It is with great excitement that Royal Life Saving Queensland is launching a new program to support the delivery of swimming and water safety programs to children across our communities.

The Swim Teacher Course by Royal Life Saving Queensland is an innovative and cost effective training solution that provides successful candidates with a vocationally aligned, industry recognised swim teacher qualification (Skill Set SISSS00112) from the SIS Sport, Fitness and Recreation Training Package. Recent data released by Royal Life Saving and the Swim School industry shows up to 40% fall in swimming lesson enrolments over the last 12 months, with the greatest impact shown in children 10-12 years (-51.2%) and children 7-9 years (-40.4%).

The impact of falling enrolments is three-fold:

• Children miss out of learning vital skills, which has possible generational impacts on drowning risk
• A fall in lessons, means further loss of jobs, which disadvantages young people and women (85% of Swim Teachers are female and 23% are aged 18 to 24 years.)
• A fall in income, threatens the viability of small and medium business in the industry. This may prompt prolonged closures at a time where community needs their local pool most.

Solution: Royal Life Saving Queensland has developed a new Swim Teacher Course which complies with vocational and industry standards (importantly the GSPO).

Read more details about our announcement and our swim teacher courses:

Read our Industry Update

Royal Life Saving is offering the following courses:

• CPP31218 Certificate III in Swimming Pool and Spa Service
• CPP41319 Certificate IV in Swimming Pool and Spa Service

View the Course Brochure here which includes more details and information about the course.

This course complies with our Position Statement in respect to the qualifications required when operating a commercial aquatic facility. This statement is a result of the release of Queensland Healths water quality guidelines for public aquatic facilities (dated December 2019). The purpose of the guideline is to reduce risk to public health and the focus is on water quality associated risks.

Royal Life Saving has released a Position Statement in respect to the qualifications required when operating a commercial aquatic facility. This statement is a result of the release of Queensland Health’s water quality guidelines for public aquatic facilities (dated December 2019). The purpose of the guideline is to reduce risk to public health and the focus is on water quality associated risks .

Our Position

In accordance with Queensland Health’s water quality guidelines ^(P42) for public aquatic facilities our position is that all staff who operate aquatic facilities undergo appropriate training for the risk level of the facility.

The minimum standard for aquatic facilities is for staff to undertake a short course in Pool Plant Operations which includes the following units of competence:

• SISCAQU001 Test Pool Water Quality
• SISCAQU003 Maintain Aquatic Facility Plant and Equipment
• SISCAQU004 Develop and Implement Pool Water Maintenance Procedures
• SISCAQU005 Develop and Implement Aquatic Maintenance Procedures
• BSBRSK401 Identify Risk and Apply Risk Management Processes

High Risk Facilities

Our position is that staff working in high risk facilities responsible for water quality complete a Cert IV in Swimming Pool & Spa Service (CPP41319) by 31 December 2020. High risk facilities are defined as:

• Learn-to-swim pools
• Shallow-depth interactive play pools
• Artificial lagoons with unrestricted access
• Interactive water features
• Water slides
• Pools used by incontinent people
• Wading pools
• Program pools
• Spas