Swim instructor work opportunities in North Battleford, SK

Independent · Contractor · Part-time · Full-time

A Propel instructor teaching an adult to swim

Teaching with Propel

Get started

Who we are

Propel is a fast-growing company on a mission to change how the world learns to swim. Founded by swim instructors who had spent years inside the old system, we set out to break a status quo that left families on endless waitlists and instructors undervalued. In doing so we created something that did not exist before, and today we lead it: a new industry of swim instructors who independently teach on their own terms.

Who you are

You put in your time on the pool deck and taught more kids to swim than you can count. You know your craft and you don't need micromanaging. You are ready for more.

  • You enjoy teaching others the lifelong skill of swimming
  • You're a great communicator and love working with people
  • You're independent and can manage your time effectively

What you'll be responsible for

During lessons you run, you'll own every swimmer's experience from start to finish.

  • Keep your students safe, providing hands-on support throughout each lesson
  • Run effective lessons using your own style and teaching framework
  • Take each swimmer toward a goal, from absolute beginner to vacation swimmer

What qualifications you'll need

  • A recognized swim instructor certification (Lifesaving Society Swim Instructor, YMCA, or equivalent)
  • At least one year of paid experience teaching swim lessons

Why you'll love it

When people book lessons on Propel, they don't sign up to learn from whoever is scheduled to teach Level 3. Instead they choose you as their instructor. The students who start with you, stay with you, and you can take them from absolute beginner all the way to vacation-ready swimmer. Along the way you'll run into challenges: fear of water, bad habits to fix, and skills that plateau. It's up to you to break through those barriers, and when you do, the reward is knowing you changed lives while receiving gratitude from those you've helped. The day-to-day is good too:

  • Set your own schedule, teaching only when it fits your life
  • Teach 1 or 2 students at a time in quiet private pools
  • Give feedback how you see fit: out loud, on paper, or by DM
  • Earn more. Instructors took home an average of $52/hr in 2025

Our commitment to inclusion

You belong here. Propel welcomes instructors of every background and identity, and we want everyone, instructors and students alike, to feel safe, respected, and free to be themselves. We especially love the ones who never quite fit the mould elsewhere: if you teach with your own curriculum, your own framework, your own style, this is where it belongs.

Join our community

Comparing North Battleford swim instructor opportunities

One pool serves the whole Battlefords region, so the City of North Battleford that operates it is effectively the entire local field, leaving Propel as one of a small number of other ways to teach here. That makes the City simultaneously the employer, the certifier, and the landlord of the profession: it employs every aquatic worker in that pool and teaches every rung of the certification ladder itself. There is no second local employer to line it up against, so the nearest comparison is the closest municipality that employs lifeguards and swim instructors at pools of its own: the City of Lloydminster, 140 km west on Highway 16. Nobody should read that as a commute. It is there to answer a question the Battlefords cannot answer from inside itself, which is what the same work, on the same Lifesaving Society awards, pays somewhere else on the prairies. If you are starting from zero, the City of North Battleford is the door, and it says plainly that it will train you. Once you have a year of teaching behind you, the comparison changes: on Propel you set your own rate, choose your own students, and keep the clients you build. Here is how the paths compare.

PropelCity of North BattlefordCity of Lloydminster
Required certifications
  • Lifesaving Society Swim for Life Instructor or
  • YMCA Swim Instructor or
  • equivalent
  • National Lifeguard (or equivalent) and
  • Standard First Aid with CPR-C/AED and
  • clear Criminal Record Check with Vulnerable Sector on hire
  • National Lifeguard Award and
  • Swim for Life Instructor and
  • Standard First Aid with CPR-C and
  • Criminal Record Check with Vulnerable Sector before employment
Experience required1 year minimumNo minimum published. The City advertises "We can train you"No minimum published. The posting lists awards rather than years
When can you startYear round, anytimeContinuously; postings close when a suitable candidate is found, not on a fixed dateContinuously; postings close when a candidate is found, and aquatic roles are posted several times a year
Starting hoursSet your own schedule, anytime15 to 30 hours a week, part-time, across a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. span. The City's stated shortage is weekdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.Full-time and continuing, across mornings, days, evenings and weekends; weekend availability required
Compensation$52/hr (average take-home in 2025)$21.21/hr Lifeguard/Instructor; $21.13/hr Aquatics Instructor; $20.80/hr Lifeguard$24.85/hr starting for Lifeguard/Instructor (Band 2), rising to $27.12; $22.07/hr starting for Lifeguard (Band 1)
Who you'll teachAges 2 and up, any level you chooseAssigned classes in the City's Swim for Life programAssigned classes in the City's Swim for Life program at the Bioclean Aquatic Centre, plus the outdoor pool in season
Students per hour1 or 24 to 124 to 12
Teach your own clients?Yes, bring outside clients anytimeNot permitted. The City's facility guidelines restrict swim instruction to City instructorsNot permitted
Cost to qualifySwim instructor certification onlyAbout $800 to $1,050 before tax, depending on whether you add the teaching awardNot published, though the City teaches the full award ladder itself
Insurance coverage$10,000,000Not publishedNot published

