Good afternoon everyone,
I was hoping I could get a little information or advice.
I'm currently working as a driving instructor but for a long time I have been disillusioned with all the nonsense that comes along with it. I have been considering a change of career for a while and always keep coming back to the thought of being a Sports massage therapist.
I just have a couple of comments regarding this... I would rather be employed by a sports team/company etc rather than setting up on my own, as I have already experienced being self employed in my instructor career. So I would rather not have to go through that experience again..
I know I would probably have to work for free in order to gain experience as I start out, but is it possible to earn a reasonable career being employed as a Sports Massage therapist? The last thing I want to do is spending lots of money on training to find out there is no real demand.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Kind wishes
Aimy
Hi Aimy,
thanks for posting.
There is a huge demand for well trained sports massage practitioners....however, there are relatively few jobs. It is mainly self employed. My professional association regularly posts opportunities, but apart from a small few, they are all for self employed/freelance therapists.
Don't get me wrong there are jobs out there, we recently posted some high profile ones, including a fantastic job that one of my own graduates had left for an even better position, however this required a minimum of 5 years experience. Usually the paid vacancies do insist on lots of years experience.
I also know lots of therapists in elite sport, premiership football etc, but as I said, they want years of experience.
I suppose it will all come down to whether or not you are prepared to go down the self employed route, because if not, you may be better re-training in something that guarantees employed status at the end of it.
All the best
Richard
if you decide to train in sports massage, please do lots of research, there are companies out there offering great courses, with external accreditations but actually don't stack up or meet the National Occupational competency standards, so fail to prepare you for working in the industry, as previous poster said most opportunities are self employed. few hours here and there and it takes time and hard work to build up a client list.
Be smart, phone up the training providers, ask them lots of questions, speak to their tutors, make sure they have minimum 2 years clinical experience and teaching qualifications.
Do some research and a Companies house check, simply type in the name of the company and it will tell you if they are a registered company, many change their name or operate a number of businesses. Some are even directors of the training company, the external assessment company and the awarding organisation, some then also run their own awarding body.
Its not all doom and gloom, there are some great training companies out there, just make sure you get recent recommendations and do lots of research before you part with your cash
regards
BGFL