You are here: Pages > About the STA

Information about STA

STA is a solutions driven organisation, dedicated to working with its customers and partners here in the UK and internationally, to build Safer, Healthier & Better Skilled Communities.

We achieve this vision by:-

• Building sustainable partnership
• Raising the bar of vocational and professional standards and learning within the sport and leisure industry
• Developing fit for purpose vocational qualifications and awards
• Delivering excellence to our customers through continuous improvement

As a major organisation concerned with swimming and water safety, STA is also at the cutting edge of raising standards. Not only is STA, the ONLY organisation that includes water safety in every element of its swimming teaching, STA is also the ONLY organisation that insists its swimming teachers can perform a rescue.

Furthermore the STA has:

• Invested substantial funds to engage the British Standards Institution (BSi) to create a Publicly Available Specification – PAS 81:2005 & 2008 'Specification for the management and operation of swimming schools'.
• Created the STAmark accreditation standard, which assists Swimming School businesses wanting to improve their management and standards of service delivery. STAmark is currently the only accreditation that can externally validate a Swim School on best practices and quality standards, which is fully aligned with the BSi PAS 81 specification.

STA is also experiencing unprecedented success overseas, and partners organisations in China, Singapore, Middle East, Caribbean, Netherlands, Ireland, USA, Australia, Germany, New Zealand plus many more, as part of its long-term commitment to reduce deaths by drowning, by improving standards in teaching swimming, life saving and other survival techniques.

With a heritage spanning over 76 years, STA has firmly positioned itself as a leading, UK industry-respected provider of specialist ‘fit for purpose’ qualifications to the sports and leisure industry.

Key facts about the STA

• We trained over 30,000 Swimming Teachers, Lifeguards/Lifesavers, First Aiders and Pool Plant Operatives in 2009.
• The STA professional training programmes also provides the underpinning knowledge for NVQ Level 2 qualifications.
• Offer a range of specialist training programmes, that meet National Curriculum standards, for schoolteachers and helpers, and special training programmes covering those with special needs, adult and child and water-exercise classes (Aquacise).
• Developed a professional lifeguarding qualification - National Rescue Standard (NaRS) - that meets HSE guidelines, and is widely acknowledged as one of the best in the industry.
• Provide a range of lifesaving awards including First Aid at Work and defibrillation - a generic First Aid at Work qualification for any environment, and a sports specific first aid programme, which has been adopted by many UK sports governing bodies including RFU, PGA, NISA, English, Scottish and Welsh Netball, ECB and many national martial arts associations.
• In conjunction with Institute of Sport Parks and Leisure (ISPAL), developed a range of Swimming Pool and Spa Plant qualifications which were the first qualifications of their type on the National Qualification Framework (NQF) soon to become the Qualifications Credit Framework (QCF)
• Award over 250,000 children with their first ‘Learn to Swim’ badge each year.
• Almost 1,000,000 STA badges and certificates are awarded for swimming each year.
• Consistently attract over 1.3 million visits on our website per month.
• STA programmes and qualifications are used in over 25 countries worldwide.
• STA is represented on all major UK committees concerned with promoting water safety and swimming, as well as being recognised by many independent bodies, swimming groups and local authorities. STA's vocational qualifications and standards have also been adopted as preferred benchmark standards by a number of national governments around the world, which provides further evidence of the world wide recognition that the STA attracts.
• STA works in close partnership with SkillsActive and Skills for Health to develop industry relevant qualifications
• STA is a founder member of IFSTA (International Federation of Swimming Teachers Associations) with partner organisations in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Ireland, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, USA, Antigua the Netherlands, plus many more.

For more information browse this site or contact us direct.

Mission Statement

The STA's primary aim is to ensure that everybody is taught to swim and survive in water and can carry out basic rescue techniques.

That is...

Everybody...
Everybody and anybody from cradle to grave, taking into account age and disability.

Swim...
Has a recognised stroke, can tread water and float. i.e. is water competent - the equivalent of our 25m award.

Survive...
Can swim in clothing, knows how to keep warm with clothing on and if in a group can use the 'huddle position'.

Basic Rescue Techniques...
Reaching - Throwing - Wading - Towing

Delivering the Mission

We achieve our aims specifically for water safety by:

• Training tutors to deliver high quality courses to cover:
  • Swimming teacher qualifications
  • Lifeguarding qualifications
  • Teaching exercise in water
  • Teaching people with special needs
  • Teaching primary and intermediate life support
  • Teaching First Aid
• Providing training manuals which are regularly updated to ensure modern thinking and up to the minute techniques are used.
• Providing in-service training on a regular basis.
• Promoting all aspects of swimming safety and teaching methodology in the UK and world-wide.
• Influencing all those concerned with swimming teaching to ensure high standards and professionalism are maintained at a local, regional, national and internation level.
• Influencing all bodies concerned with water safety.
• Lobbying to ensure that the health and safety aspects of swimming are understood and catered for within school national curriculum requirement
• Consult widely on the formation of STA policies
• Build long term sustainable partnerships with selected organisations
• Maximise the capabilities of the use and application of new technologies to keep our members and students up to date through web based access to learning material and policies