed and delivered by leading clinical, research and applied exercise specialists to ensure that you and your future career get the education that you deserve.
From course content, entry requirements and progression routes, we've answered some of the most frequently asked questions about our special populations courses below. If you didn't find what you were looking for, our careers team will be more than happy to assist you on: 0800 612 4067.
These qualifications are largely designed for qualified fitness professionals and so you will need to hold as a minimum a Level 2 Certificate in Fitness Instruction. Additionally, once you have completed your qualification, you can only teach exercise in the context of your specific qualifications (gym, exercise to music, circuit training etc). For example, if you have a gym instructor and pre and postnatal (PPN) qualification, you can only work with the PPN clients in a gym environment.
If you are considering the Level 3 Diploma in Exercise Referral, we also recommend that you hold a Level 3 Certificate in Personal Training – while this isn’t mandatory, it will help you greatly with the programme and will enable you to focus exclusively on the medical conditions element of the course. The exercise referral course cost does not include the anatomy and nutrition modules which must also be completed to achieve this qualification.
Absolutely – this is quite common. With diseases relating to inactivity being at almost epidemic levels, more and more people are now in need of specialist exercise advice. Many of these people may, in fact, present more than one medical condition, so it’s wise to develop a broad and deep understanding in this area.
Our all-inclusive Special Populations Diploma is a programme which offers the greatest value. This combines Level 3 Exercise Referral, Level 3 Pre and Postnatal and Level 3 Exercise for Older Adults into a single competitively priced package.
This ultimately depends on the pathway and courses that you select. Generally speaking:
Exercise Referral is concerned with planning and structuring exercise for clients that have been referred to an exercise professional from their GP, and requires a deep understanding of a wide-range of medical conditions, including: obesity, diabetes, low back pain, arthritis, high cholesterol, stress, anxiety and high blood pressure.
Exercise for Older Adults is concerned with adapting exercise programmes to the specific needs of the elderly and less able clients – this also involves developing a broad understanding of common medical conditions affecting this group of people.
Exercise for Pre and Postnatal Clients explores how exercise can benefit pregnant women and new mothers, and what is and isn’t appropriate.
Exercise for Disabled Clients promotes inclusion and enables an instructor to effectively work with clients with disabilities.
The demand for those who have the knowledge to work with special populations has never been higher. To give some context: between 1985 and 2015, the number of UK citizens aged 65 or over increased by 20% to 10.3 million; there are approximately 600,000 registered births every year; and the World Health Organisation (WHO) continues to report that obesity is a worldwide epidemic.
Recent reports have revealed that in 1 in 5 people in the UK has a disability yet only 18% of adults with a disability undertake more than 30 minutes exercise a week.
All of our special populations courses are certificated by YMCA Awards, the industry’s most widely sought-after awarding body.
Some of our more speciality programmes, like eating disorders and nutrition for pre and postnatal clients are endorsed CPD courses rather than regulated qualifications. This is because Ofqual don’t have a regulated qualification framework for these subjects because they are so specialist. These courses are however still endorsed by YMCA Awards and undergo rigorous quality assurance, both here at HFE and at YMCA Awards.
All of our special populations qualifications are also endorsed and supported by CIMSPA.
A popular progression route is to combine special populations qualifications with something like yoga and Pilates because many exercises for both of these disciplines can be adapted to a person’s individual physical needs.
Level 3 Exercise Referral is a prerequisite for Level 4 exercise specialist qualifications, such as Low Back Pain and the Obesity and Diabetes Certificate – these are also common progression routes.
Our special populations courses are delivered throughout the UK and we have venues in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Nottingham, Leeds and York.
With many of these programmes, location is less important because most of the content is knowledge-based and as such, these courses can be completed in a supported home-study style. You can either come to our nearest venue to take your theory exam (if applicable), or we can arrange for you to sit the exam online with our exam proctoring service. There may be a small surcharge for online exams.
To view all our special population locations, select the button below.
View All LocationsSince we opened our doors in 2007, we've trained over 30,000 exercise professionals across a variety of different qualifications, subjects and disciplines. Featured below are a small selection that you might just recognise and here's what they had to say about their HFE training experience.
Once your studies are complete and you've completed your training and qualifications, our service to you won't simply stop. Here at HFE, we're all about adding value and there are a number of ways in which we will help you to advance and progress your active leisure career. Some of these are featured below.
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