New to aquatics? All three paths start with the same certifications. See our guide on how to become a lifeguard or swimming instructor, or learn more about teaching with Propel.

Teaching with the City of North Battleford

Teaching for the City of North Battleford is the region's only municipal aquatic path, and it is unusually open at the front door and unusually flat once you are inside. The City is short-staffed and says so: postings stay open until someone is found, the recruitment line is "we can train you," and the gap it most wants filled is weekday daytime rather than the after-school rush that drives hiring in bigger cities. What the role does not offer is a raise for staying. The collective agreement prices the front-line aquatic classifications at a single flat rate with no service steps, so the way pay moves is the negotiated annual increase or a promotion into a team leader role.

The application process

Applying is a document exercise rather than a portal exercise. The City asks you to note the job posting number on the application, warns that "applications without a posting number will not be considered," and asks for your cover letter, resume and supporting documents combined into a single Word or PDF file named with the posting number, the job name and your last name. Human Resources shortlists from there, and only shortlisted candidates are contacted for an interview. A clear Criminal Record Check with Vulnerable Sector is required on hire, which places it after selection rather than as a screening gate. The Lifeguard/Instructor posting also asks applicants to submit a schedule of the days and times they are available alongside their resume. No in-water screening or timed swim test is published as part of the process for any of the City's aquatic postings, which sets North Battleford apart from the larger municipal systems on the prairies. Postings carry no closing date; they stay live until filled.

Building seniority

Seniority buys you scheduling standing, not a higher rate. In the CUPE Local 287 agreement covering 2025 to 2028, every classification across the City's other divisions carries Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 columns keyed to 2,080, 4,160 and 6,240 hours of service. The four front-line aquatic classifications carry none. Assistant Lifeguard, Lifeguard, Aquatics Instructor and Lifeguard/Instructor each sit at one flat rate, spread across just 55 cents in 2026, from $20.66 to $21.21. Adding a teaching award to a plain lifeguarding role moves you 41 cents an hour, from $20.80 to $21.21, and the City's own swim instructor course costs $220.00 before tax at fees effective 2026-07-01. The first rung where service steps reappear is Aquatics Team Leader, at $24.39 to $25.77 in 2026 depending on years of service, and that role does require a Lifesaving Society swim instruction certification.

Long-term career opportunities

The ladder above the deck is short and clearly priced. Aquatics Team Leader and Head Team Leader run from $24.39 to $26.49 an hour in 2026 across their three service years, and the highest-paid aquatic classification in the entire agreement, Aquatics Operator II, runs $30.25 to $31.77 in 2026. That is a facility operations role rather than a teaching one. Because the City owns the only pool in the Battlefords, there is no lateral move available: in Calgary or Vancouver an instructor can certify with one organization and work for another, and here the employer, the certifier and the water are the same organization. The Town of Battleford operates no pool at all, so the region's recreation planning is shared across two municipalities while every aquatic job in it has a single employer. Career progression in this system means moving from teaching toward supervision and operations, on a grid you can read four years in advance.

