There are not enough swimming teachers - That is the message from the Swimming Teachers Association East Anglia (STA) as they trained future swimming tutors at Thorpe St Andrew High School.
The course saw nine future tutors come from as far as Elgin in Scotland to the fine city on Saturday, July 22 to be taught how to train swimming teachers.
'There is a shortage of swimming teachers in the county and in East Anglia,' said John Holden, the STA's regional organiser for East Anglia, 'one of my roles is to go round to various swimming centres and from Boston, in Lincolnshire to Newport, and across the east, I get the same old story that the problem is they can't get swimming teachers.
'If youngsters aren't learning to swim we have a problem, they are more likely to drown. Death by drowning is the third most accidental death in young people in the UK.'
'It is not just the survival aspects it's a good healthy outlet also.'
The training course is split into three levels that sees the trainees put what they have learnt into practice.
The trainer from Old Catton, Norwich, added 'We got the tutors doing interactive learning with different learning styles and ways to train swimming teachers.
'Obviously there was the usual form filling and tests but the group really gelled well and there was a good sharing of ideas, which is what we want to see.
'What they can do now is they can set up their own courses bringing in their own potential swimming teachers once they have passed the next levels of development.'
The trainees next step is to go pool side and use their teaching skills to work with swimming teachers on making Norfolk's children safer.
'It was really successful and the course evaluations have shown that,' Mr Holden added.
'The Swimming Teachers Association East Anglia are now leading the way in training swimming teachers and professional development.'
The next step now for the STA is to set up further courses in Norfolk and recruit more swimming teachers in the region.
For information on how to become a swimming teacher contact staeastanglia@sta.co.uk.
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