EHFA invited fitness employers to take part in a survey of employment in the sector in July 2010. The 2010 Employer Survey was run as part of the EA-Fitness project, and the questionnaire was published in eight languages.
The problem behind it was the one the whole standards programme addressed. Employers and employees in the sector were no longer confined by national boundaries, and an employer could not easily judge the competence behind a qualification issued in another country's system, any more than an employee could know whether their certificate would be recognised where they moved. The survey set out to collect employers' own account of the trends and perspectives for employment in selected EU countries, and its results were to inform the development of training at European level.
Any organisation offering a service to members, customers or participants relating to fitness was asked to take part, and the project funded places for employers at its final conference so that the people who had answered could join the discussion of the results. The answers were also a test of the association's own work, since a framework written by educators and technical experts has to survive contact with the people who recruit. See the EA-Fitness project and standards.