Lifeguard, swim teacher shortage: Who wants to teach?
LYNDHURST, Ohio (WJW) — When you teach, there comes a moment when the light comes on — they get it.
“It’s not only just seeing that their body is in the right position and seeing the joy in their face that they’ve learned something new,” YMCA swim instructor Regan Sands-Priest said.
There are swim classes for children and adults everyday at the Hillcrest Family YMCA and they’re packed.
Learning to swim is one of those skills that every one would do well to have.
Because with a smaller pool of lifeguards to draw on nationwide, learning how to survive in water becomes an even more valuable skill.
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“The one thing that keeps me up at night is that if one person drowns and they wanted to take swim lessons and we weren’t able to teach them,” Sands-Priest said.
The YMCA’s Chris Scheuer said each year nationwide the YMCA teaches about 1 million children and adults how to swim or be safe in the water. But they could do more if there were more water safety teachers available.
“There is a shortage of swim instructors. We have a wait list for swim lessons, but we need swim instructors to be able to teach these people,” Scheuer said.
If certified, a lifeguard or water instructor can make more money at private facilities than at public pools. There are jobs to be had right now in public facilities. But getting people interested to take the training and get certified is not easy.
“We went to the local high school. Fifteen-year-olds and above — we will train you, teach you how to be a lifeguard and we will train you and give you your first job. And we had zero applicants.” Scheuer said.
Few applicants means the competition for lifeguards across the area has hurt water safety programs at the YMCA and other places. And teaching children is more important than ever.
According to the Red Cross, drowning is the second-leading cause of accidental death for children between ages 1 and 5 years old. But if they have even basic water training in the same age range, the chances of dying in the water are reduced by almost 90%.
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Scheuer said even with the challenges, the YMCA continues to make water safety and swim instruction a big priority.
“We want to educate. We’re going to local schools, our main branch at Parker Hannifin YMCA. There is an initiative to teach every school-age child in the city of Cleveland to learn how to swim at our facilities,” Scheuer said.
But despite the obstacles and competition for trained people, the YMCA still teaches more people to swim than any other organization nationwide.
And with summer pool season only days away in many cities, it’s a good time to think about learning to stay safe in the water.
Because with fewer lifeguards in public spaces, learning to swim is the best way to stay safe.
If you would like to find out more information about the YMCA’s learn to swim programs or how you can become a lifeguard, you can follow this link.
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