Kate Williams

Kate has her own company as a personal trainer and works for a rehabilitation company helping a wide range of clients with their long-term medical conditions. We caught up with Kate to find out more.

How did studying at Solent help with your career?

What the course did for me was give me the confidence to put myself out there and have faith in myself to give things a go without fear of failing. I found the course so interesting - the diverse, but related, modules really made sense to me and I could see how they all linked. If you’re wanting to work in the health and fitness sector I think you need a course which is dedicated to it and teaches you sufficiently about nutrition, exercise training, and the psychology of health and fitness; I found that this course did that.

What do you like about working as a personal trainer and with patients at a rehabilitation company?

I like that I work with a range of people with a range of health and fitness goals. One day I have my PT clients who want to get really fit, lose weight or train for an event and the next I’m with my Parkinson’s, dementia or cancer patients, making a real impact in their lives. I work with doctors, nurses and physios and they put me on lots of courses so my learning continues.

What did you like about studying at Solent?

Southampton is a great place to study and you won’t be short of things to get involved with. I liked the fresh, current vibe of Solent University, everyone is so nice and helpful.

The course is great, it really gives you an insight into all the different aspects of health, fitness, and wellbeing, and prepares you for the future. There are so many additional qualifications you can get on top of your degree which adds real value and opens up your options as well. As well as my degree, I took the opportunities for additional qualifications including exercise referral, personal training, nutrition and a motivational interviewing certificate. I must admit I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, or be, when I started my degree, but the beauty of this course is that it allows you time to develop your strengths and interests as you go through. I’d say by the middle of my second year I decided it was the exercise science and personal training I liked most and then I had my focus, but I’d taken my time to see, and not been tied to a career from the start so I knew I was making the right decisions.