How to Become a Personal Trainer in Ireland

By Sean McGarrity · 9 April 2025

The straight answer on qualifications, cost and earnings. Plus the bit nobody else will tell you: what gym owners actually hire.

Let me guess how this started.

You found training, and somewhere along the way it stopped being a hobby and became part of who you are. You can't imagine a week without it.

Then something crazy happened. Friends and family started asking you for advice, then people down the gym. And you couldn't stop yourself from wanting to help, because when you did, it just felt awesome.

Now there's a wee voice in your head asking: what if this was what I got to do every day?

If that's you, you're in the right place. I've spent sixteen years helping people become personal trainers in Ireland, so I'm going to give you the straight answer first. Then I'm going to tell you the bit nobody else will.

The Short Answer

To become a personal trainer in Ireland you need an EQF Level 4 personal training qualification, ideally recognised by REPs Ireland (the Register of Exercise Professionals). Level 3 is the fitness instructor stage. Level 4 is the personal trainer.

Courses range from a few weekends of online videos to a few months in person. Prices go from a few hundred euro up to a few thousand.

That's it. That's the easy bit.

Here's the bit that's not.

Can You Be a Personal Trainer Without a Qualification?

Technically, yes. There's no law in Ireland stopping anyone calling themselves a personal trainer.

But decent gyms won't hire you, you'll struggle to get insured, and serious clients won't pay you. Most of all, you'll have zero experience actually coaching a human being.

Let me tell ye, there's a big difference between getting your name on a piece of paper that hangs on your wall, putting "PT" at the end of your name on bookface, and actually becoming a personal trainer. One who can change people's lives through coaching and build a real career out of it.

If you want the second one, read on.

Why So Many New PTs Don't Last

Plenty of people have PT certs collecting dust. You'll hear it said round the industry that 80% of new personal trainers are gone within their first year.

I've watched sixteen years of this. The ones who quit weren't lazy and they weren't stupid. They had the cert.

What they didn't have was a coaching system, the confidence to use it, or a clue how to get and keep paying clients.

Most courses teach a minimum standard that was written about twenty years ago and hasn't changed much since. It'll get you through the exam. It won't get you through your first nervous client consultation.

Start With Your Why

Before you look at a single course, answer this. Why do you want to become a personal trainer?

If what bubbles up sounds like "it feels awesome to help people", or "it doesn't feel like work, I come alive when I'm helping", or "I had a coach who changed things for me and I want to be that for someone else", then good. That client centred answer is exactly the kind of motivation I look for in Elite applicants. It's also the common denominator in all of the best coaches I've ever worked with.

Next, what do you want it to do for your life? In my experience people fall into one of four camps.

Some study personal training just for themselves and never plan to go pro. Totally cool, we see it all the time.

Some already work in physical health, like physios, massage therapists or yogis, and want another skill to help their clients even more.

Some want a side gig. Teachers who love fitness but don't want to leave the classroom. Happens a lot!

And some want this to be their full time career, in person, online, or both.

Get clear on which one you are. Skip it if you want. But just know it will come back to haunt you.

How Do You Want to Feel?

One question I always ask new applicants is this: "What do you want to gain from working with us, and how do you want to feel?"

The answer says a lot. Some think getting the cert is all it takes. Once you've got the paper, you're set, right?

The people who go on to do well nearly always say something different. They want to actually know what they're doing. They want to walk onto a gym floor and feel like they belong there.

Choosing a Course: The Curry Menu

So how do you choose? The way I see it there are three options.

And in my weird wee mind, it's kinda like Indian food. On any given Indian menu there are mild dishes, medium dishes, and then there's spicy.

Mild

Think chicken korma: easy to handle, no sweat. That's most online fitness courses. Watch a few videos, answer some multiple choice questions, and boom, your cert arrives in the post.

It's like reading a book on swimming and then diving into the deep end. You won't learn to coach from online lectures alone.

Medium

Now we're at chicken tikka masala. A bit more spice but still manageable. These are your standard courses with broad, decent coverage and nothing too deep.

They cover the industry basics, which is enough to get you teaching spin classes in a big gym. If that's all you need, go for the cheapest one or whoever you vibe with. Just know it'll make you a generalist, not a coach.

