Personal Trainer Re-Certification
Re-certification is an integral part of a Board Certification Program. The decision to maintain a credential is equally as important as the decision to become certified in the first place. The field of Personal Training is in a state of perpetual change with new research and findings continuously being discovered and updated. To uphold the high standard of your achievement, and to ensure that all NCSF certified professionals stay abreast of the latest information, the NCSF requires that all certified professionals participate in the continuing education program to maintain certified status. Professionals who continue to expand their repertoire of skills and knowledge are best able to serve their clients’ needs as well as the needs of the general public.
Re-certification can be accomplished two ways through the NCSF Board for Certification, 1) participating in continued education course work and qualifying activities to earn the required continued education units or 2) re-taking the certification exam. To re-take the exam a candidate simply submits an application for eligibility; pays the registration fee; and retests in accordance with the exam administration policies. To re-certify using continued education, a certified professional needs to accumulate 10 continued education units/credits over the certification term. This can be accomplished through any of the qualifying criteria listed below. The CEU’s must be completed prior to the expiration date of the certification.
The NCSF Board for Certification's Recertification Standards for Practice Committee determined the term for certification to be two-years. The rationale for the recertification interval is four fold:
Due to the relative infancy of the profession and rate at which new practices and theories are identified and implemented within the profession, the period of time for re-certification must reflect a duration that will provide for adequate updates in knowledge.
The contact hours required for a four year term is set at forty-hours. This number was determined by a survey of other board re-certification requirements for similar professions and based on committee findings and determinations. To comply with rationale 1. the contact hours had to be split in half to produce a fair representation of the term to contact hour ratio – essentially a ten (10) contact hour per year requirement.
The term had to be long enough to allow the certified professionals to earn the appropriate credits but short enough to keep the certified professionals motivated to engage in education and training.
The determination was also based on recommendations to initiate a step toward best practice which would require routine annual continued education participation in attempts to help certified professionals avoid long periods of education inactivity and reduce certification attrition rates.
For a complete explanation of the specific requirements of each category or to review the qualifying criteria set by the NCSFBC please review the Continued Education Handbook. Report of continued education must comply with the policies for submission found on page 8 of the Continued Education Handbook. Each submission for re-certification must have a re-certification application and applicable re-certification fees ($35). In the case a certified professional does not submit the appropriate documentation or fails to comply with the re-certification policy they will be assigned to a non-certified status. Appeals to certification revocation may be made to the NCSFBC. Appeals must comply with the appeals policy found on page 10. of the Continuing Education Handbook. For all questions concerning continued education or the re-certification process please contact the NCSFBC at 800-772-6273 or by email at info@ncsf.org.
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