Pilates Training Programs Dropping “Certification”

Written on November 21, 2024 - 9:26 am | by admin

The Pilates Method Alliance, (PMA) has issued a report from the Pilates Teacher Training Summit they held in Dallas TX in the beginning of November. The PMA is a non-profit organization that promotes professionalism in the Pilates industry. It has a world-wide membership that includes many prominent Pilates instructors and companies. The purpose of the summit was to explore self-regulation of the Pilates industry. Within that agenda, the issue of certification in Pilates teacher training has been a main concern.

The term certification is currently used by many teacher training programs to acknowledge the completion of their specific program. So you have Stott Pilates certified, Power Pilates certified, Miss Elsies 3 Day on the Fly certified, and on like that. The problem is that there is no regulation of Pilates instructor training programs. Many are excellent. Some are very poor. But both can produce graduates who can claim to be certified instructors. This leaves the public with no trustworthy guide as to who has thorough training and who has not.

The PMA wants to bring about is a standardized certification process in which a 3rd party is the certifying body. To this end, the PMA has established a written instructor certification exam that people graduating from different instructor training programs can take to prove that they have a certain level of knowledge. They are then PMA certified and have a professional credential that communicates a certain level of expertise to the public.

Very big steps were taken at the summit toward changing the common use of the word certification in Pilates instructor training. The PMA report says that “Schools came to understand that they were, by definition, providers of ‘assessment-based certificate’ programs, not providers of ‘certification’.” The report goes on to say that many attendees committed to stop using the term certification and to use words like graduate, diploma, or assessment-based certificate instead.

The PMA has published a public list of providers of Pilates teacher training who committed to cease using the word certification by July, 2010. The list includes many well-know providers of Pilates instructor training like Balanced Body, BASI Pilates, Elizabeth Larkam, and Fletcher Pilates. In my recent interview with Rachel Segel of the Pilates Center of Boulder, The Art of Teaching Pilates, Rachel discusses the certification issue and states that the Pilates Center of Boulder stopped using the term certification long ago.

Many members of the PMA see the certification issue as being of paramount importance at this time. There is a sense of urgency around the Pilates industry taking coordinated action to regulate itself. However, not everyone is on board with the PMA and the certification issue remains a contentious point. What do you think? Please comment below.

Read the PMA Summit Report

Fitness Online