Career Outlook for Leisure and Recreation Management

Employment opportunities for leisure and recreation management professionals exist in hospitals, long-term care settings, municipal community recreation centres, school-aged childcare centres, rehabilitation centres and youth-focused organizations.

Nowadays, the career opportunities are also available in corporate settings where employers provide their employees with leisure and recreation facilities at the worksite, in order to keep them physically active and manage their mental stress. As employee health is directly related to productivity, employers are keen on introducing leisure and recreation programs for their people.

This has given rise to the demand for professionals who can create, implement and evaluate recreation and leisure programs and special events, responding to the specific needs of people. Another reason for their increased demand is general population's awareness on fitness, wellness and lifestyle management.

The individuals with a formal education and training in recreation and leisure management stand better chance of finding suitable employment opportunities. Not only this, recreation and leisure could be one of the most handsomely paying industries in future.

Work Life

The recreation and leisure workers have to perform a myriad of activities including:

• Creating and implementing leisure and recreation programs
• Identifying the individual needs of clients to maximize the delivery of recreation benefits
• Promoting leisure programs, social events and recreational programs
• Ensuring safety at recreation venues
• Making research and planning strategies
• Developing plans for personal and professional growth and development
• Designing and delivering recreational programs and special events
• Raising funds for special events

The leisure and recreation professionals may require working in variety of weather conditions. They may work indoors as well as outdoors, depending upon their employment, type of industry they work in and their individual qualification and experience.

Leisure and Recreation Management Education

Centennial College's leisure and recreation management course prepares students for assuming many roles including first-line practitioners, leaders, teachers, group facilitators, referral workers, counsellors, advocates, coaches and outreach workers in the field of recreation and leisure. It features classroom learning, complemented with an extensive supervised field placement program, allowing students to gain critical practical skills by putting their classroom learning into real life situations.

The two-year, post-secondary program covers a wide range of subjects including:

• Recreation programming
• Gerontology and wellness
• Child and youth development
• Group dynamics
• Therapeutic recreation
• Healthy lifestyle management
• Cultural awakening
• The business of recreation
• Community development
• Communications
• Recreation management

The curriculum also focuses on wellness, culture and heritage and diversity management. Besides, supervised field placements take place for two days a week in the second semester and three days a week in third and fourth semesters.

Qualified graduates can choose to either pursue their careers or opt for an advanced leisure and recreation management degree at a university by applying their academic credits towards further study.

Admission Requirements

In order to apply for this program, students will need:

• Secondary school diploma or equivalent
• English Grade 12 C or University of equivalent

After admission, you will be required to submit:

• A clear police check with vulnerable sector screening
• A proof of immunization
• Minimum C grade in each English course

Volunteer work in a related field is recommended prior to application; however, it’s not mandatory. Applicants will also need to attend program admission session.