Swim instructor work opportunities in Richmond Hill, ON

Independent · Contractor · Part-time · Full-time

A Propel instructor teaching an adult to swim

Teaching with Propel

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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.

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Comparing Richmond Hill swim instructor opportunities

The City operates all six public pools in Richmond Hill and hires the whole aquatic workforce through a single posting that stays open year round, which leaves an instructor here three realistic paths: the City, a YMCA branch a municipality over in Markham, or Propel. The City's entry rate is the lowest of any city on this site, and it will hire you before your certifications are finished. The nonprofit option is real, then, but it is not local, and that cuts both ways. The Markham branch posts $23.50 an hour for swim instructors as of 2026-09, which is more than any City of Richmond Hill aquatic classification pays, including the $21.38 top of the City's front-line band; getting it means driving out of town for your shifts. The City, meanwhile, pays $19.23 and $21.38 an hour on its 2026-2027 posting. Instructors on Propel set their own price and took home an average of $52/hr in 2025, in pools inside Richmond Hill. Here is how the three compare.

PropelCity of Richmond HillYMCA of Greater Toronto (Markham)
Required certifications
  • Lifesaving Society Swim Instructor or
  • YMCA Swim Instructor or
  • Equivalent
  • Standard or Intermediate First Aid and
  • Bronze Cross and
  • Swim Instructor and
  • Lifesaving Instructor (Aquatic Swim Instructor II);
  • National Lifeguard (Pool) instead of Bronze Cross for Aquatic Swim Instructor I
  • Current YMCA or
  • Lifesaving Society Swim Instructor certification and
  • National Lifeguard and
  • Intermediate First Aid with CPR-C and AED, all held before the first day of work
Experience required1 year minimumNo minimum; certification may be completed by your second sessionNo minimum published; the certifications are the bar
When can you startYear round, anytimeOne posting open year round; not all pools hire applicants each sessionPosting by posting, each carrying its own dated application deadline and anticipated start date
Starting hoursSet your own schedule anytimePermanent part time, assigned across mornings, days, evenings and weekendsRegular part time, hours posted as "as needed"
Compensation$52/hr (average take-home in 2025)
  • $19.23/hr Aquatic Swim Instructor II
  • $21.38/hr Aquatic Swim Instructor I
  • Posted band $17.60 to $21.38
$23.50/hr swim instructor, $21.00/hr lifeguard
Who you'll teach2yrs+, any level you chooseSession class assignments across your pool pairingRegistered lesson classes assigned by the branch
Students per hour1 or 24 to 12Set by the branch
Teach your own clients?Yes, bring outside clients anytimeNot permitted. Recreational swims are non-instructional and private lessons during them are prohibitedNot permitted
Where you teachPartner pools across Richmond Hill and the GTASix City indoor poolsMarkham YMCA, outside Richmond Hill
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 Richmond Hill

The City of Richmond Hill is the aquatic employer in this municipality. It runs all six public pools, trains the certifications itself, and staffs Attendants, Lifeguards and both Swim Instructor tiers through one posting. It is also the most forgiving front door in the region: no resume, no cover letter, applicants accepted from age 15, and a full year to apply. What the job does not do is pay for the teaching credential you spent roughly $1,159 to earn. Aquatic Swim Instructor II and Aquatic Lifeguard are both $19.23 an hour, so the two instructor awards on top of Bronze Cross move you sideways rather than up. Only National Lifeguard moves the number, by $2.15 an hour.

The application process

Richmond Hill runs one umbrella requisition for the entire aquatic workforce, open from March 2026 to March 2027, so there is no narrow window to miss. The posting states plainly that no resume or cover letter is required. You need a Social Insurance Number, an age of at least 15, a profile made with a personal email, and a valid Lifesaving Society ID, which the City uses to verify your awards against the Society's Find a Member registry; anything not visible there gets emailed to the aquatic employment address. A satisfactory Police Vulnerable Sector Check is required. From there you register for an in-person Aquatic Employment Screening, and the City publishes six in-water standards you will be asked to demonstrate and maintain, including a 50m swim in 60 seconds or less, 400m in 10 minutes or less, and recovering a 20lb object from the deep end. Candidates fully certified as Swim and Lifesaving Instructors with National Lifeguard are considered first; partly certified applicants are considered if positions remain. Two practical notes from the posting itself: not all pools hire applicants each session, and if a pool other than your preferred one reaches out, you are encouraged to accept.

Building seniority

Progress here is measured in certifications rather than in years. Your classification is assigned from the awards attached to your Lifesaving Society ID, which means guarding and teaching are not separate applications and moving between them is a training question, not a re-hiring question. The ladder is short. Aquatic Attendant is $17.60, Aquatic Lifeguard and Aquatic Swim Instructor II are both $19.23, and Aquatic Swim Instructor I is $21.38, a total spread of $3.78 across the whole front line on the 2026-2027 posting. The one upgrade that changes your rate is National Lifeguard (Pool), worth $2.15 an hour. The City is also the training provider, teaching the full Lifesaving Society pathway at Centennial, Bayview Hill, Elgin West, Oak Ridges and Richvale, with course fees that include Society certification and materials, and with Richmond Hill Libraries lending Bronze Medallion, Swim and Lifesaving Instructor and National Lifeguard manuals against a credit from the Aquatic Supervisor. Recertification is on you: Lifesaving Society awards expire two years from certification, first aid every three.

