The European integration of a new occupation, the training and education strategies of national professional organizations: the case of the fitness sector in France and the United Kingdom

Abstract

The occupations of fitness managers and instructors - perhaps a new profession in embryo - have grown world-wide in response to the growing public demand for fitness services. Here the authors examine the strategies employed by French and UK professional bodies in their respective national contexts. In France sport is regarded as a public service, and the Ministry of Youth and Sport (MJS) has been the regulator of training and employment. Influenced by Britain, the commercial sector has grown, and the Syndicat National des Exploitants d' installations et de services sportifs (SNEISS) did not regard the existing qualifications, driven by national sports organizations, as adequate for the future of the industry. It encouraged the devising of a new diploma offered by a network of universities and accredited by the Ministry of Education (MEN). This has changed the dynamic of training, dispossessing the MJS and sports organizations of their monopoly. In the UK, sport is considered a private activity and small operators and chains of companies, more than in France, have grown. The Fitness Industry Association (FIA) is concerned to maintain quality standards in this expanding and fiercely competitive industry. It has sought to influence the government and the (employer- led) Sport and Recreation National Training Organization (SPRITO) in devising competencies and qualifications, and they have jointly launched a code of practice and a register of professionals. The SNEISS and the FIA are active in the new European Network Fitness Committee, but have not involved greatly the industry's workers. These developments show the interactions between the evolving European institutions and those at national level, but the demonstrably different national cultures clearly mean that a European profession and training regime will have to be negotiated against competing national influences.