ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN APPLIED MANAGEMENT (HEALTH AND FITNESS) VBS001

Build Your Career or Business Prospects in the Health and Fitness Industries


INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED BY IARC

This course can provide a foundation and significant step toward careers such as:

  • Centre manager or assistant manager (leisure centre, medical centre, wellness centre, health centre, fitness centre, sports centre etc)
  • Small business owner / operator
  • Receptionist, personal assistant, supervisor, trainer, etc

This course creates skills needed to work in or manage facilities and services concerned with health or fitness (eg. exercise programs, fitness centres, clubs, gymnasiums, sports complexes, sports administration, swimming pools, etc). It is suited to school leavers (with year 11) or mature age students with some work experience (not necessarily in the field of health and fitness).

 

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS

There are 4 core units common to all streams of this Advanced Certificate, VBS001. These involve 400 hours of study in total.  Three health and fitness units involve another 300 hours of study. A workplace project on the health and fitness industry involves the final 200 hrs of study.

 

CORE UNITS

All four of these modules must be studied and passed:

 

1. Office practices

Develops basic office skills covering use of equipment, communication systems (telephone, fax, etc) and office procedures such as filing, security, workplace organisations, etc.

 

2. Business operations

Develops knowledge of basic business operations and procedures (eg. types of businesses, financial management, business analysis, staffing, productivity, etc) and the skills to develop a 12 month business plan.

 

3.  Management

Develops knowledge of management structures, terminology, supervision, recruitment and workplace health and safety.

 

4. Marketing

Develops a broad understanding of marketing and specific skills in writing advertisements, undertaking market research, developing an appropriate marketing plan and selling.

 

Total: 400 hours

 

STREAM UNITS

Stage 1: HEALTH & WELLBEING
There are eight lessons as follows:

  1. Industry Overview
  2. Modern Lifestyle Programming
  3. Human Nutrition
  4. Healthy Eating
  5. Stress Management
  6. Preventative Health
  7. Alternative Medicine
  8. Basic First Aid

Stage 2: FITNESS

There are eight lessons as follows:

  1. The Human Body
  2. Fitness Testing
  3. Principles of Exercise Programming
  4. Fitness Testing -Age/Sex Differences, Simple tests
  5. Exercise for Aerobic Fitness
  6. Exercise for Suppleness
  7. Exercise for Strength
  8. Weight Control and other Special Situations

Stage 3: FACILITY MANAGEMENT
There are eight lessons as follows:

  1. Introduction: Facilities
  2. Exercise Facilities
  3. Parks, Playing Fields and Athletics Tracks
  4. Indoor Facilities: Community Centres, Recreation Centres etc.
  5. Organising an Event
  6. Marketing Programs & Facilities
  7. Maximising Resources: Managing/Programming/Planning
  8. Other Considerations: Town Planning, Insurance/liability etc.

 

INDUSTRY PROJECT OR WORK EXPERIENCE

This is the final requirement that you must satisfy before receiving your award.

There are two options available to you to satisfy this requirement:

Alternative 1.

If you work in the industry that you have been studying; you may submit a reference from your employer, in an effort to satisfy this industry (ie. workplace project) requirement; on the basis of RPL (ie. recognition for prior learning), achieved through your current and past work experience.

The reference must indicate that you have skills and an awareness of your industry, which is sufficient for you to work in a position of responsibility.

Alternative 2.

If you do not work in the relevant industry, you need to undertake a project as follows.

 

Procedure for a Workplace Project

This project is a major part of the course involving the number of hours relevant to the course (see above). Although the course does not contain mandatory work requirements, work experience is seen as highly desirable.

This project is based on applications in the work place and specifically aims to provide the student with the opportunity to apply and integrate skills and knowledge developed through various areas of formal study.

Students will design this project in consultation with a tutor to involve industry based activities in the area of specialized study which they select to follow in the course. The project outcomes may take the form of a written report, folio, visuals or a mixture of forms. Participants with relevant, current or past work experience will be given exemption from this project if they can provide suitable references from employers that show they have already fulfilled the requirements of this project.

