Benefits for Instructors
1.3 Instructor Benefits
Why become or engage an IPDFA Instructor?
Why become or engage an IPDFA Instructor?
The International Pole Dance Fitness Association (IPDFA) is an independent organisation, with support from the Asian Academy for Sport & Fitness Professionals, that recognises the qualifications and expertise of Pole Dance Fitness instructors, providing a system of regulation to ensure that instructors are safe and effective.
There is no legal requirement for Pole Dance Fitness instructors to be individually registered or enrol in courses with IPDFA, although it is very much in their interests to do so. It isn’t like the Law profession where there is a statutory requirement for practising lawyers to be registered with the Bar Associations. The registration of Pole Dance Fitness instructors is entirely voluntary.
IPDFA provides membership to instructors, giving them opportunities for training courses with a number of approved academic and commercial organisations, and when they have qualified they can send their certificates to be included in the IPDFA Register, or to have their membership upgraded with continuing education courses.
Despite the obvious advantages of being an IPDFA instructor and member, there are some non-IPDFA instructors who say they don’t need it, and they continue to work on a freelance basis, or work in some of the smaller, private or unrecognised centers. Some of these instructors might be quite good, but how can you be sure of the quality of service from someone who won’t register their qualifications? In the absence of a statutory requirement, it’s impossible to drag people into membership if they don’t want to join, and in the end the decision to work with someone is down to the customer.
The benefits of being an IPDFA Instructor are as follows:
- Get IPDFA membership and save on the fee!
- Get listed on the Registered Instructor Page. This is the cheapest form of advertising that instructors are ever likely to get!
- Get access to Continuing Education Courses for professional development.
Why choose an IPDFA Instructor?
The advantages of choosing an IPDFA instructor are as follows:
- Pole Dance Fitness instruction involves a balance of benefit and risk, and people engage in Pole Dance Fitness on the basis that the benefits greatly outweigh the risks. However, the risks are real, especially for those with some of the health problems described already. You should expect a Pole Dance Fitness instructor to be registered with IPDFA, even though it’s not a legal requirement, just as you would expect a lawyer to be registered with the Bar Association.
- It’s easy to identify the qualifications of an IPDFA instructor and member. All you have to do is ask for their IPDFA membership number – and it will show their level of membership on the front, and their main qualifications on the back. You can also identify them from the Registered Instructor Page. To get the same level of assurance from non-IDPFA instructors, you would have to ask for their qualifications and certificates, then you would have to find out about the organisations that gave them their training and see what standards they observe – and it all becomes very tedious.
- You can easily get a list of registered instructors in your local area. Just go to the Registered Instructor Page
- How would you feel if you engaged the services of an instructor and subsequently discovered that the person would be unable to get a job at a registered center? Would it make you feel demotivated, and possibly even cheated?
Clearly there is a difference between people who engage in exercise activities and give advice to their colleagues on a casual basis (showing them how to do their stretches, etc.), and those who market themselves as professionals. If someone claims to have knowledge and expertise beyond that of the general public, and charges fees for their services, then they should join IPDFA.