The EHFA Standards Council is an independent body able to provide strategic advice, guidance and direction to EHFA, in relation to Standards for People, Programmes and Places across the health and fitness sector. It supports the vision to achieve the EHFA’s main goal to get More People, More Active, More Often.

The Standards Council is responsible for the direction and strategic thinking for the developing regulatory framework which underpins public confidence in the work and development of the European Health and Fitness industry and in a complex environment of European dimensions. It works closely with the European Commission, especially in support of its Lifelong Learning Programme.

The main functions of the Standards Council are:  

• To monitor the developments across and outside the industry to ensure that the European framework and standards for the fitness industry are fit for purpose and up to date.
• To develop and monitor a work programme for the Technical Experts Group (TEG) in terms of standards development.
• To provide the technical support and structure to ensure the development of the European Register of Exercise Professionals (EREPS) is in line with the standards process.
• To oversee the EHFA Accreditation Process of training providers. .

The current Chairman of the Standards Council, Professor Alfonso Jiménez, who was elected at the 2009 EHFA General Assembly. The present 3-year Strategic Plan (2009-2011) was approved by EHFA Board in June 2009.   

The Strategic Plan is focused on the development of the standards to define the competencies required for people working in the fitness industry. It is part of the process of developing a sector framework which in turn is based on the eight levels of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).

The EQF is a common European reference framework which links countries' qualifications systems together, acting as a translation device to make qualifications more understandable. This will help learners and workers wishing to move between countries, or to change jobs, or to move between educational institutions at home.

The EQF uses 8 reference levels based on learning outcomes (defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competences). The EQF shifts the focus from input (lengths of a learning experience, type of institution) to what a person holding a particular qualification actually knows and is able to do. By shifting the focus to learning outcomes it helps to:

• support a better match between the needs of the labour market (for knowledge, skills and competences) and education and training provision
• facilitate the validation of non-formal and informal learning
• facilitate the transfer and use of qualifications across different countries and education and training systems
• transfer units of learning outcome, based on a credit system (ECVET)

It also recognizes that Europe’s education systems are so diverse that comparisons based on inputs, such as a length of study, are impracticable. More information is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc44_en.htm

The review of the original EHFA standards (2005) was identified as a priority action and the new version (based on EQF levels 3 and 4) were approved by the EHFA GA in April 2010.