Additional Information
Emphasis on LMI provided by COE: There is a gap between demand and supply of 612 in the East Bay.
List of similar programs at other colleges in the service area which may be impacted, including the name of the college, the name of the program that may be impacted, the name of the person the submitter contacted and the outcome of that contact.
Ohlone College, Chris Warden: Thank you for the information. Looks like a solid structure and should serve your students well. Consider Ohlone College as blessed.
Chabot College, Ken Grace: Doesn’t see LPC’s program as a problem for Chabot.
Diablo Valley College, Shelly Pierson: Thank you for including us (DVC) in the Personal Training Certificate Program notification from Las Positas College. DVC has concerns regarding the following:
-The required coursework in the proposed LPC CPT certificate is seemingly deficient in unit value (DVC’s CPT certificate of achievement is 30.5 units). There also seems to be several areas missing regarding curriculum breadth specific to the industry needs, as well as skill set in regard to students becoming successfully employed at a living wage upon completion. This is based on information/research DVC has gathered over the past 15 years from our active employers in the Bay Area, bi-yearly advisory committee meetings and general industry standard knowledge acquired from those involved with our program who have worked in the personal training industry for over 25 years.
-Proposed coursework would not support knowledge needed to pass an accredited national certification exam for personal training (NASM, ACSM, etc.) which is an employment requirement for most facilities, as personal trainers cannot carry liability insurance without a national accredited certification.
-The need for a new program in our region as LPC is surrounded by colleges that have existing approved certificate programs (DVC, Ohlone, Chabot, SJDC, CCC and Solano) all of which are within short driving distance to LPC.
-Impact to existing personal training programs in the region. Even though the Labor Market Index (LMI) indicates a high demand for this career, enrollment in DVC’s program has been challenging and recently has not been expanding. Due to proximity and overlap, DVC has lost students to LPC when they have duplicated other programs that are currently offered at DVC. This threatens the viability of the certificate programs at both colleges and others in the region.
Curriculum deficiencies include:
• Intro to Kinesiology course content is not relevant to a certificate of achievement in personal training.
• It is stated in the course description that the certificate prepares students for employment as group fitness instructors, yet there is no curriculum specific to that area of expertise in the certificate coursework.
• Nutrition and/or lifestyle coursework is missing
• Behavior modification science related to movement activity (fitness, sports, etc.) is missing
• What is Bio 7A and 7B?
• Internship/hands on training seems to be missing other than a .5 unit lab with the personal training class. The current trends for employment in the region show that most fitness facilities desire to hire trainers that are “client” ready and can start working with members effectively without in-house training. This would specifically require several hundred hours in an internship prior to employment or some type of previous hands-on experience within the scope of practice.
DVC would like to request the program application information and any labor market and/or industry data you have used to create the certificate curriculum which supports another program in the area.
NOTE: Faculty member, Andrew Cumbo, provided DVC with information as requested. As of 7/12/13, he has not heard back from DVC.