Virgin Active joined EHFA as a Vanguard partner in November 2011. The association announced the partnership on 10 November.
Vanguard was the highest tier of the association's industry partner scheme, above the Platinum levels, Gold, Silver and Bronze, and it was where the sector's largest operating groups and suppliers sat. Fitness First and Technogym appeared at that level in the association's published partner list, and Virgin Active joined them there. The contributions of partner companies paid for work that member subscriptions did not cover: the standards programme, the register and the projects each cost more than a small secretariat's budget, and the largest companies in the sector underwrote the difference.
For the standards work, operator partners were more than funders. A qualification framework only has force when employers hire against it, and the companies employing the most instructors are the ones whose recruitment decides whether a European certificate is worth anything in the market. A group operating in several countries gave the register a reason to work across borders as well, since the same employer could check the same kind of record in more than one market. Having them inside the association kept the standards realistic too: a framework describing staff that no operator could recruit or afford would have been written for a sector that did not exist. See industry partners and membership.