The Importance of Continuing Education in the Pole Dance Industry

Participating in continuing education on a regular basis will promote life-long learning and improve the instruction and care of the students of our pole industry. If you a studio owner or pole dance instructor, then you should consider doing continuing education.

Although not required for pole professionals, opportunities for continuing education in the pole dance industry have been certainly increasing in recent years, especially with the movement toward online learning.

What is continuing education?

Continuing education is an opportunity to learn after already completing a particular level of education. Many careers require continuing education. In medicine, it is defined as educational activities that maintain or increase the knowledge and skills of a healthcare professional. Completing continuing education is often required for healthcare professionals in order to maintain their licensure or certification.

Examples of Continuing Education in the Pole Dance Industry

Let’s provide an example in the pole industry: A pole dancer becomes a certified instructor. After obtaining that certification, the pole dancer eventually takes a course on a new topic or gets an additional certification to increase their teaching portfolio.

How about an example for a studio owner? A studio owner wants to broader her reach, so she takes a course on business marketing. This could be considered continuing education. Or the studio owner wants to address diversity and inclusion at her studio, so she hires a trained professional to provide an educational seminar on diversity and inclusion to her and her instructors.

Pole professionals could also attend workshops or conferences, like PoleCon, as continuing education. And continuing education doesn’t have to occur just in pole dance. Attending a yoga workshop or going to a general fitness conference could also be considered continuing education.

So why should you be doing continuing education?

Continuing education helps you stay current in the pole dance industry. It allows pole professionals to learn about ways to constantly improve their practice in order to provide the best care and instruction to students. It can also improve career satisfaction by keeping learning interesting and exciting.

Continuing education provides an excellent opportunity for professional development. You are not only learning new knowledge and skills, but you are also increasing your career opportunities. Doing continuing education could also improve your own marketability. The educational activities that you partake in could and should be listed on your resume!

Participating in continuing education also provides a great ability to network in the pole dance industry. When you take new workshops or seminars, you are constantly meeting new students, instructors, and business owners. This expands your network and creates further opportunity to learn from (or teach) other professionals as well. If you are a business owner, networking that arises from participating in continuing education may even help your business grow!

Final Thoughts

Engaging in continuing education and life-long learning will strengthen our pole dance industry. Maintaining and increasing knowledge and skills will allow pole professionals to provide the best care and instruction to our pole dancers, thereby setting a high standard for our industry.

The IPIA offers several opportunities and discounts for educational activities through their continuing education partners.