Tracye Sykes has Swim School Instructing in her sights

Long serving Royal Life Saving WA instructor extraordinaire, Tracye Sykes, is undertaking yet another exciting role in swim schooling in The Pilbara as the Swim School Coordinator for YMCAWA at South Hedland Aquatic and Gratwick Aquatic Centre.

Tracye began teaching swimming and water safety in 1994 at 32 years of age, after a friend suggested the AUSTSWIM course to her.
She taught in a variety of swim schools in NSW then opened her own small swim school where she continued to teach and operate the school for six years until the swim centre was sadly demolished to make way for a block of flats.

Tracye didn’t let the bulldozers get in the way of her swim teaching career, going on to coordinate for several swim schools throughout NSW and Western Australia until 2013 when she became a pool manager for The Royals in remote Jigalong, where she stayed for four years.

The vast array of opportunities for a versatile Instructor is evident in the variety of instructing positions Tracye has triumphed in.

Following a move to Port Hedland, Tracye undertook the Aquatic Coordinator position for nine months until the Swim School Team Leader position became available and now she is ‘back to doing what I enjoy most: coordinating, teaching and training new swim school instructors.’

Tracye recognizes the need for more swim instructors across the state, especially in The Pilbara, remarking: ‘In Hedland we urgently require new instructors to build a team capable of instructing more students each term. It is a very rewarding job that can be undertaken with simply teaching a few hours each week or everyday if that’s what you would like to do.’

If teaching swimming sounds like your thing, it’s a great time to begin a career, develop your skills, or progress your career in Swim School Instructing.

Tracye also notes that ‘The Education Department is also extremely short of qualified instructors - there is work available there also. Some of our teachers at the YMCAWA also teach for the Ed Department and others in our Infant/Preschool program.’

Tracye strongly believes that ‘We have a goal to educate families on the importance of swimming lessons, enabling students to become competent and safe swimmers. We can only grow the swim school once we have trained additional instructors to meet the increased demand.’

For more information in becoming an Instructor, please click the link below.

For more information on the upcoming training courses running in The Pilbara, please click below.