Fitness and Personal Training

What the sector is like

This can be a greatly rewarding sector to work in, as it allows you to use your expertise in this area to support your clients in becoming fitter and healthier, and to make significant improvements to their lives.

While full-time positions are available in fitness and personal training, these are not the most common form of work. Often, employees will be considered independent contractors  and will teach at multiple facilities in order to maintain a sustainable income. Sometimes, facilities will take a significant cut of earnings from the classes taught. 

Where the jobs are

These careers can be found in a few different types of facilities. We've broken these down and provided a few different examples. This is not an exhaustive list.

• Gyms - Edinburgh has many large and small gyms, which all have their own team of personal trainers and fitness instructors. Puregym, Nuffield Health and the Gym group are some of the biggest employers. All have multiple large facilities throughout the city. 

  • Vancancies at the Gym Group 

  • Vacancies at Pure Gym
• Small businesses - this is quite common in slightly more niche forms of sport like yoga and pilates.
  • Jobs at Tribe Yoga
  • Opportunities at Bea Alexander
• Leisure facilities - Leisure facilities will advertise on their websites.
  • Vacancies at David Lloyd Leisure
• Hospitality - large hotel chains like Marriott will often include provide facilities and have been known to advertise in Edinburgh.

As ever, if you can't find advertised vacancies, it's worth being proactive and calling any of these facilities or submitting your CV.

Am I qualified?

You will need qualifications - typically, a Level 2 Gym Instructor certificate and Level 3 Personal Training.  You are likely to have to pay to get these, and the courses will take several weeks (part-time). Full-time courses are also available. 

Local course providers include University of Edinburgh Centre for Sport and Exercise, Edinburgh College, and some major gym chains run their own training courses.