The Register of Exercise Professionals is working with awarding bodies and training providers to establish Test Centres nationwide to help assess people's knowledge and skills against recognised standards.

The move is in response to the increasing demand of overseas applicants and individuals from Higher Education wishing to join the Register.

A large number of international and Higher Education applicants have studied for many years and achieved high level related qualifications and degrees but are unable to prove their knowledge competence and skills against the sector's agreed standards.

REPs has invited the industry's training providers to opt into the scheme to provide Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL), this allows individuals to discuss their prior learning and in many cases will enable them to go straight to assessment without participating in a training course.

Participating training providers will be identified on the REPs website as providing this service for those with international and higher education qualifications and for those converting from Provisional status to Full Status.

Registrar Jean-Ann Marnoch added: "We hope this will allow many more, highly knowledgeable fitness professionals to begin working as REPs members.

"We've wanted to find a way of assessing such potential members for a long time so are delighted that the processes are now in place."

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