Recreation Assistant

Industries: Leisure operations

Overview and responsibilities

Recreation Assistants support, enhance and deliver the day-to-day operations of a leisure facility. They typically service sport and physical activities in wet environments, such as swimming pools, water slides and saunas, and/or dry environments, such as activity areas and sports pitches.

Working as a part of a team, Recreation Assistants assist with the opening and closing of facilities as well as maintaining the cleanliness and safety of the environment. They ensure that programmed activities and services are available by preparing, assembling, dismantling and storing equipment such as trampolines, badminton nets and event seating. A Recreation Assistant is also expected to supervise activity and ancillary areas, ensuring that customers are safe and enhancing the services offered through their product knowledge and sales skills.

As a first point of contact, Recreation Assistants are expected to provide high levels of customer care in their delivery of this rewarding and varied role.

Working hours

Recreation Assistants are usually employed by fitness or leisure centres. They often work varied hours, which may include evenings, weekends and public holidays.

Education

To be professionally recognised as a CIMSPA Recreation Assistant Practitioner, we ask that Recreation Assistants provide us with evidence of holding a relevant CIMSPA-endorsed qualification, degree or apprenticeship certificate issued by a CIMSPA Awarding Organisation Parter or Higher Education Partner or the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE).

If you have a qualification or degree that is not endorsed by CIMSPA or is over five years old, or if you have an international qualification, we still encourage you to apply for professional recognition. We may, however, need to ask you for additional evidence of other training you have undertaken as part of your application.

Achieving this level of qualification demonstrates that the Recreation Assistant has a good knowledge of maximising the customer experience, routine maintenance and cleaning, and safe equipment and activity areas. They will also have a strong understanding of the Recreation Assistant’s role within the organisation alongside knowledge of industry legislation, and organisational policies and procedures.