| Summary: | Personal training is an occupation which requires service and knowledge work. There have
been some studies of personal training that have focused on the service dimension of the
work of personal trainers but few on the knowledge work entailed in workplace competence.
This study focused on “knowledgeable labour” in the field of personal training. A small
sample of apprenticed, trained and educated personal trainers was observed at work with their
clients in order to investigate whether different learning pathways lead to differences in the
forms of knowledge and ways of knowing they use in their workplace practices. A first level
of analysis focused on whether there were noticeable differences in the “practical
competence” of the trainers -as manifest in their observable practices with their clients. A
second level of analysis, explored whether there were more subtle differences in their
practices by focusing on the form and content of their exchanges with their clients, and of
their reflections in and on their practice. This level of analysis focused on what the South
African National Qualifications framework has referred to as “applied competence’ which is
grounded in foundational and reflexive competence and is not reducible to what is manifestly
or visible in practical activities. It sought to establish whether there were differences in the
applied competence of trainers who have qualified through the different learning pathways.
The study found that access to a formal knowledge base, and a related ability to reflect
explicitly made a difference to the quality of the knowledge that trainers imparted to their
clients, to their decision making in practice, and to the quality of explanations and
justifications they offered to their clients. These differences point to the need for vocational
qualifications that develop reflective practitioners who are able to build bridges work
between the science and the client in their situated practices in their workplaces and therefore
think on their feet.
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