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Lifeguards look after swimming areas, help swimmers to stay safe and carry out rescues in emergencies.
You could work: evenings / weekends / bank holidays; on a rota
As a pool or beach lifeguard you'll supervise swimming areas and help people in trouble. For your main tasks you will:
As a pool lifeguard, you’ll also:
As a beach lifeguard you'll also:
You could work at a fitness centre.
Your working environment may be humid and outdoors some of the time.
You can get into this job through:
You can complete a leisure team member intermediate apprenticeship to get into this role.
As well as learning how to perform the duties of a lifeguard, on this apprenticeship you will also learn more about the duties of a:swimming teacher; gym instructor; group activities coach
To get onto an apprenticeship, you'll find it useful to have:
You may be able to work as a pool attendant or assistant, for example in a leisure centre, and take lifeguard qualifications on the job.
If you want to work as a pool lifeguard you'll need one of the following qualifications:
To be a beach lifeguard, you'll need to complete the National Vocational Beach Lifeguard Qualification (NVBLQ).
You can complete the qualifications by:
You can also apply to train and work with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
You'll need to:
You may find it helpful to have a first aid qualification when applying for jobs.
You can find out more about training to be a pool or beach lifeguard and gaining experience through volunteering, from:Careers in Aquatics; Royal Life Saving Society UK; Swimming Teachers' Association; Surf Life Saving GB
You could become a leisure centre manager with the National Pool Management Qualification.
Some pool lifeguards get swimming teaching or coaching qualifications and give swimming lessons. You could also train and lead a team of lifeguards.
You could compete in lifeguarding competitions.