We wanted to get to know Andrew Gray, National Academic Manager at eta College. Read what questions we asked in today’s blog and what thought provoking answers we received!
Q: What is your title at eta College?
A: National Academic Manager at eta College
Q: What is your role at eta College?
A: I have a number of roles. The first is to manage the academic delivery and accreditation nationally. I am also working on a project called the National Performance Register – which is a testing and capturing system that can rank and evaluate athletes, and compare their results. Our aim is to set up a national database of fitness results.
Q: How long have you been involved with eta College?
A: For almost 20 years. I joined them originally as a lecturer on their part time course. I have been involved with them in different capacities since then.
Q: What led you to working in the Fitness industry?
A: I love it. I love making a difference in peoples lives.
Q: What are you currently studying and why?
A: I am studying a course in curriculum design at UCT. The designing of programmes and refinement of our current programmes is crucial in ensuring that eta remains a world leader in education. I want to keep up to keep up with the trends in education and instructional design.
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: Exercise, changing peoples lives
Q: How do you see fitness education evolving in South Africa?
A: It has changed radically in the last 10 years. I think the education is seeking legitimacy, wth a number of private providers providing competition to the universities who have held onto the industry u until now. The industry requirement is for trainers and coaches to be knowledgeable in a number of fields, while being ble to adapt their knowledge to different situations. That is the challenge of the fitness education industry, to get this right.
Q: What’s your favourite qualification at eta?
A: Diploma in Sport and Exercise
Q: Why?
A: I designed it. It is also a course that offers the student a number of working opportunities and specailities. They can coach, train or analyse sport movement. In essence, they are a `one stop shop’ for any school or sport club to hire, they can use their knowledge and skill to develop, analyse and ultimately train and coach any team.
Q: What advice can you give to our readers?
A: Explore all the opportunities within the fitness industry. It is an evolving career, with neverending opportunities to grow into new fields and careers. If exercise is your passion, pursue it.
