The countdown is on to the launch of professional status for the sport and physical activity profession. From September, eligible practitioners, managers and leaders will be issued with a professional status which recognises their skills and competencies. Here Clare Dunn, Associate Director for Business Engagement at CIMSPA, explores the role of digital credentials in enabling professional status to be showcased and verified.
If we want the world to see the sport and physical activity workforce as professional, skilled and trusted, we need the tools to prove it. Gone are the days when paper certificates sat in a folder, only ever seeing the light of day at job interviews.
Now, we want and need to showcase our achievements and have them instantly recognised and trusted.
That’s why accreditation credentials, also known as digital badges, are such a big step forward for the sport and physical activity workforce. With the forthcoming launch of professional status and accreditation credentials, we finally have a way to visibly and credibly recognise the expertise, standards and commitment that professionals in our sector bring every day.
The asks on our sector and our workforce have always been huge, but as we continue to step up and make a growing impact on tackling some of the nation’s most pressing challenges, ranging from physical and economic inactivity and mental health to long-term conditions and social isolation, the ability for us as a workforce to demonstrate professionalism and accountability has never been more vital.
What are accreditation credentials?
Accreditation credentials are secure, visual, digital representations of an individual’s verified status, qualifications or achievements. Some might describe them as akin to a digital version of a certificate, but they are much more sophisticated than that.
Each badge is directly linked to the issuing body and details the standards met, the date of issue and whether that credential needs to be renewed.
Basically, they provide real-time, tamper-proof evidence of competence and professionalism. They are completely portable and can easily be added to LinkedIn profiles, email signatures, CVs, digital portfolios or booking platforms, ensuring the recognition of skills and professional standing is transparent, shareable and verifiable.
Raising the bar with professional status for our workforce
With the approaching introduction of professional status for the sport and physical activity workforce, CIMSPA is recognising individuals who meet sector-defined, employer-led standards. These standards reflect the knowledge and skills required to practise effectively in a wide range of roles across physical activity, sport, fitness and community wellbeing.
Professionals who meet these standards and have been issued with a professional status will receive an accreditation credential that verifies their status, offering a clear, trusted mark of professional quality, skills and specialisms.
This development is a significant step in establishing parity with more regulated professions. It sends a clear message to employers, partners, and the public that our sector is not just passionate; it’s professional, too.
What other sectors are already doing and what we can learn
Digital credentials are already widely used across a range of professions:
Healthcare and nursing
Many NHS-affiliated training programmes and professional statuses now issue digital credentials for revalidation and continuing professional development (CPD).
Education
Teaching professionals and education leaders use badges to evidence QTS, leadership development and safeguarding credentials.
Technology
Platforms like Microsoft, AWS and Google Cloud have long used digital credentials to validate expertise and drive global skills recognition.
Construction and engineering
Trade professionals increasingly use digital cards and credentials to prove compliance with site safety standards and role-specific qualifications.
In all of these sectors, and many others, digital credentials serve a dual purpose. They enable and empower individuals to own and promote their professional identity, and they give customers and employers confidence in the services being provided by that individual.
In all of these sectors, and many others, digital credentials serve a dual purpose. They enable and empower individuals to own and promote their professional identity, and they give customers and employers confidence in the services being provided by that individual.
Verified. Trusted. Transparent.
Probably one of the biggest benefits of digital credentials is verification. Unlike paper certificates, which can be lost, copied or even falsified and used fraudulently, digital badges can be independently verified easily and at the click of a button.
Credentials issued by CIMSPA as part of the introduction of professional status will be completely verifiable. Each CIMSPA-issued badge will be individual and, when clicked, will link back to a secure, real-time record that confirms:
- the individual’s name
- the professional status and professional standards they meet in terms of role and specialisms
- the date the status was awarded
- the issuing body (CIMSPA)
- whether their status is active, lapsed or due for renewal.
This really matters in a sector where job titles aren’t regulated. It gives commissioners, employers and customers a simple way to tell who’s genuinely qualified, skilled and recognised, and who’s just claiming to be.
CIMSPA has already piloted digital credentials through its Chartered Member category, providing a strong foundation for this wider rollout. Chartered Members received personalised, verifiable digital badges that could be easily shared across platforms and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Members valued the ability to clearly demonstrate their chartered status and expertise, while employers, deployers and clients fed back that the credentials made it easier to verify competencies, understand an individual’s level of professionalism and build trust. This early success confirmed what we had anticipated: that digital badges offer a clear, credible and modern way to recognise professional status, and that they’re something the workforce and the wider system are ready to embrace.
