Personal Training Certifications

[Curls4dGirls]

Heard a rumor that "only 4 certifications will be recognized." I have no idea what this means or if it's true.

Can anybody elaborate?

thx.

[Stonecold54]

recognized by who?

[Curls4dGirls]

i have no idea, bro. I asked a trainer at my gym, and he said that he heard the same thing. I've heard it from 3 different people ... not even at the same gym.

If it was just one person, or even several people at the same gym, I would discount it as a rumor.

[daf2]

Thats not true...it depends on what you want to do with it and where you want to trian

bigger gyms and more well known gyms can be more critical but most gyms recognize several organizations

if you are looking to do it as a full time job though i would recomend one of the better certifications i.e.
ace or acsm or nacsm

some of the "not as recognized ones include"
aaai(cheap)
afaa

[Curls4dGirls]

OK - I found an answer. NCCA is an accrediting organization. The following organizations have been accredited:

ACE
NCSF
NCSA


http://www.noca.org/ncca/accredorg.htm

[Curls4dGirls]

"NCCA is a provisional affiliate of the National Board of Fitness Examiners, which truly has a much better determination of the worth of the trainer.

For example, accreditation may indicate that an organization has a reputable curriculum and that it indicates that it is well put together and professional. All colleges have to be accredited by some organization or they could not be in the education business.

When it comes to a person graduating Harvard Medical school, you can pretty much bet that the school has been accredited but now the young doctor must take his national board exam before he can practice. What happens if he fails the national board exam? Is that a reflection on him or the school?

Even Harvard can give the absolute best education to a student but when the rubber meets the road and this young doctor sits for the national board exam, he/she could fail it flat out, and possibly never become a doctor.

The NCCA accreditation in my opinion is good, but it is not what the industry needs. The industry needs to produce high quality trainers then be able to test them across the board to see if the public is getting a safe and competent trainer. The accreditation process does not guarantee that, but the national board exam does.

I hope this helps you in some way, from this trainer's perspective, which by the way, I took and passed the NBFE exam...it was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life...but well worth it.

Now the doctors and physical therapists look at me a little different when I tell them I passed the national board exam. But what would they say if I told them the ISSA is accredited? I would think they would say something like, "So?" But when I tell them I have passed the national board exam, they say, "Really? I didn't know that was available." Then that opens the doors for me to tell them all about what is happening in the industry.

The board exam carries a lot more weight with those that are in the know and can help you such as doctors and physical therapists. No one cares about the accreditation process. We need to stick with what matters."

[Curls4dGirls]

"First, there are many forms of accreditation. For a list of organizations recognized to grant accreditation by the U.S. Dept of Education, visit:
http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accr...lInstitutional

In terms of process-based accreditation, it is important to realize that ALL third party accreditation organizations draw their evaluation processes from a single point, "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing." This doc is co-authored by the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) and is the gold standard for best practices in assuring validity, reliability and fairness in high stakes testing.

The NBFE Personal Fitness Trainer Examination Part 1 was written to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing under the top psychometricians at Thomson Prometric. In fact, at several points, the NBFE exceeded most accreditation requirements and standards.

As part of the NBFE job task analysis, they deployed a survey to multiple populations and examined for agreement and inter-rate reliability. This process is beyond those listed in NCCA's Commentary in Essential 10. The NBFE also employed numerous cross-checking processes of draft test items within multiple subject-matter expert groups. This again is a technique used to build highly reliable and valid test items that is not a requirement of NCCA for accreditation.

Ultimately, it is the process used to build the exam that is critical. As part of the NBFE domain analysis, the NBFE solicited active trainers as Subject Matter Experts who represent the best of their industry and have the broadest academic and certification preparation. The NBFE surveyed trainers using a sample drawn from dozens of sources including certification organizations, personal trainer associations, and gyms and clubs, etc. This breadth can simply not be matched by any other single organization.

For more information about the examination development visit: www.nbfe.org/examination

Finally, the NBFE recognizes that trainers in the trenches who are helping people every day, want to be differentiated from the incompetent trainers. Then NBFE will acknowledge them for passing the board exams and promote them to medical and allied health professionals for referrals through the NBFE Registry. The NBFE Registry will be online and open to the pubic. Doctors, allied health professionals and the public will be able to check the Registry and see if their trainer or health club employee has passed the Boards."