I have had a few people phone me up recently and ask about legal requirements for opening up a studio, becoming a pilates teacher, and also what opportunities are out there for Pilates Instructors after you have finished your training.
In Australia you can open up a Pilates Studio and call yourself a Pilates Teacher without having completed a Pilates certificate, however you won't get much work or many clients! To work as a Pilates instructor most places will require you to have insurance. You will be able to get your insurance after you have completed 100 hours of teacher training and have gained your certificate. I use AON for my insurance. You will also need to have your First Aid level two. If you are wanting to work for some of the bigger gyms, they require Cert III or IV in fitness, and some also require a professional membership with Physical Activity Australia, Fitness Australia or the APMA. So for example you could sign up to the APMA as an associate membership (Level 1) with just a mat or reformer certificate.
How to gain experience and work as a Pilates teacher when just starting out.
There are so many opportunities out there and if you have an entrepreneur hat you can create some for yourself as well! The best place to start is with people you already know. I started with teaching my family. From there I gained confidence and their support and encouragement really helped me to grow as a teacher.
One of my students who completed my reformer certificate started covering classes at the gym she attended. She was participating in about five large group reformer classes per week so she knew the style and repertoire taught there, as well as the teachers and a lot of the clients too! Another student of my Studio Certificate (Mat, Reformer, Caddie, Chair and Barrels) offered to cover some of my classes while I was away and also when I was sick. She is an awesome teacher and I offered her one class per week to teach regularly. She has now opened up her own home Pilates studio for mat group classes and private studio sessions on the Reformer, Chair and Spine corrector.
Early on I gained experience as a teacher by giving the warm up for one of the companies I worked for as a dancer. I loved the responsibility of giving the company warm up and this boosted my confidence as a Pilates teacher even more.
What really helped me to gain work through was by phoning up gyms, health clubs and Pilates studios near by. I expressed my passion for Pilates and talked about my background in dance. I then offered to send them my CV if they waned more information. After I sent this through I would then follow up with a phone call. I gained a lot of work this way and my schedule filled quickly. Sometimes I was just offered cover work; this quickly turned into regular teaching gigs.
Now we have awesome networks on Facebook such as Cover Me Pilates. Going to workshops and swapping your number with other participants and asking them for cover work will help too! Put it out there and you will find that more teaching opportunities will open!
If you are interested in booking in to my mat course please click here!
Here is a little beginner Pilates clip!