At the end of the day, digital credentials show people they can trust you. That kind of trust is what makes a profession feel real, respected and recognised. They’re a simple way to say, “you can rely on me”, and that’s what being a professional is all about.
The benefits for professionals
Digital badges give professionals, whether as a practitioner, manager or leader, a dynamic way to showcase their status, career progress and commitment to excellence as a sector professional. They offer:
- verifiable proof of professionalism by being clearly aligned to national standards
- greater visibility with employers and clients as a way to stand out in a competitive market
- career development with a digital record of growth and continuous improvement
- professional pride through recognition of expertise and contribution to public health and wellbeing.
Digital badges also help the workforce shift perceptions of the sector because they demonstrate that being part of the sport and physical activity sector isn’t a short-term job and that instead it’s a legitimate, impactful and recognised profession.
A clear win for employers and commissioners
For employers, digital credentials have the ability to streamline recruitment, training and workforce development. They provide:
- clarity when shortlisting candidates, removing the confusion of assessing the currency of a plethora of qualifications
- confidence that skills, competencies, qualifications and experiences can be validated for each role
- assurance that staff meet minimum standards set out by the sector and that they are maintaining their skills
- a clear, nationally recognised framework for professional development and career progression which supports staff retention
- a way to demonstrate workforce quality to external stakeholders.
For partners outside of the sector and allied professions, including the NHS, social prescribers and local authorities, professional status and accreditation credentials will give them confidence to commission services from professionals who they can verify as competent, trusted and have been issued with professional status by a government-recognised regulatory body.
What’s in it for customers and clients?
The benefits of digital credentials aren’t just internal to the workforce, because they are felt most keenly by the people we serve.
Whether a parent booking a coach, a patient receiving a specialist exercise referral or a community member joining a fitness class, customers deserve to know they are in competent, qualified hands, so digital credentials have huge benefit for customers. They:
- provide reassurance that professionals are competent, verified and up to date
- help customers make informed decisions about who they trust with their health and wellbeing
- enable organisations to market their workforce as trusted professionals with integrity and credibility.
Driving culture change across the sector
It’s important to remember that this isn’t just about badges – they’re the visual asset – it’s about what they represent.
Professional status, underpinned by accreditation credentials, is the foundation of holding and developing a professional identity. It supports fair pay, recognition, career development and sector reputation as well as encouraging continuous improvement, ethical practice and accountability.
Just as importantly, it begins to change the way society sees physical activity professionals. It moves us to a place where we’re no longer seen as ‘just’ fitness instructors or community coaches in the informal sense, but as vital contributors to national wellbeing, equipped with the same expectations and recognition as other public-facing professions.
A call to our workforce
The launch of professional status and the issuing of accreditation credentials undoubtedly marks the start of the next chapter for the sector. However, its success depends on you.
If you’re a professional working in sport and physical activity, whether in gyms, schools, communities, clinical settings or anywhere in between, this is your moment to step up, stand out, and claim and use your professional identity. When it’s issued, add your digital badge to your social profiles, your emails, your website, and encourage customers and potential customers to verify your status.
If you’re an employer, encourage your existing team to display their digital badge on their profiles and add them to your website and/or digital collateral to show customers the credentials of your team. When you’re recruiting, instead of asking for X qualification or Y certification, put the professional status that you require at the top of your advert and person spec and ask to see applicant’s accreditation credential as part of the application process.
If you’re a professional in another sector, whether it be healthcare, education or elsewhere, and you’re looking to work with or refer to a physical activity professional, ask to see their credential. It will tell you what role they have a professional status in, along with the skills that they have and the populations and environments that they are competent to work with/in. This will give you the confidence to refer to professionals that meet your patient, learner or client needs.
And when it comes to being a customer yourself, if you’re choosing an instructor, class or coach, whether it’s for yourself or a family member, ask them to send you their digital badge and you can verify their professional status, skills, what roles they are competent in and who they have the specialist knowledge to work with.
In launching professional status and accreditation credentials for the sport and physical activity workforce, CIMSPA is doing more than modernising recognition. We are raising the bar, aligning with other recognised professions and helping individuals, employers and communities see the sector for what it truly is: a powerful force for good, delivered by qualified, accountable professionals.
This is more than a badge.
It’s the future of professional recognition. And we’re just getting started.