What the same job pays in Lloydminster

The Battlefords has one aquatic employer, which makes the local pay question unanswerable locally. The nearest place to answer it is the City of Lloydminster, 140 km west on Highway 16, which runs two municipal pools and hires lifeguards and swim instructors for them under an agreement with CUPE Local 1015. This is not a commute and this page will not pretend otherwise. It is a reference point, and a fair one: the same stretch of Highway 16, the same small prairie city scale, the same Lifesaving Society awards, and a municipality that likewise certifies its own staff and likewise sells private lessons. Two numbers and one absence are what carry over. One note on the paperwork: Lloydminster sits on the Alberta side for employment purposes, so its agreement and its pool rules are written to Alberta law rather than Saskatchewan's.

What the rate ladder looks like

Lloydminster starts a Lifeguard/Instructor at $24.85 an hour and takes the rate to $27.12 at 6,240 hours of service, per the 2026 wage exhibit of its CUPE Local 1015 agreement, and the City's own posting for the role quotes that same band end to end. The structure matters more than the gap. CUPE 1015 keys its aquatic classifications to service levels at 2,080, 4,160 and 6,240 hours, which is the identical hour ladder written into North Battleford's CUPE Local 287 agreement for every classification except its front-line aquatic ones. Read the two agreements side by side and the effect is plain: a Lloydminster guard who has logged 6,240 hours has had three raises for the service alone, while a North Battleford guard at 6,240 hours is paid the day-one rate for the classification. The teaching award behaves differently too. In Lloydminster, holding the instructor award moves you from Band 1 to Band 2, worth $2.78 an hour at hire ($22.07 to $24.85, 2026 exhibit; the Band 1 figure is carried by the agreement alone). In North Battleford the same award moves you 41 cents, inside a four-rung front-line ladder that spans 55 cents in total. Instructors on Propel took home an average of $52 an hour in 2025, and set their own rate rather than sitting anywhere on a grid.

The rule that turns out to be local

North Battleford publishes a facility guideline restricting swim instruction to its own certified instructors, one that enumerates "assisting a patron with technique" as instructing and then points would-be buyers back to City staff. It is easy to read that as simply how municipal pools work. Lloydminster is evidence that it is not. Its Bioclean Aquatic Centre publishes a pool ruleset of comparable detail, covering cleansing showers, swim apparel, adult supervision under age seven and lane-swim conditions, and it sells private lessons for swimmers five and older. Across five sources that would carry such a rule, including the complete CUPE 1015 agreement and the 2025 fees and charges bylaw, there is no outside-instruction, moonlighting or conflict-of-interest clause at all (checked 2026-09-01). Two prairie municipalities 140 km apart, both certifying their own staff, both selling private lessons, and only one of them has written the prohibition down. What North Battleford's rule reflects is a local policy choice rather than a regional norm, which is worth knowing when you are deciding where a teaching practice of your own can actually be run.

Long-term career opportunities

The ladder above the deck in Lloydminster is short and priced in the same exhibit: Aquatic Specialist, Band 3, runs $27.96 to $30.71 across the same four service levels in 2026, and the City's posting for that role quotes the band verbatim. It asks for considerably more than a teaching award, namely Swim and Lifesaving Instructor, Swim and Lifesaving Trainer, National Lifeguard, National Lifeguard Instructor, Standard First Aid with CPR-C and Standard First Aid Instructor, plus a one-year post-secondary certificate in a related discipline and three years of aquatics experience. One structural difference is worth carrying home. Because Lloydminster has an outdoor pool as well as an indoor one, its annual maintenance closure at Bioclean is partly absorbed rather than absolute; the Battlefords, with a single pool, goes fully offline. The published CUPE 1015 wage exhibit runs only to the end of 2026, so every Lloydminster figure on this page is stated as of the 2026 schedule and should be read that way.

Common questions about swim instructor jobs in North Battleford

Can you teach private swim lessons at the Battlefords CO-OP Aquatic Centre?+

Not on your own. The City of North Battleford publishes a facility guideline stating that it does not permit individuals or external groups to provide swim instruction in the facility, and that swim instruction is restricted to City of North Battleford Parks and Recreation qualified and certified swimming instructors (cityofnb.ca facility rules and guidelines, as of August 2026). The rule enumerates what counts as instructing: writing or designing a lesson plan, demonstrating or explaining specific skills in the water or on the deck, and providing feedback and corrections including assisting a patron with technique. The same guideline adds that arrangements can be made for private instruction by contacting an on-site staff member, and read together with the sentence before it, that arrangement is a booking with a City instructor. The City sells that product directly at $126.00 for five 30-minute private lessons (rates effective July 1, 2026). Propel works differently: lessons happen in partner pools, where teaching privately is what the pool is there for.

