As an official training provider partner for CIMSPA, STA Excel welcomes the announcement that Safety Training Awards (STA) CPDs now qualify for funding, as part of the next phase of the ReTrain scheme.

This second phase of funding, ‘ReTrain to ReTain’, is part of an ambitious £5million job retention and support package for the sport and physical activity sector, and is being funded by Sport England through the National Lottery.

The aim of the programme, which CIMSPA will manage with support from UK Coaching and EMD UK, is to provide training, resources and tools to help sports and physical activity professionals who currently work, or want to work in the sector, get back on track after the impact of Covid-19. It will also provide additional support to help self-employed professionals and micro-businesses.

The training opportunities under the ‘ReTrain to ReTain’ scheme span the whole of the sector, and for STA Excel specifically, it means the following STA accredited CPDs are eligible for funding by CIMSPA Employer Partners as well as self-employed individuals:

  • Breathing by Straight-Line Swimming
  • Body Position by Straight-Line Swimming
  • Cerebral Palsy and Swimming
  • Safeguarding Children, Young People, and Vulnerable Adults
  • Artistic Swimming – Experience Holiday course
  • CPD1 Artistic Swimming – Experience
  • CPD 2 Artistic Swimming – Explore and Expression
  • Artistic Swimming – Experience, Explore & Expression bundle

This all adds to the following list of STA’s regulated vocational qualifications that STA Excel deliver, and that already qualify for ReTrain* funding as they are endorsed by CIMSPA against the sector’s Professional Standards:

  • STA Certificate in Teaching Swimming
  • STA Pool Lifeguarding
  • STA Pool Plant Operations
  • STA Open Water Swimming Coaching
  • STA Award in Mermaid and Mono Fin Swimming (recently added)

STA Excel is an international training provider and delivers STA’s full portfolio of regulated vocational qualifications.

*Launched in 2020, ‘ReTrain’ is a £1.5m training initiative that is being funded by the National Lottery through Sport England and was created to support employer partners of CIMSPA, CLUK and, ukactive with sites in England.


Click here for further information