Waterloo aims to increase number of lifeguards by offering free certification programs | CBC News
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It’s been a struggle for many local municipalities to hire lifeguards since the pandemic as many young people who were on track to do the training dropped out when pools were closed and never returned.
But the City of Waterloo hopes to entice people to do that training by offering it for free this fall.
Adults who pass a skills assessment next month can take the aquatic leadership certification program, which includes:
- Bronze medallion/emergency first aid and CPR B.
- Bronze cross, standard first aid and CPR C, national lifeguard.
- Life Saving Society instructors and swim instructors courses.
Gus Siountres, the city’s manager of aquatics, said in a release that the city is suffering from a nation-wide shortage of lifeguards.
“Our greatest needs [are] for weekday daytime shifts,” he said.
Kristen Cook is the city’s manager of recreation programming and says this is the first time the city is offering the courses for free for people who pass the assessment. The program will run for 15 weeks and then people would be eligible to work in January.
“Participants will then at the end be qualified to work on the pool deck,” she told CBC News.
“So this is an example, we’re hoping, of a creative way of making these programs more accessible to everyone who might be interested in working in the pool and … we’re hoping then to have more in our pool of staff.”
Anyone who is 18 or older can take part and they’re hoping to find more long-term employees to work at city pools. This summer, the city operates two pools: Moses Spring and the swimplex at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex.
“It does get a little bit tight to try and provide all the programs that we want to give out to the community while bouncing that staff,” Cook said.
“We know in the spring we had very high numbers for our instructing swim lessons and we expect that will be the same in the fall. And we just are trying to get the staff levels to where they need to be for our community to come in and access our swim lessons.”
Registration for the swim assessments are now open and people can sign up through the city’s website.
WATCH | At 80, he’s the oldest working lifeguard in Ontario:
Michael Olsen, 80, and Bruce McNicoll, 64, were first certified as lifeguards in the 1960s and 70s and recently got re-certified to give back to the community during a lifeguard shortage and earn some extra income.
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