Professional status is coming soon – here’s what you need to know about how it will support you to attract, recruit, train and retain talented individuals
At CIMSPA, we want to ensure that sport and physical activity professionals are recognised for the great work that they do by their peers, employers, the public and professionals in other sectors.
To help make professional recognition a reality, we will be introducing professional status in September 2025.
In 2024, we launched the concept of professional status in our strategy, Releasing the Power of our Profession. This is a great place to start in learning more about professional status and how it links to the rest of our work, but to make things easier, we’ve summarised the key things you need to know below.
What is professional status?
Professional status signifies a person’s qualifications, experience and commitment to meeting and adhering to the professional and ethical standards of their occupation. Having a professional status is a way for individuals to show the world that they are a trained and highly skilled professional in their chosen career.
Professional status will make career paths within the sector more visible and easier to navigate, thus retaining and attracting more talent to the sector. As an individual progresses in their career, they will be able to gain new professional statuses that highlight their knowledge and commitment and celebrate their expertise.
A professional status is:
- Earned – by successfully completing learning and development that is aligned to the sector’s professional standards
- Issued – by CIMSPA as a chartered professional body and recognised regulator
- Maintained – through continuous professional development and by being professionally regulated by the CIMSPA code of conduct for members.
How will this benefit employers?
Professional status will complement the existing benefits that CIMSPA Employer Partners receive by providing confirmation for both you and your customers that your employees and contractors are qualified and competent in their roles.
To gain a professional status, an individual must evidence completion of one or more of the sector’s employer-led professional standards by undertaking training aligned with the relevant standard. For more advanced statuses, evidence of experience and impact is also required.
Professional status also shows an individual’s specialist knowledge, helping you to understand what services they are able to offer within their role.
It will also support you in optimising your business processes:
Recruitment
Save time in recruitment by requiring a specific professional status for each job role.
CIMSPA will be using a thorough application process to issue any professional status, meaning that you no longer need to check applicants’ qualifications and their equivalency – because we already have.
This saves you time and helps you to recruit the best person for the job quickly and efficiently.
Training
Focus your staff development planning and fill skills gaps in your organisation by aligning with ready-made professional status career development routes.
Professional status offers clear progression pathways and criteria for a wide range of sport and physical activity roles, from gym instructors and personal trainers to senior leaders. This enables your employees to grow in a meaningful way that supports their career and your business.
Retention
Improve workforce retention by supporting your staff to gain and increase their professional status.
Employees with a clear career path are more satisfied and more likely to remain loyal to an employer who helps them to move forwards.
Investing in upskilling your existing workforce though quality-assured training is more cost effective than spending on recruitment.
By providing targeted training that allows your employees to gain higher professional statuses, it’s possible to bridge skills gaps in your organisation while ensuring that your workforce feels valued.
Expansion
Diversify your business to support customers with specific healthcare needs by using professional status.
The professional status framework is understandable and recognisable for healthcare professionals.
By giving healthcare providers confidence that your sport and physical activity professionals are qualified and competent, you can increase collaboration on exercise referral schemes and better support your local community.
Is this different to CIMSPA membership?
Student and graduate members continue to be valued members of the CIMSPA community and benefit from all that we currently offer but will not be eligible for a professional status until they gain a role relevant to their qualification.
For individuals working in the sport and physical activity sector, professional status will form the core of their CIMSPA membership. They’ll still be part of our community of qualified, experienced professionals, but professional status will further support them in progressing their career and gaining recognition of their impact and commitment.
With clear, defined titles, postnominals and digital assets to display, they will be able to easily assure anyone that they are equipped with relevant, up-to-date knowledge and can be relied on.
What professional statuses will there be?
There will be a professional status career development pathway available to many occupations defined by professional standards.
Practitioner
This is probably the most common professional status, designed for those working directly with participants to deliver sport and physical activity services.
It shows that an individual has a high-quality and up-to-date qualification in their chosen occupation and are dedicated to their professional development and providing the best possible experience to participants.
Advanced Practitioner
An Advanced Practitioner will likely be an experienced professional. To offer a more bespoke service, they also have a qualification that aligns with a population, environment or technical specialism professional standard.
This allows them to go the extra mile and they will know the ins and outs of working with women and girls or in a school environment, for example.
Senior Practitioner
Senior Practitioner is a mark of true dedication. As well as being a well-qualified and committed professional, they will have committed themselves to offering services in one or more specialist areas: either inclusive practice, physical activity and health or children and young people.
This status shows that an individual has extensive expertise and is able to support participants with complex needs.
Chartered Practitioner
Chartered Practitioner status recognises sport and physical activity professionals who are delivering excellent outcomes for participants while also creating a significantly positive impact on the sector.
By gaining this professional status, an individual has demonstrated that they are an expert in their field.
Chartered Senior Practitioner
Chartered Senior Practitioner is the highest level of professional status available in the sport and physical activity sector.
It shows that a professional is delivering an outstanding service to participants and is leading the way in influencing positive change in the sector.
Entry Manager
Entry Managers work in first-line management positions, using their relevant qualifications and/or experience to deliver high-quality sport and physical activity services for participants.
This professional status demonstrates their commitment to professional development as a manager while also achieving excellence and creating impact in their current role.
General Manager
General Manager professional status acknowledges an experienced manager with proven ability to manage the processes for planning and organising quality sport and physical activity services.
Advanced General Manager
Advanced General Manager is a mark of distinguished service – it shows that an individual has reached a position of significant responsibility and demonstrated great professional achievement in a management role.
Achieving this status highlights their commitment to progressing their career and delivering excellence in sport and physical activity services.
Chartered General Manager
Showing that they have undergone our chartered assessment process, Chartered General Manager professional status recognises that an individual is established and excellent in their career.
They move organisations forwards with success and stand out as a shining example in their role.
Senior Manager
Senior Manager professional status highlights that an individual takes substantial responsibility for people, a portfolio of programmes, projects, operations and/or services to deliver long term organisational success.
It demonstrates commitment to continual learning and development and delivering impact while leading, planning and implementing initiatives to achieve strategic priorities.
Advanced Senior Manager
As an Advanced Senior Manager, professional status demonstrates that an individual is are settled and successful in their role, making a clear positive impact on organisations, the people they are responsible for and the sport and physical activity sector as a whole.
Chartered Senior Manager
Chartered Senior Manager professional status is the pinnacle of achievement as a sport and physical activity manager.
It demonstrates that an individual has contributed to moving the sport and physical activity sector forwards with success as an established and excellent professional.
Note: Not all professional statuses will be available to all occupations.
As a CIMSPA Employer Partner, what will change?
There will be no administrational or financial impact on our employer partners when professional status is launched.
To take advantage of this new benefit to your business, you will be able to:
- incorporate professional status requirements into your job advertisements
- let your customers know that they can verify the expertise of your staff through their accreditation credentials
- upgrade your workforce planning by using professional status development pathways to fill skills gaps
- explore exercise referral collaboration opportunities with the proof of competency that healthcare providers are looking for.
What next?
We are looking forward to offering you professional status from September onwards and can’t wait to tell you more about how it will help your sport and physical activity business to thrive. We will be sharing more information over the coming weeks, so keep checking our website and social media channels for updates!
In the meantime, if you are not already a CIMSPA Employer Partner, why not find out more about our partnership opportunities so that you can benefit from professional status.