Does swim instructor pay in North Battleford go up the longer you stay?+

Not by itself. The City's collective agreement with CUPE Local 287, covering 2025 to 2028, prices Assistant Lifeguard, Lifeguard, Aquatics Instructor and Lifeguard/Instructor at a single flat rate each, with no Year 1, Year 2 or Year 3 service columns. Every other classification in the agreement, across all seven of its divisions, has those columns. In practice that means someone can work 6,240 hours on the deck and still be paid the starting rate for their classification. Pay moves in two ways only: the negotiated annual increase written into the agreement, which takes Lifeguard/Instructor from $21.21 in 2026 to $22.51 in 2028, and promotion into Aquatics Team Leader, where service steps reappear. On Propel there is no grid at all. You set your own rate and change it when you decide to, and instructors took home an average of $52/hr in 2025 across all experience levels.

How much do swim instructors make in North Battleford?+

The City of North Battleford pays $21.21 an hour for a Lifeguard/Instructor and $21.13 for the teaching-only Aquatics Instructor classification, per the 2026 wage schedule in its CUPE Local 287 agreement. The Lifeguard/Instructor figure is confirmed by the City's own July 2026 posting for the role. A plain Lifeguard is $20.80 and an Assistant Lifeguard is $20.66. Instructors on Propel set their own rates, and in 2025 they took home an average of $52 an hour, which is an average across all experience levels rather than a starting figure and varies with your price, availability, location, season and demand. One caution while you research: the City's aquatic centre rates page still advertises $18.21 and $18.65 an hour, figures that match no year of the current agreement. The agreement and the dated job postings agree with each other.

What certifications do you need to teach swimming in North Battleford?+

In Saskatchewan the teaching award is the Lifesaving Society Saskatchewan Branch's Lifesaving Instructor / Swim for Life Instructor, and the learn-to-swim program the City runs is Swim for Life. Every posted aquatic role at the City currently asks for a lifeguarding credential: National Lifeguard or equivalent for Lifeguard and Lifeguard/Instructor roles, Bronze Cross for Assistant Lifeguard, plus Standard First Aid with CPR-C and AED in all cases, and a clear Criminal Record Check with Vulnerable Sector on hire. Candidates under 16 applying for Assistant Lifeguard also need a Young Workers Readiness Certificate, a Saskatchewan requirement. Propel asks for a recognized swim instructor certification and a year of paid teaching experience, and not for a lifeguarding award, because you are teaching a private lesson rather than guarding a public swim.

What does it cost to get certified in North Battleford, and where do the courses run?+

Every course in the ladder is taught at the Battlefords CO-OP Aquatic Centre by the City, which is both the region's only aquatic employer and its only certifying venue. At fees effective July 1, 2026 and before tax, Bronze Medallion is $164.00, Bronze Cross $175.00, National Lifeguard $325.00, Standard First Aid with AED and CPR $148.00, and the swim instructor course $220.00. Qualifying for the posted Lifeguard/Instructor role therefore runs to roughly $800 to $1,050 depending on whether you add the teaching award. The City states the required order as Bronze Medallion, then Bronze Cross, then National Lifeguard. Timing matters more here than price: the City's own program guides show the Bronze awards and National Lifeguard offered two or more times per cycle, while the Swim for Life Instructor course is offered once, at the one facility. Plan around that single offering.

How does hiring work for aquatic jobs with the City of North Battleford?+

Applications go in by email as a single document, not through an applicant tracking system. The City asks you to note the posting number on the application, states that applications without a posting number will not be considered, and asks that your cover letter, resume and supporting documents be combined into one Word or PDF file named with the posting number, job name and your last name. Human Resources reviews and shortlists, only shortlisted candidates are contacted, and a Criminal Record Check with Vulnerable Sector is required on hire. Aquatic postings have no closing date and stay open until someone suitable is found, so there is no application window to miss. No in-water skills screen or timed swim test is published as part of the process. The City states plainly that it will train the right candidate.

