Loudoun Offers Free Lifeguard Training to Fill Shortage
By Alexis Gustin, Loudoun Now
For anyone who has ever wanted to sit in the big chair at the local pool, tell kids to “stop running” and save lives, now is your chance to get certified to be a lifeguard at no cost.
Loudoun County is offering free lifeguard training for anyone who is 15 years and six months and older as it works to build its staffing back up across the county after COVID-19 prevented many lifeguards from recertifying and new ones from getting certified.
American Lifeguard Association Director of Health and Safety Bernard Fisher said the COVID-19 pandemic wiped the slate clean of available lifeguards across the country.
Once a person is certified as a lifeguard, that certification lasts two years. Then, usually a pool or municipality will pay to recertify lifeguards when their certification runs out.
Fisher said when COVID hit, lifeguards who needed to recertify couldn’t. On top of that, he said historically about 300,000 new lifeguards are certified each year. That meant 300,000 new guards couldn’t get certified during the pandemic. He said in order to get out of that deficit, 600,000 lifeguards will need to be trained every year over the next two years.
Loudoun County Division Manager for Recreation Centers Jay Allred has spent 30 years in the aquatic industry, beginning as a lifeguard in 1986 and said lifeguard shortages have been around in the industry for years, but the recent shortage as a result of COVID might be the worst.
He said basically an entire generation of lifeguards are missing as a result of the pandemic.
Loudoun County Aquatics Manager Michael Skarke said it wasn’t that people weren’t interested in lifeguarding, but that it took a long time to develop training that took into consideration COVID safety protocols.
Skarke said they will even train someone so they can pass the pre-test. He spoke of one girl who took three hours to pass the pre-test. “She just wouldn’t stop; she was tenacious. She still guards for us and she’s amazing,” he said.
In addition to offering free training, PRCS streamlined the hiring process, allowing applicants to be hired before they certify, according to Communications Manager Kraig Troxell.
“We developed a lifeguard pathway program where we will hire a non-certified person to go through the training process, but they are hired as a Loudoun County employee. They can’t be in the stand to lifeguard, but we set them up with training to get them going,” Skarke said.
Skarke said the program has been an immediate success, saying that since they started offering free training in late November the classes have been full.
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