Update on swimming officials training courses after pools get reopening date

Swim England has issued updates on several of its swimming officials training courses for volunteers now pools have been given a date to reopen across the country.

Many of the courses required a practical assessment which were put on hold during the coronavirus lockdown.

Claire Coleman, Swim England Head of Volunteering and Pathways, said: “We realise this has been a difficult time for many volunteers who had started courses but have been unable to finish them.

“A number of elements were moved to online training so they could be completed while in lockdown but we appreciate our volunteers will be keen to finish their training as soon as possible.

“Now pools are due to reopen, we’re looking at ways of completing training courses but we’d ask everyone to please bear with us while we make the necessary arrangements.”

The latest situation is:

Technical Officials training

With pools reopening, it still remains unclear when volunteers will be able to resume their practical training for swimming technical officiating.

The recent decisions regarding the Judge 1 process has been published and, to complete the process, the following decisions have been made regarding other qualifications.

Judge Level 2 & J2S

Theory training for these levels can carry on as normal using online meeting facilities such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Skype. Training slides have been sent out to regional coordinators to assist with the process. There is no time limit for this process.

Referee Exams 2020

The May 2020 examination was cancelled due to lockdown and it is anticipated that the exam will take place on 7 November 2020.

Clearly the ongoing nature of restrictions and travel may impact on this date and should there be a requirement to postpone this further, candidates will be informed directly as soon as it is practicable to do so.

The November 2020 exam is still scheduled to take place on Saturday 7 November subject to the same postponement option as set out above.

Those candidates due to sit the exam for the first time can still do so without the requirement to complete all elements of their poolside training log.

However, successful first-time candidates will need to complete their poolside training log to a satisfactory standard before they attempt the final practical assessment.

There is an option to defer the first sitting of the exam to May 2021, without penalty, if first-time candidates do not feel confident in sitting the exam.