No staff, no swim for kids

By Nick Sinis

IT COULD be dire straits for the next generation of children needing to learn the vital skill of swimming as Phillip Island Swim School continues to be submerged by staff shortages. 

Another casualty of the pandemic, swim staff and instructors all but disappeared due to the constant closure of pools throughout recent years. 

And at Phillip Island, this has been felt especially hard. 

“Most swim teachers are casual because they don’t usually run (programs) over the holiday periods,” Phillip Island Swim School owner Lawri Piera said.

“So majority of staff are casual or part time, and over COVID, all swim schools were closed.

“And even when regional was allowed to open, swimming was still not allowed because it was indoor.”

Ms Piera said as a result of the uncertainty, many staff simply found jobs in other industries and to make matters more challenging, the swim school was unable to secure grants and funding at the time.

“A lot of kids lost out and now want to learn how to swim but we can’t get the staff,” she said.

“I used to have Saturdays running and now I can’t even get staff to run my Saturday classes.

“If a staff member gets sick, I don’t have other staff to replace them, so those classes are getting cancelled, and I have to refund them.

“So I’m losing money.”

Ms Piera also highlighted the difficulties they face being a smaller facility, as larger centres can often generate income in other ways such as canteens.

“The big centres actually have a certain staff member qualified to train swim teachers and they run courses within their own business,” she said.

“If I’ve got someone here wanting to become a swim teacher, it could be two-three months before a course is being run nearby.”

Ms Piera also spoke of the disappointment after attempting to run a course at the school recently.

“It ran on a Saturday and six people attended and I didn’t get a single staff member out of it,” she said.

“I had another course and only got one staff member; I had the pool opened across the whole weekend and lost so much money on it.”

On a state government level, Aquatics and Recreation Victoria received funding of $5.6m for the Next Wave program through Jobs Victoria. 

This aims to create 300 jobs within the industry by June 2023, and funds employers to train, support, employ and retain job seekers through a reimbursement model.