Relief Duty Officer

Steffan Williams

  • I was using the centre a lot at the time with swimming up to 3 times a week, and was getting tired of the travelling to Carew with my old job. I heard about the course from a few friends who already worked here and I knew a couple of people who were going on the course, so decided to give it a go.

 

  • At the start was working a lot of nights which suited me well with the farm at home, but then started to really enjoy working in the leisure industry, working with people and took an interest in teaching people to swim. So as time went on I started coming in to lifeguard school swimming and the early morning swims, during which I was put on reception a lot (it was the only way I could get a break from the pool in the morning) Within a couple of months of working I went on the FAW Leaders award and started helping out with the football classes, which I now run and absolutely love doing. 

 

  • I started here in September 2018, by February 2019 I went on the teaching course in Swansea, it was a tough week with a lot of information being put on you in such a short time, but I thoroughly enjoyed the practical side of the course and took away a lot of tips that I still use now. I then started teaching about 4/5 nights a week and really enjoyed it, with that I then started to cover teaching the school swimming, and by April of that year I got my Lifeguard contract.

 

  • With the contract I started working mostly in the days with the odd night shift here and there, which did sort of disrupt my routine of working on the farm at home, but I do manage to work around my hours and always get time off for lambing in March. With the working in the day time became a bit more responsibility, such as one of my responsibilities is ensuring that all of the first aid kits are fully equipped.

 

  • As time went on I started to learn even more on reception as I was covering anyone who was absent, I then started working shifts on the desk rather than lifeguarding, which led to me taking more of an interest in more of a leading role (DO). So by just before the first lockdown I began training to become a relief DO, and then from just before the second lockdown I started covering the odd weekend as DO, and by now I have a few DO shifts every week and have been given even more responsibility, that I enjoy.

 

  • I have also been given the opportunity to go on a level 2 gym instructors course, which comes in very useful with nearly everything I do, and for the past few months have been doing an ILM in team leading, which helps me massively with the DO work, helping me understanding more of the business side of things and dealing withpeo0ple, which is very different from dealing with sheep.

 

I do really enjoy having so many different roles in the centre, as every shift is different which keeps it interesting.