Spicy 🌶️

Here's where things get vindaloo level hot, and it's not for everyone.

Becoming a real personal trainer takes more than a cert. The ones who succeed are the ones who get clear on what they want and put in the work others won't. That means coaching, over and over, until it stops feeling scary and starts feeling like you.

What Spicy Actually Looks Like

Cert pirates teach from a manual. Elite teaches from a live laboratory.

Our course was built inside a working coaching gym in Blackrock, from sixteen years of real client results. The three of us who teach it still coach there every day, so we teach what we do, not what we read.

One of us, Jason Kane, trains double Olympic boxing champion Kellie Harrington. That's the level of coaching you're learning from.

You get 86 hours of practical coaching on the gym floor, where most courses give you somewhere between 10 and 20. You learn the GROW coaching model, motivational interviewing and behaviour change psychology, the stuff that keeps clients coming back. And you leave with a business plan, not just a cert.

It's all built on three words we live by. LEARN, LIVE, LEAD.

First you LEARN the system. Then you LIVE it: show up, refine your craft, and get bloody good until the mistakes stop. Only then can you LEAD, guiding clients with absolute confidence.

What Gym Owners Actually Hire

Here's the part that matters most, and the part you won't find in any course brochure.

Phil Giffney is an Elite graduate who built Results Fitness from nothing, and now runs it across Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire with around 250 clients. When he hires, he runs a five stage practical interview. He's put 30 candidates through it, degree holders included, and the Elite graduates stood out every single time.

His last four hires all came from us. In Phil's words: "They walk in, they know what they are doing, and they are ready to start on day one."

His head coach Craig described it best during his own interview with Phil: "They just beat it into you until you become a personal trainer."

Over in Glasthule, Darragh Butler runs DBK Fitness. He was already a qualified PT when he came to learn from us, and he's since hired a team of seven coaches, all Elite students. He can hire anyone he wants.

Darragh has interviewed people from every kind of course out there. He's never been able to hire anyone other than Elite students, because they're the only ones who show up with the knowledge, tools, skills and abilities he needs from someone coaching at his level.

That's the thing. Other courses aren't designed to create coaches. They're designed to create people who can tick wee boxes, use the machines and maybe design a circuits class. And nothing more.

Gym owners don't hire a piece of paper. They hire someone who's ready.

And the Ones Who Build Their Own

Not everyone wants to work for somebody else.

Danielle Hickey was a substitute cleaner in a preschool before she came to Elite. Not even two years after graduating, she opened her own personal training studio with every group full to the brim.

Ryan couldn't get a job in a gym, so he built his own. Last I heard he was flying it with nine clients and told me he'd actually shocked himself.

How Much Do Personal Trainers Earn in Ireland?

Straight answer, based on sixteen years of watching our coaches build careers.

Employed in a gym in your first year, you're looking at €28,000 to €35,000. Working for yourself with a solid book of clients, usually two to three years in, it's €40,000 to €60,000. Running your own small group sessions, €60,000 to €80,000 and up.

None of that is handed to you, and anyone promising otherwise is chancing their arm. I've broken the whole thing down properly in How Much Does a Personal Trainer Earn in Ireland.

What It Costs and Who It's For

The Elite Coaching Course is €3,497, and payment plans are available. It runs six weeks full time, or twelve weeks part time on Saturdays in Blackrock and Tuesday evenings online. Both are REPs Ireland accredited at EQF Level 3 and Level 4.

At the time of writing in 2026, the next full time courses start on September 22nd and November 3rd. For the latest dates and full details, check out our courses page.

It's application only, and not everyone gets in. What I'm looking for is simple. Someone who's friendly, coachable and willing to learn and grow.

That's what we mean when we say Elite material. If you show up with that? I can help with everything else.

And if you're after the cheapest route to a cert, this won't suit you. That's grand too.

Now It's Over to You

That's the path. If you've read this far, I think you know which menu option you're after.

So let's have a chat. I don't blow smoke up your hole. If I don't think you're ready or we're not the right fit, I'll tell you straight. You'll appreciate that.

Sean "Trainer Maker" McGarrity