Graduate employability : essential skills and personal attributes of fitness trainers
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Alma S. Eaton (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Diane Gill
Abstract: College graduates need certain skills and personal attributes to be ready for work in an occupation or field. Although many kinesiology and exercise science students have a career goal to become a fitness trainer, a comprehensive catalog of the skills and attributes needed in this work does not exist. Therefore, the objective of this project was to identify the generic skills, personal attributes, and specific skills essential to the work of fitness trainers. Using a panel of 15 fitness trainers and 14 supervisors of fitness trainers, the Delphi method was employed with three rounds of questionnaires to generate a list of essential generic skills, personal attributes, and specific skills. Panelists rated their agreement that each item is essential to the work of a fitness trainer on a five point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. All items meeting the inclusion criteria of 75% of panelists rating an item as Somewhat Agree or Strongly Agree are reported on the final list of 28 generic skills, 37 personal attributes, and 61 specific skills. Many of the generic skills are those that are seen as necessary across industries: communication, problem solving, critical thinking, professionalism, and information literacy. Other generic skills and personal attributes are those that are needed in helping professions, such as emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills, empathy, caring, compassion, support, and humility. New specific skills related to sales, client education, client assessment, exercise programming, and behavioral coaching were added to what certifying organizations had already determined as essential. Educators developing curriculum in exercise science or kinesiology programs that intend to prepare students as fitness trainers should consider tailoring their curriculum to develop the essential skills and personal attributes of fitness trainers.
Graduate employability : essential skills and personal attributes of fitness trainers
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Created on 5/1/2023
Views: 145
Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2023
- Keywords
- Employability, Fitness Trainer, Higher Education, Kinesiology, Personal Trainer
- Subjects
- Personal trainers $x Employment
- Physical education and training $x Study and teaching (Higher)