By: VINO
First batch of trainees begin Level 1 Swimming Teaching certification course run by BVI Swimming Foundation under the tutelage of Brian Brinkley MBE, two time Olympian and director of the foundation. Photo source: VINO
A British swimming expert and Olympic medalist is offering a swimming course through the BVI Swimming Foundation to teachers of the sport with a view to improving their skills and techniques and making them better in passing instructions to their young charges.
While the course is free, the beneficiaries are expected to pass on their knowledge through volunteering to teach the sport to school children of the Virgin Islands.
The first batch of persons began their training in Prospect Reef, Tortola, on Sunday October 12, 2014.
The course is recognised worldwide as a quality swimming teaching certificate and the Tutor and Director of the Swimming Foundation is Brian Brinkley MBE, two time Olympian, and tutor in the UK for over thirty-five years.
The courses are divided into two levels. Level One is aimed at students who are over sixteen years of age and have a swimming ability.
“This is an introductory level and students will be expected to teach in the water. It is a mixture of Theory and Practical, both need to be passed to gain certification. Normally it is taught of three weeks and does require some home study,” said Brinkley.
He said that Level Two is aimed at students over seventeen who hold the level one qualification. The level is the full award and is eight weeks of study and includes a mixture of Theory and Practical. “You will also have some home study, both have to be passed to gain certification,” Brinkley said.
He explained that while there are no examinations, the assessments made by the course tutor are internally verified by an assessor in the UK and are subject to External Assessment by the Awarding Body (ASA).
“Today is the first practical session of the BVI Swimming Foundation swimming course Level One. The Foundation’s role is to train swimming teachers on the islands and for those teachers to go out and teach children in schools,” said Brinkley. “The payback for the course is that you go and teach the primary school children how to swim.”
Brinkley said that the idea was the brainchild of Premier Dr the Honourable D. Orlando Smith, and he was selected out of more than 100 applicants for the job to come to the Territory and run the course.
“My role on island, at least up to Christmas, is to train people. I have got a target of numbers I’m looking to train, but we hope by February – March we would have had loads of swimming teachers trained and up to a good standard and then [have them dispatched] into the schools to train the students,” said Brinkley.
Brinkley is a two-time British Olympian competing in the 1972 games in Munich, West Germany and in the 1976 Games in Montreal, Canada, where he picked up two medals.
