Premium fitness studios are in the high-price segment and therefore offer their customers very good support. In EMS studios, too, great importance is attached to a personal bond between trainer and trainee. But for this, the studios need qualified and first-class trained personnel. Where do you as a studio operator get such employees? Why not train your junior staff yourself! The majority of EMS studios on the market already rely on dual students and are among the more than 3,800 training companies of the German University for Prevention and Health Management (DHfPG). Because studios benefit enormously from students!
Dual study
With dual studies, students receive in-company training in a company where they are permanently employed and from which they receive remuneration based on a trainee's salary. At the same time, they complete a distance learning program including compact attendance phases at study centers throughout Germany.
The following dual degree programs can be studied at the DHfPG, for example:
- Bachelor of Arts Fitness Economics
- Bachelor of Arts Sports Economics
- Bachelor of Arts Health Management
- Bachelor of Arts Fitness Training
- Bachelor of Arts Nutritional Counseling
- Master of Arts Sports Economics
- Master of Arts Prevention and Health Management
- Master of Business Administration Sport/Health Management
In the company, students can gain valuable practical experience in professional and competent customer care as well as in handling the (EMS) equipment. At the same time, the study content with an economic focus enables them to work in a business management manner.
How (EMS) studios benefit from dual students
For you as a studio operator, there are profitable advantages to employing a dual student. On the one hand, a student is a valuable employee and support for you, because he or she is with you in the studio for most of the year and is only absent for a few days due to the attendance phases (at DHfPG approx. 20 days per year, 2-5 days every 4-6 weeks). These dates are also already fixed for the entire study program, so you can plan very well and, above all, in the long term. This allows students to take on responsibility at an early stage, to be involved in long-term projects right from the start and thus to be directly tied to your company. In addition, you benefit from the theoretical content that students learn during their studies: scientific findings and specialist knowledge can thus be profitably implemented in operational practice.
What requirements does my studio have to meet?
It is not possible to make a general statement as to whether you can train students in your studio, your company or your institution who are studying at the DHfPG. However, if you belong to the field of fitness, sports, prevention and health in the broadest sense, it is very likely that you will be eligible. EMS studios of all sizes are particularly well suited as trainers of a dual student.
Your company can also act as a partner to the university if you do not offer all areas of study from the program in your company. In this case, for example, it is also possible to cover these through cooperation partners.
Companies that can train students come from the following areas:
- Sports clubs, associations
- Fitness studios/EMS studios
- Health centers
- Medical practices, pharmacies
- Commercial enterprises offering health services (e.g. company health management)
- Consulting companies in the sports/fitness industry (sports, event, marketing agencies)
- Market research institutes
- Health service providers (health insurance companies, municipalities)
- Sports/wellness tourism (e.g. hotels, club facilities, providers of sports/health trips)
- Sporting goods manufacturers
- Educational institutions with a focus on sports/health
- Media specializing in sports/health
- Sports administration, infrastructure, policy
How to find students
The best way to find people interested in dual studies in your studio is via job portals such as aufstiegsjobs.de, an e online job exchange operated by the DHfPG and the BSA Academy. You are also welcome to post an advertisement in the job market on fitnessmarkt.de. Also communicate within your company and in the regional press that you are looking for dual students!
Become a training partner of a university and train the next generation of specialists and managers yourself! Your fitness or EMS studio can only benefit from this!
Image sources: ©Kzenon - Fotolia.com and ©Fotowerk Fotolia
Published on: 16 November 2016