A successful recruitment for swimming teachers in Lanarkshire is now helping hundreds of youngsters learn how to swim.
South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture (SLLC) decided to take on a different approach in their job advert to tackle a national shortage of instructors.
The shortage become worse during the pandemic as many staff members chose to leave their jobs to work for vaccination and COVID testing centres.
The advert sought young and bubbly characters and targeted 'Kids TV personalities' through a campaign in a bid to encourage children to learn to swim and improve water safety.
It attracted 12 new recruits through active schools ‘Sports Leaders Academies’, helping to enable 500 kids to receive swimming lessons at one of the nine leisure clubs with a pool in the area.
The ‘Kids TV personalities’ campaign first targeted three high schools in the local area - Carluke High School, Lanark Grammar School and Lesmahagow High School - leading to the recruitment of four kids from each of the schools and therefore providing 12 teaching contracts.
The aim was to recruit teachers who were natural at speaking with children, and who were good at engaging with the youngsters to improve their confidence in the pool.
This became a necessity for Stewart Hunter, recreation manager at SLLC.
He told Lanarkshire Live : “The shortage of teachers meant less and less kids were able to access the swimming lessons which can form a memorable and sometimes vital part of childhood.
“Instead of targeting our job adverts towards experienced and competent swimmers which weren’t receiving the normal traction, the ‘Kids TV personalities’ campaign focused on employing people who instead were well-natured and natural at speaking to children.
“It can take years for kids to become able and confident swimmers which is why we want them to enjoy their swimming lessons as much as possible during the time they are there.
"We want to provide children with not only a great lesson, but also a great time. Teachers should be engaging, fun, nurturing and be able to easily converse with kids.
“Having sound back-up knowledge is also important of course, but this is something that can be taught. Getting the right personalities for the job was of the upmost importance to us.”
Stewart added: “We have experienced great success from the initiative.
"The 12 teachers that we recruited provide 48 hours of lessons a week across Carluke, Coalburn and Lanark leisure centres and our centre member numbers are slowly rising back up to pre-covid rates.
“The recruitment drive has been so successful that we are now continuing the reach out to other South Lanarkshire schools with the aim of taking on more teaching staff.
“Our primary goals that we are going to continue working towards are to ensure all of our teachers achieve the highest qualification a swimming teacher can receive by taking them through the appropriate training.”
SLLC is also striving to ensure that every child is able to swim 25m by the time they leave school and those that can’t will receive more lessons.
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