Training options increase for operators.(Newsroom)(Professional Pool and Spa Operators' course)

With a growing number of training courses available, competition is rapidly increasing for the loyalty--and greenbacks--of pool operators.

The National Spa & Pool Institute debuted the newest offering, the Professional Pool and Spa Operators' course, at the International Pool & Spa Expo last fall in New Orleans. It started with eight instructors and 23 students, who will be officially certified when their states accept NSPI's programs. Frank Goldstein, the program's author, expects that to happen soon.

With the backing of Alexandria-Va.-based NSPI, the PPSO course is in a prime position to compete with the other programs in the industry: notably the National Swimming Pool Foundation's Certified Pool-Spa Operator course and the National Recreation and Park Association's Aquatic Facility Operator course.

All the training programs will be competing for the same students, the number of which will likely be increasing over the next couple of years.

Not many states require certification of pool operators, but local governments are increasingly adding guidelines within their codes that do suggest such certifications be obtained. That's partly because public pools are changing from the traditional flat-water pools and must be cared for differently than in the past. It's also in part because more information on pool water safety is being researched and released to the public. (The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control, for instance, issued a report last summer warning that many public pools were poorly maintained.)

But though all the organizations will be trolling in the same pool of commercial operators, they say there's room in the ...