Career Development
Why Become A (Fitrec) Registered Professional?
“Why register if it’s not a legal requirement?”
It’s a worthy question, one that comes up regularly. But, before we get to the answers we need to acknowledge that registration has changed considerably over the years.
Registrars have traditionally provided little to no background on registered professionals. As a result, beyond its presence or absence, registration has typically held no real value for all stakeholders (including employers, clients and peers). And where profiles do exist, they are often homogenous, to the point of being useless.
So yes, understandably, why would anyone bother registering if they don’t need to check that specific box?
When we answer this question at FITREC, we have to make the point that our registration service shares almost nothing in common with early registrars – it’s designed to provide more tangible benefits for industry professionals. Specifically, our FITREC profiles provide professionals with a platform to display all education, all industry experience, references from clients and peers, all related compliance, any related achievements, videos, images and more.
With this level of service in mind, let’s explore the value of registration.
In effect, your FITREC profile is like a trip to your doctor’s office. When you head into the doctor’s office, framed certificates adorn the walls. You don’t know what they all mean, but you respect the effort that has gone into achieving them and welcome the confidence it gives you that this person is likely to have the expertise you need.
Your online FITREC profile is your virtual wall on which to display certifications, accreditations, experience, references, achievements and more.
Of course, it only works if you share your profile link. But when you do, you have the opportunity to get a lot more eyes on your FITREC profile than would ever wander through that doctor’s office! Which leads us nicely into the next point.
How can peers, clients, employers, allied health providers and other stakeholders properly respect your accomplishments and specialisations if they can’t see them?
We all want to know more about the people we intend to work with and online is where the majority of this learning takes place. FITREC registration provides you with the only purpose-built platform to highlight your industry credentials.
If you’ve done a tonne of learning, make this information available to people who might be interested in engaging your services. If you have years of experience, it should be on display and easily viewed, and this is particularly relevant if you have specialised throughout your career.
Even new professionals benefit from being able to share insight into thier journey so far.
Not convinced that people are looking?
All FITREC profiles have a publicly visible view counter on them. At the low end, profiles are getting hundreds of views. Many profiles have thousands of views. A select few even have view counts north of 10,000!
Beyond respect for your accomplishments, the added benefit of this clarity around individual professionals is the collective transparency it affords the fitness industry. This collective transparency, in turn, is the key to unlocking greater respect for our industry as a whole.
Beyond matters of credibility and respect, your membership with FITREC increases your exposure to respected people, services and educators who have the potential to positively influence the future of your health and fitness career.
Registration gives you access to a professional support network that is made up of businesses and services that have passed our values assessment and demonstrate a commitment to supporting professionals. All our collaborations are built on a ‘professionals first, FITREC second’ approach. This means we do not engage in exclusive partnerships or commission-based relationships, and it ensures that no collaboration is more important than our registered members.
FITREC’s proximity to HealthyPeople is another big win for registered professionals. HealthyPeople is Australia’s largest industry-specific recruitment service, and the connection ensures that FITREC-registered professionals are as close as they can be to a recruitment service popular with industry employers all over Australia.
Registration with FITREC gives you access to discounts, special offers, a range of unique services, members-specific rates and more. All of these contribute to making your working life easier but are secondary to the primary goal of elevating your status as a fitness professional.
The question is not ‘Why register?’, it is now, ‘Why not?’.
With FITREC, registration has become a platform to showcase every professional’s unique industry background. It allows for the comparison between professionals and ensures that employers, clients, allied health professionals and peers can appreciate the depth and breadth of your learning and experience.
Considering the leverage FITREC registration provides to help you earn more than you do right now, the question is no longer whether you should invest in registration, but moreso ‘can I afford NOT to?’
*except in the ACT
Dennis Hosking
Dennis has more than 30 years’ experience in the fitness industry. His long-standing passion for making life easier for industry professionals led him to establish FITREC and HealthyPeople. As the Managing Director of both these industry-leading organisations, Dennis and his teams provide fitness professionals and businesses with employment and staffing solutions.