For courses that involve more than 100 hours, more than one workplace project topic may be selected. For example, 200 hours may be split into two projects each of 100 hours. This will offer the student better scope to fulfill the needs of their course and to meet the number of hours required. Alternatively, the student may wish to do one large project with a duration of 200 hours.

Students will be assessed on how well they achieve the goals and outcomes they originally set as part of their negotiations with their tutor. During each 100 hours of the project, the students will present three short progress reports. These progress reports will be taken into account when evaluating the final submission. The tutor must be satisfied that the work submitted is original.

If the student wishes to do one large 200 hour report, then only three progressive reports will be needed (however the length of each report will be longer).


Good Health and Fitness Reduces Health Risks

Understanding Health Risks is the First Step Toward Better Health Management

A health risk factor is anything which increases the likelihood of disease, injury or other health problems. What comes to mind when you think of taking risks with your health - driving recklessly, or maybe abusing alcohol or illegal drugs? Those behaviours are certainly risky; however, many people have less dramatic behaviours that are just as dangerous in the long run. Tobacco use, unbalanced nutrition (too many calories and/or too much of one food group and not enough of the others) and a lack of physical activity are some of the key risk factors for the most common causes of death.

In general we can view risk factors as being controllable (modifiable) or uncontrollable (unmodiafable).
Controllable risk factors are those which can be controlled by making choices about your behaviour and uncontrollable risk factors are those we cannot control such as our age, gender, race and genetics.

Controllable risk factors known to be associated with increased mortality and morbidity include smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, and exposure to UV radiation. Improvements in health status can result from behaviour changes in relation to these risk factors.

Obesity is an example of a controllable risk factor that is becoming increasingly linked ill health. Obesity is not yet a global problem, but it is certainly a crisis for countries such as the Americas, Australia and a number of other developed countries in Europe and the Middle East. Figures from the World Health Authority from 2008 showed that in 2008 more than 1.4 billion adults worldwide were overweight and of these 200 million men and 300 million women were classified as obese. A recent update from the WHO (march 2013) also highlights that 65% of the world’s population now lives in countries where being overweight or obese kills more people than being underweight.

 Being overweight or obese is associated with increased mortality and morbidity from the burden of disease. A number of conditions including coronary heart disease, hypertension, non-insulin-dependant Diabetes type II (diabetes mellitus) ,degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis), cancer of the breast, colon and kidney are often attributed to excessive weight gain over long periods of time. Body-mass index (BMI), is a statistical measurement calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared (kg/m2).  A healthy BMI is one which lies between 18.5 and 25 whereas people are classified as overweight with a BMI between 25 and 30 and obese with a BMI greater than 30.  

The core reason behind the global increase in the rates of overweight and obesity is an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure which in itself has been attributed to an increased availability of high fat energy dense foods and reduced energy expenditure caused by factors such as jobs becoming increasingly sedentary and an increased reliance on cars/ other modes of transportation.

By reducing body mass index (BMI) a person can decrease their health and reduce the risk of developing diseases associated with obesity and being overweight. Just to note though that although BMI provides a good indication of fatness it does not itself, account for the relative proportion of fat and muscle in the body. In particular people with an athletic build with a high muscle density could have a raised BMI due to the fact that muscle weighs more than fat i.e. they may be classified as overweight even though their fat composition may lie within the ideal range. 

Regular exercise is important but the benefits of exercise go beyond the initial thought of weight loss. Participating in regular exercise reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease by strengthening the heart muscle and decreasing resting blood pressure rate. In addition to cardiovascular benefits, regular exercise strengthens bone tissue and so can also reduce the risk of injury from falls and conditions such as osteoporosis later in life.         

Get started today and make a difference!


Simply click on the ENROL NOW icon at the top of this page

 

More from ACS

Animal Anatomy and Physiology

Animal Husbandry I -Ynderstand the physical structure and internal biology of animals. A foundation for everything in animal husbandry.

Coping better with Negative Emotions

Learn effective ways to manage stress.

The Brain and Behaviour

Aerobic Fitness

Aquafitness

Leadership

Working with People

Sports Psychology