Do you have to be a lifeguard to teach swimming in North Battleford?+

On paper, no. The City's wage grid contains a teaching-only classification, Aquatics Instructor, at $21.13 an hour for 2026, which requires no lifeguarding award. In practice that classification was not being posted as of August 2026, and the role the City actually advertises is Lifeguard/Instructor at $21.21, which asks for National Lifeguard. So the realistic municipal door for a newly certified instructor is the combined role, and the combined role wants a lifeguarding credential. Teaching and guarding are separate qualifications everywhere in Canada; it is employers who bundle them. Propel does not: a recognized swim instructor certification is the credential that matters, because your hour is spent teaching one or two swimmers rather than watching a public swim.

Can you teach year round in the Battlefords?+

Not at the City's pool. Because the Battlefords has exactly one indoor pool and no outdoor pools at all, the annual maintenance shutdown at the Battlefords CO-OP Aquatic Centre takes the region's entire aquatic capacity offline for several weeks each year, ending lessons, public swim and aquatic work everywhere in the region at once. Cities with several pools stagger their maintenance so that one closure never does this. It is worth planning around if aquatic work is a meaningful part of your income. The Town of Battleford operates no pool, so there is no second venue to move to inside the region. Teaching on Propel is scheduled around partner pool availability instead, and you decide when you teach and when you do not.

Start teaching in North Battleford

Join a community of like-minded swim instructors, who each teach their own way in a network of private pools across Canada.

Sign up to teach on Propel

City of North Battleford wage figures are from the Hourly Wage Schedule "A", Division 05, of the Collective Agreement between the City of North Battleford and CUPE Local 287 covering January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2028, as of 2026-08-31; the 2026 Lifeguard/Instructor, Lifeguard and Aquatic Team Leader rates are corroborated by the City's dated job postings of July 2, 2026. Certification course fees, private lesson prices and the recruitment statements are from the Battlefords CO-OP Aquatic Centre rates page, effective 2026-07-01, accessed 2026-08-31. The facility rule on swim instruction is quoted from the Battlefords CO-OP Aquatic Centre rules and guidelines page, accessed 2026-08-31. Application process details are from cityofnb.ca Parks and Recreation jobs, accessed 2026-08-31. The City of North Battleford certification requirements, the Criminal Record Check with Vulnerable Sector on hire and the 15 to 30 hour weekly shift span are from its Lifeguard/Instructor posting of July 2, 2026, accessed 2026-08-31. Certification award naming is from the Lifesaving Society Saskatchewan Branch, accessed 2026-08-31. Cost-to-qualify ranges are sums of the City's published course fees. City of Lloydminster wage figures are from Exhibit "A", Year 2026, of the Collective Agreement between the City of Lloydminster and CUPE Local 1015 covering January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2026, accessed 2026-09-01; the Band 2 Lifeguard/Instructor band of $24.85 to $27.12 and the Band 3 Aquatic Specialist band of $27.96 to $30.71 are corroborated by the City's own job postings on lloydminster.applytojob.com, accessed 2026-09-01, and the Band 1 Lifeguard rate of $22.07 rests on the agreement alone. Lloydminster certification requirements, hiring process, shift pattern and pool ruleset are from the City's Lifeguard/Instructor posting, its careers page and its Bioclean Aquatic Centre pages, accessed 2026-09-01; the absence of an outside-instruction rule is a negative finding across those pages, the full CUPE 1015 agreement and Fees and Charges Bylaw 20-2025, checked 2026-09-01. The statement that the Town of Battleford employs no aquatic staff is from battleford.ca, Battleford Tot Lot and Parks and Recreation pages, accessed 2026-09-01. The 140 km road distance is a routing lookup, as of 2026-09. Class ratios are per Lifesaving Society Swim for Life program standards. Propel earnings are the measured average take-home pay of instructors on Propel in 2025; actual earnings vary with your price, availability, location, season, and demand.

Help

© 2026 Propel HQ Inc.
Made with ❤️ in Canada