Now you can trust your fitness coach to get the fitness results you expect and be ready to perform CPR on you if you ever need it in an emergency. That’s thanks to a new registry for exercise professionals introduced this month.
It’s called the National Register of Exercise Professionals, or NREP, and was introduced by the Department for Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) during the 2023 Procurement Committee discussions in March 2023.
Why is it necessary to create this registry?
The registry is part of a long-term strategy to professionalize and build capacity in the fitness industry. With the NREP, there will be clear safety standards and capacity requirements which in turn will raise fitness industry standards.
All exercise professionals are “strongly encouraged” to register with NREP.
Exercise professionals include personal trainers, fitness trainers, spin instructors, yoga and pilates instructors, aerobics instructors, sports performance coaches, as well as fitness and wellness specialists. -be.
What can fitness professionals get by signing up?
Individuals will be certified as fitness professionals and will receive free membership in the National Instructors and Coaches Association (NICA) during their first year.
NICA members receive benefits such as mediation support for workplace disputes, grants to cover essential course fees, and training support. There are also networking opportunities and resources.
Through NREP, fitness professionals can also get jobs with government agencies that hire a significant number of these people (SportSg, People’s Association, Health Promotion Board, Ministry of Home Affairs). As of April 2024, government agencies can only hire exercise professionals registered under the NREP.
For the public, they can access the NREP when planning to hire exercise professionals and make informed decisions about their trainers.
How to achieve NREP?
Fitness professionals will first need to have standard first aid certifications with AED and CPR, a code of ethics, and one in the relevant fitness or exercise in which they are the expert before they can become a separate member entire NREP.
You will receive provisional NREP membership if you do not have standard first aid certification with AED and CPR. But you will need to enroll in the standard first aid course (subsidized rates through NICA membership) before you can get full NREP membership.
For those planning to work for government agencies, a Safe Sport certification is also required.
In later stages of NREP development, it is planned to develop an accreditation framework.
How to register for NREP
The NREP is hosted in Sport Singapore’s SportSync system. Here are the steps needed to register:
- ActiveSG account creation
- SportSync Account Access and Profile Updates
- NREP Registration and Application Confirmation
- Upgrade from Provisional Membership to Full NREP Membership
The mandatory documents you must have before registering are:
Fitness/exercise certificate(s)
• Authorized file types: JPG, JPEG, PNG, DOC, DOCX and GIF
• Authorized file size: between 10 KB and 10,000 KB
Photo upload
- Crisp and clear, taken within the last three months
- Taken from the front with you looking directly at the camera and against a white background
- Full color 512 x 400 pixels or passport size
- Authorized file types: JPG, JPEG and PNG with a resolution of at least 300 dpi
- File size allowed: between 10 KB and 10,000 KB
The registration process will take approximately 15 minutes. Note that the system has a 20 minute timeout duration if left idle and you will lose partially submitted data if you leave the system idle.
How do I know if I am considered a fitness professional?
There are seven categories in which an exercise professional can register for the NREP. An exercise professional with relevant certifications in the different categories may register for more than one category.
The seven categories are:
- Aqua fitness
- Dance
- HIIT, Bootcamp, Circuit
- Martial arts and fighting
- Mind & Body
- Personal trainer (strength and conditioning)
- Static Cycling
If you click here to view the full list of enrollment categories, you can find dedicated exercise class types and which category they belong to.
Here is a short list of class types and category:
| Class name/type | NREP Categories |
| Examples of various names/types of classes/activities that make up NREP categories. | These are the categories that exercise professionals can choose from in SportSync when registering for NREP. |
| Water aerobics | Aqua fitness |
| Ballet | Dance |
| BollywoodFitness | Dance |
| k-pop | Dance |
| Zumba | Dance |
| cardio | HIIT, Bootcamp, Circuit |
| CrossFit | HIIT, Bootcamp, Circuit |
| cardio kickboxing | Martial arts and fighting |
| All martial arts inspired fitness and exercise workout | Martial arts and fighting |
| Basic Hatha | Mind & Body |
| Pilates | Mind & Body |
| Personal training | Personal trainer (strength and conditioning) |
| indoor cycling | Static cycling |
Are you ready to take the next step in your professional fitness career?
Applicants will be notified of the results of the application by email. Note that due to a high volume of applications as the program has just launched, it may take up to three to four weeks to process your application.
Click on here to apply for NREP membership online through Sport Singapore’s SportSync system.
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