Nottingham Swim School, which is part of Nottingham City Council, launched the first Recruitment Academy in September 2021 to help boost its aquatic workforce and reduce swimming lesson waiting times across the region.

Now, under an official partnership, Nottingham Swim School is starting a third Swimming Teacher Recruitment Academy with Swim England and the Institute of Swimming, hoping to recruit and train a further 20 teachers ahead of a January 2023 start, with a vision to create a more diverse workforce.

The new, two-year partnership is about both the recruitment and the retention and up-skilling of existing staff, and so will also see Nottingham Swim School’s swimming teachers given access to the Institute of Swimming’s Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and bespoke teacher up-skilling, following tutor-led swimming teacher observations.

The Institute of Swimming has already run teacher observation days, where its team watched and reviewed Nottingham Swim School’s existing lessons, before creating a bespoke training day to reinforce key swimming teaching methods and improve any areas of concern. The Institute of Swimming will provide this training for all Nottingham Swim School's swimming teachers, with quarterly observations.

“We currently deliver swimming lessons to approximately 4,800 children and 200 adults per week, and also have a waiting list. This partnership will allow us to build and grow our current workforce of 65 swimming teachers, and grow our established relationship with Swim England,” said Claire Sullivan, swim school officer for Nottingham Swim School.