Pilates in Australia

Hi there. I'm Christy Cooper and I'm here with my dear friend Sally Anderson, all the way from Australia. And we're here to talk about a few things, but mostly [inaudible] in Australia. Sally is the founding president of the [inaudible] alliance of Australasia and also the founding director of [inaudible] international and has a training program. There's a lot more to tell, but that's, we'll start there. And Sally, thank you for coming. Thank you. Very nice to be here. We don't get to see each other enough, so I'll do my best to stick to the questions. Um, can start just with something very basic. Um, what is, is different in Australia? Is it the same? Is it, what's the vibe there yet? Pretty much the same. We have all the same organizations that are present internationally in Australia, so body arts and science.

Pollstar Ramana's Pele's authentic stock, don't want to leave any out. But um, but we also have some very strong national training bodies as well. Um, not the same pull that is. Yeah, it's a question I get asked from other people and, and I assume it's the same, but I, I never really know what someone who lives there who runs major organizations would say, can go. Tell me what is the [inaudible] alliance of Australasia? The polarities alliance Australasia is an independent, non-biased association for registration of Polonius teachers and studios and training organizations. So our independent associations in Australia are referred to as a peak body that represents the industry lobbies, government sets, minimum standards of education and kind of sets guidelines for the profession.

And we have those sorts of associations across all industries in Australia. So there are two primary, um, associations in Australia, the PyLadies alliance Australasia and the Australian [inaudible] method association. So the APM and the Paa. So we've got two industry bodies, which is fine. Uh, the IPMA started a little earlier, eh, but at the time were pretty much setting up for a specific, kind of like the style of lifestyle of holidays or an approach of PyLadies. That was their training program. The paa then, um, was founded to represent the other approaches. When did police come to Australia and can you just take me through a basic timeline of that process and maybe how it led to the PA in your businesses? I'm sure we'll probably what I should take you through.

So Polonius has been in Australia, Gosh, before my time. So I met rail as a [inaudible] and started my career in [inaudible] in the late eighties e formalization or the development of the industry really got on underway from about 2000 and that was a time where, uh, and I will say that was sort of a big part in big part due to my organization, setting up government accredited courses. So we did kind of springboard that for the industry. Um, in Australia we have a very effective and very productive vocational education system. So just we refer to it as the vet system, vocational education training. And when I was kind of getting Polonius international training center, the education body that I have, when I was getting that going, I wanted to be able to provide a solid outcome that was enduring and had government recognitions. So at that point in 2000 I worked through turning our PyLadies courses into government recognized courses. So it took nearly four years.

So in May, 2004 um, our courses were accredited with the government. That was the first ones ever. And our organization became a government registered training organization, which again was now 11 there. Okay, fantastic. So that then we were going out and kind of singing the praises of vocational education because it puts into a recognizable framework. Any industry, it puts it into content. You have your specialty, but it fits within a framework that the Australian government and our legislation recognize. So that, but in that process we needed to work with a peak body.

Peak body is a term in Australia for an independent, non-biased association that oversees standards within an industry. Thank you. So in the [inaudible] industry, the [inaudible] aligns Australasia is one of two in Australia that oversees standards and protects the public. Within that industry, what would be the steps of your applied is international becoming registered and to the Ph d what do you have to do? How does a pa a decide that this is meeting the standard? What are the standards? Well, it's become a lot easier because of the government registration. They now require a training organization to deliver accredited courses because the government then does all the work.

The government has already made sure that your organization, by registering it has met their minimum standards, which are quite stringent. But what does the government know about Joseph Pele's? So there's two separate things. They register the organization as a quality organization delivering training. Okay. Understand that.

Then with the courses they will pull in experts from all areas of the polarities industry to consult and beyond the assessment boards for the content of the courses as well as the training structures. The other thing that the PA does, it registers. So firstly it registers the educational programs as having met minimum standards. So there is also a course competency criteria that the PA have always had that sets down minimum standards for a Pilati specific cause. And it's very comparable to any sort of criteria that exists internationally.

So what the PMA would see or what we're now working through in the training summits as minimum standards for a [inaudible] teacher program. Almost identical. Okay. And the Australian peak bodies and everything we do does reference the global picture every time. So even in our consulting, um, you know, on our consulting boards, yeah, they would be looking at the international picture on what's recognized internationally anyways, so the PIA has that competency criteria for a course. And then I have, if you're accredited with the government, a lot of that work's done for them. At that point you're registered as an educational body.

Then studios that have the right qualifications or outcomes are registered as studios. Oh. So if their staff are qualified through an educational body that's recognized, the studios get registered. So your studio will be notably, or you'll be listed and there are stickers that you put on your door saying, we're registered. And then the members of course are registered. So you know, you're going to a teacher that has a proper qualification and they've met all those great necessary things. Where do you think polite and Australia is headed? So our organization keeps stepping forward. So we've had the accredited courses and registered organization for just over 10 years, actually 10 years this may [inaudible] landmark. Thank you.

And within the last two years we've worked on an articulation process into higher education. So our courses, our qualifications now articulate to university level, um, with an exercise science outcomes. So Exercise Science and sports coaching or exercise physiology and rehabilitation. So that's the first step in the build towards the Polaris courses at being bachelor courses in university. So we go, we articulate to the university. Then you keep stepping through to have your course expanded into, it'd be about a five year process, but wow. What motivates you to do this? To, to work so hard to bring up polite days in Australia to bring or to push forward. I shouldn't say not bring up push forward where we're going to, I'll be reaching up to higher education with no one, not just a love of Pele's.

It's a really amazing method that does so many good things for so many people. It's, I guess that's just behind it. You want the whole of the world to know how good it is for, you know, I'm not here to teach the world, but you know, it's just that, that everybody needs to get this. Everybody needs to have access to it. You do want kids coming out of school to go, I can have a career in this.

And so how do you do that? And get them the benefits that they need to get, you know, help with fees. And then, you know, coming out into to a career that has pathways. It's not just now I'm teaching, what do I do next? But there's pathways and there's hierarchies and you know, it's a great industry. We just need to keep doing whatever it, whatever keeps it going forward. Well, it matters that there's people with visions and it sounds like you've had one for Australia, but I, I, you know, again, it's, it's a lot of these is everywhere really when it comes to that. So it's really a vision for us all. And thank you, Chris. Thank you very much. That a pleasure. Thank you. Yeah.