Dan trained at 16 to teach swimming to fund his studies and future aspirations
Dan, 16, has just completed his SEQ Level 2 Teaching Swimming Qualification. Here he will share his love of swimming and how he plans to use his qualifications to support his long term aspirations.
Dan says: “I love swimming and have been assisting at a local swim school since I was in Year 10. As soon as I was old enough to get my Swim England qualifications I jumped at the chance. I started my SEQ Level 1 Swimming Assistant (Teaching) course in April on my 16th birthday! I was keen to get my Level Two, and completed this in Uckfield over the October half term holiday.
“I really enjoy teaching swimming and currently work assisting in lessons around 13 hours a week on Wednesday and Friday afternoons and sometimes on a Sunday. I find the hours work quite well with my studies, still giving me time for my hobbies, including dance and socialising.
“Now I have my Level Two I plan to teach lessons. In addition to the satisfaction of teaching children to swim, the salary and flexibility is also far and beyond other jobs teenagers can get!
“My real passion is travel and I am currently studying towards three A Levels in Travel and Tourism, Business Studies and Dance. I’m planning to continue my focus on Travel and Tourism at University, where I intend to keep teaching swimming to help fund my studies.
“Additionally, I am already planning to travel after university and would love to use my qualifications to teach swimming at Camp America, whilst also having the opportunity to travel. Ultimately, I’d love a career in travel, ideally working in the airline industry, but I would also like to keep teaching swimming as a side career.”
Dan attended both his Level One and Level Two in person and was really impressed with the training programme.
He explains:
“The courses have been really fun and inspiring. It was great to meet lots of people from various swim schools in the area and to watch their own styles of teaching. The tutors have been extremely thorough and it’s great to be able to learn the specific skillset needed for teaching the different levels of learning to swim. The course went by really quickly as I found it so enjoyable. It’s not like school at all!
“I personally really enjoy teaching swimming to older children, to really fine tune their style as their stamina develops, but it is also really rewarding to introduce swimming to our younger learners and to see them improve.
“I’d recommend the Institute of Swimming courses 100% as they’ve been so enjoyable. Becoming a qualified swimming teacher means I can future-proof my studies, make my applications to university more desirable and have the ability to work and travel.”
Find out how to become a swimming teacher.