Welcome to the Level 4 Health and Fitness Coach Certificate!
We hope you are excited to take this first step to becoming a qualified personal trainer!
This programme aims to provide you with relevant knowledge, skills, and practical experience to fulfil the duties and responsibilities of a personal trainer in New Zealand. You are guaranteed to get what you put in with this course, so make sure you get involved with forums, activities, and practical experiences as much as possible throughout the programme.
The following video provides you with an overview of what to expect from this programme.
What will you get out of completing this course?
Graduates of this course can progress to further study with the New Zealand Institute of Sport or other providers and enter qualifications at Level 5 – we have some great programmes on offer, such as the Advanced Health and Fitness Coach certificate (available online or on campus) and the Level 5 Diploma in Sport, Recreation, and Exercise offered on campus.
Another highlight of graduating from this programme is the opportunity to register with the Register of Exercise Professionals New Zealand (REPs) – as a REPs Initial Education Provider, our programme covers all the important factors that REPs are looking for when giving their stamp of approval. Being REPs registered is a big advantage for employment not only in New Zealand, but with worldwide recognition through the International Confederation of Registered Exercise Professionals, you can take your qualification to a multitude of interesting and exciting countries around the world. Check out their website for more details about what you need to do to register.
When you successfully finish the programme, you will be awarded the New Zealand Certificate in Exercise (Level 4). This is an official NZQA approved qualification that you can show to others, like employers, so they can be confident you can:
- Deliver safe and effective exercise programmes, including pre-screening, within own scope of practice and industry code of ethics.
- Apply knowledge of anatomy and physiology to adapt and deliver safe and effective exercise programmes to individuals.
- Adapt programmes for apparently healthy people and common at-risk groups using exercise science and testing.
- Apply motivational and communication techniques to enhance individual participant commitment to a personalised exercise programme.
- Apply a health and wellness framework and evidence-based nutrition principles to support a personalised exercise programme and recommend referral pathways to allied health professionals.
- Use marketing and business tools and techniques to support business practices as an exercise professional.
Let us take a look at the details of this programme:
| Number | Module | Assessments | Approx. learning hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anatomy and Physiology | 01A1 Structure and function of human body systems 01A2 Functional Anatomy and Energy Systems |
100 |
| 2 | Ethics and Customer Safety | 02A1 Fitness Code of Ethics and Legislation | 50 |
| 3 | Exercise Prescription | 03A1 Needs analysis & Exercise demonstrations 03A2 Programme Design |
150 |
| 4 | Nutrition | 04A1 Nutrition case studies and research 04A2 Dietary assessment and analysis |
100 |
| 5 | Special Populations and Exercise Adherence | 05A1 Special Populations Part A 05A2 Special Populations Part B |
100 |
| 6 | Personal Training as a Business | 06A1 Personal Training Business Plan | 100 |
About the programme
This programme consists of 6 modules (also known as courses) and contains 10 assessments, which are available to you at any time. We have provided you with a suggested timetable to manage the workload as throughout the programme you will be expected to work on multiple modules (courses) and assessments simultaneously. Ensure to attend live sessions to keep up to date with where you should be in the programme.
Student Progression Milestones
To ensure a smooth learning experience, we suggest starting this module at specific weeks.
Use the following key to navigate through the progression charts. The key applies to both Full-Time and Part-Time.
- Coloured blocks indicate the recommended weeks you should spend working through each module and working on each assessment. For example, for full-time learners, you should spend weeks 1-5 in Module 1 Anatomy and Physiology, in week 3 you should complete Assessment 01A1, and in weeks 4 & 5 you should complete Assessment 01A2.
- The ticks indicate the week that the assessments are due.
- Most of the time you will be expected to be learning and conducting assessment tasks in two modules, and at times three. Please refer to the information provided to you by the online team to keep up to date with your learning and assessment due dates.
Full-Time Progression Chart
Part-Time Progression Chart
Forums and Live Sessions
Forums
As you work through each module in the course, you will come across forum activities. You will be prompted to head to the forum to post your answers for each activity.
The forums are an opportunity for discussions about the learning between your peers. Tutors will monitor posts; however, they will not actively engage in these discussions. If you have questions for your tutor regarding the content or assessments, please contact them directly.
Please ensure, when you are posting on the forum, you do so respectfully.
Live Sessions
Live Sessions are a feature of the Online Campus that allows you to attend video meetings with your tutor and other students via Zoom. Your tutor will schedule Live Sessions regularly for your programme. These sessions might include information about assessments, Q and A sessions, a guest speaker, or specific topic information. The Live Sessions calendar is found in the content menu under Live Sessions.
Learning Hours
Total learning hours are 600 hours. That is approximately 37.5 hours per week for full-time and 20 hours per week when studying part-time.
The learning hours include:
- reading, watching, participating and completing activities on the online campus
- completing assessments
- self-directed practical (gym or outdoors)
- delivering sessions or conducting assessments on clients
- self-directed theory (researching areas of interest or where you need more support).
Important
As part of your preparation for the Exercise industry, you are expected to practice your exercise technique, fitness testing delivery, and coaching skills with real clients in a commercial gym facility throughout your programme. More specifically, for your Module 3 – Exercise Prescription assessments, you are required to film yourself performing exercise techniques, and provide evidence of fitness testing and programme delivery with your clients. As part of this process, you will also need to organise an experienced personal trainer to observe one coaching session that you run with a client as part of the Programme Design assessment. This supervisor will observe you and provide feedback on a variety of skills important to personal training. Ensure you are prepared for your industry practical sessions by completing the “Gym & supervisor letter submission” task as soon as you can.