EHFA's general assembly adopted the association's EQF level 2 standards on 13 April 2011. They set out the knowledge, skills and competences expected at the second level of the European Qualifications Framework, and were the first part of the framework to sit below the instructor.
The framework already had levels 3 and 4, adopted at the general assembly in Essen in April 2010 and covering fitness instructors and personal trainers. The level 2 standards described something different: supervised professional practice, the work of staff who assist qualified instructors rather than practising independently. The group that drew them up worked with the newer markets of central Europe particularly in mind, where the industry was still building the workforce that the higher levels of the framework assumed.
Standards were not written by the secretariat. A technical experts group, recruited by the Standards Council against published criteria, drafted them; the drafts went to the whole membership for consultation, and nothing took effect until a general assembly had ratified it by resolution. Adding a level below the instructor had a practical purpose for national bodies as well. The EQF is a ladder, and a national certificate can only be placed on it if the level it belongs to exists. See EQF levels 3 and 4 for the levels adopted before these, and standards for the framework as a whole.