We love checking in with our former students to see what they're up to in their new careers, understand their experiences learning with us as well as how they managed to multitask their studies around other committments. It's inspiring to see our hard-working alumni reap the benefits of education platform, excellent tutoring and career support with us here at The Training Room. Recently, we checked in with Lauren (a former Personal Training student) who has successfully made the career switch from Primary School Teacher to Personal Trainer at PureGym. Find her story here:
1. What was the reason you chose to take a Personal Training course? What were your motivations for getting into Personal training?
I had recently qualified as a primary school teacher in July 2021, but I felt that I wasn't quite ready to make the commitment to a full-time teaching job knowing that personal training was something I had been thinking about for a very long time and so, I really felt the need to fulfil my dream of being a personal trainer and booked the course!
2. What were you doing before the course?
I was working part time in a cafe over the summer after just graduating from Edge Hill University with a Primary Science Education degree!
3. Why did you choose The Training Room? How did you hear about us?
I chose the Training Room after searching around a lot of different courses and I finally settled on The Training Room after reading the reviews.
4. What did you enjoy about the course?
I loved how it was the perfect balance of practical work and theory work. It worked really well with how I personally like to learn and so I was very grateful for the structure of it.
5. Were you able to fit your course around other commitments/your lifestyle?
Yes, I was very easily able to do this. I was fully committed to the course and hadn't had any other major commitments, but I could see that it was very flexible and easily managed if I had more commitments.
6. What was your experience of the course? Was your tutor helpful? Did you feel supported during your studies?
Overall, the experience with my Personal Training course with The Training Room was very positive! My tutor went above and beyond in terms of support, and I never felt like I couldn't ask them anything or reach out to them for extra support.
7. What’s the biggest challenge you encountered on your course?
I believe that the biggest challenge I encountered on the course was trying to balance the course work with studying for the exams. I did manage this okay, but I definitely struggled but I was also very much supported by my peers on the course and my tutor.
8. How have you used your qualification?
I am currently working as a fitness coach in PureGym and working my way towards building up clients for my personal training business.
9. Did you utilize the career support team? How did they help you?
I used the career support team to help me with my CV. My original CV was tailored towards Primary Teaching applications and so the careers team helped me re-do the entire structure and gave me very helpful pointers on how to improve it so that it was more tailored to the personal training industry.
10. Tell me about your career since graduating from The Training Room – what have you done and what does your future look like?
I have started a Personal Training Instagram page which never would have happened had I not completed the course as the course provided me with some much-needed confidence and have started a new job as a fitness coach in PureGym. In terms of the future, I hope to be training more clients to reach their goals and keep growing my personal training business.
11. Have you completed any other training since graduating with us?
I have completed three CPD classes since graduating with the Training Room.
12. Having completed the course, what advice would you give people who are considering it themselves? What advice would you give current students?
The advice I would give to people taking this course is to make sure that you keep up with the work and don't leave things until the last minute. The support is there when you need it so don’t be afraid to utilise it!
13. What advice would you give to anyone thinking of taking a course with us?
I would 100% recommend taking a course with the training room! The first phone call I had with them back in August when I was only looking into the course was so, so helpful and till this day I cannot forget how supportive the woman on the phone was!
14. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Just a huge thank you for allowing me to start my dream job!