A formal affiliation agreement between exercise registers operating in Australia and New Zealand with the Register of Exercise Professionals UK will take place at IHRSA in March.

This comes a year after technical mapping of qualifications and standards between the registers was completed, and the initiative has already worked successfully in practice, with exercise professionals moving between the three countries having their status of registration recognised. In addition, within the European Union, E-REPs is being set up, which will help manage the recognition of qualified exercise professionals on a central system by the European Health and Fitness Association.

The European standards are very comparable to those in the UK, so recognition of status will be relatively straightforward. The REPs UK is providing technical help and support to EHFA.