Long-term career opportunities

Front-line aquatic staff report to Aquatic Supervisors and to the Aquatic Coordinator of their pool pairing, so there is a supervisory structure above the deck. What the City does not publish is a wage scale above Aquatic Swim Instructor I. Its collective agreement, CUPE Local 905.16, which runs to March 31 2027, contains no Lifeguard, Instructor, Attendant or Aquatic classification anywhere in its wage schedule; the only pool-related entry is Facility Operator I (Pools), a plant and mechanical role at $33.00 starting and $34.66 at job rate effective 2025-04-01. The recognition clause in that agreement excludes anyone regularly employed for not more than 24 hours a week along with students employed during school vacation, which is the carve-out the permanent part time aquatic workforce sits inside. The practical consequence is worth knowing before you plan a career around it: aquatic teaching in Richmond Hill is a posted hourly job with a published ceiling of $21.38, and the next rung the City publishes is a different trade.

Teaching with the YMCA of Greater Toronto in Markham

The second institutional aquatic employer available to a Richmond Hill instructor is not in Richmond Hill. YMCA of Greater Toronto lists twelve branches and none of them is here; the nearest, worked out from the published branch addresses, is the Markham YMCA at 101 YMCA Boulevard, just over Richmond Hill's eastern boundary on the Highway 7 corridor. Two branches sit in York Region, Markham and the David Braley Vaughan Centre, and Markham is both the closer one and the one carrying an aquatic staffing footprint. The trade it offers is legible: as of 2026-09 the branch posts $23.50 an hour for swim instructors and $21.00 an hour for lifeguards, so teaching pays more there than anywhere on the City of Richmond Hill's aquatic band, and the commute is the price of the difference.

The application process

The Y hires posting by posting rather than through one always-open requisition, so there is a deadline to meet instead of a year to apply in. Each aquatic posting names its own application deadline and its own anticipated start date, and the August 2026 Markham, Vaughan, West End and Brampton postings all clustered on September starts. The published stages are more formal than the City's: an application through the Y's job board, an interview where every candidate is asked the same questions, an explicit assessment of suitability for working with children and vulnerable people, typically three references from current or former employers before any offer, an offer conditional on a police records check, and a Vulnerable Sector Check within your first four months and every three years after. The Y's published recruitment policy adds that an acceptable police records check must be received before employment commences and that no hiring decision is made by a single individual. Where Richmond Hill asks for no resume and no cover letter, this is a conventional hiring process with references and a reference-check step attached.

Certifications, and why the nearest branch is the strictest

The instructor credential itself is simpler than the City's. Markham asks for one current Swim Instructor certification and accepts either the Y's own award or the Lifesaving Society's, against the City's stack of four awards. The catch is everything around it. Markham requires National Lifeguard as well, so there is no teaching-only entry point at the Y the way there is at the City, and it requires Intermediate First Aid with CPR-C and AED where the Toronto-side branches, West End and Brampton, accept Standard First Aid. The nearest branch to Richmond Hill is the more demanding one on first aid, and all of it is required before your first day of work. That is the sharpest contrast in this comparison: Richmond Hill will hire you part-certified and give you until your second session to finish, and the Y will not start you at all until the awards are in hand.

What it does and does not give you

It gives you the better posted teaching rate of the two employers on this page, a year-round indoor pool, and a combined role where guarding hours and teaching hours are paid at two different rates on the same job, which the City's single classification band does not do. What it costs is locality. Your shifts, your commute and any last-minute schedule change happen in another municipality, and hours at the branch are posted as needed rather than guaranteed. What stays the same as anywhere you are on staff is who owns the lesson: the branch registers the class, sets the ratio, assigns the students and keeps the relationship with the family. Choosing who you teach and what you charge is not something a branch program can hand you.

Common questions about swim instructor jobs in Richmond Hill

How much do swim instructors make in Richmond Hill?+

A newly certified instructor with the City of Richmond Hill starts at $19.23/hr as an Aquatic Swim Instructor II, per the City's 2026-2027 aquatic employment posting, and reaches $21.38/hr as an Aquatic Swim Instructor I after adding the National Lifeguard (Pool) award. The full posted aquatic band is $17.60 to $21.38. The nearest nonprofit employer pays more but is not in Richmond Hill: the YMCA of Greater Toronto's Markham branch posts $23.50/hr for swim instructors and $21.00/hr for lifeguards as of 2026-09. On Propel you set your own price, and instructors took home an average of $52/hr in 2025. That figure is an average across all experience levels and locations rather than a starting rate or a promise; your own earnings move with your price, your availability, the season, and demand.

Do you need to be a lifeguard to teach swimming in Richmond Hill?+

No. Richmond Hill is one of the few municipalities in the region with a real teaching-only entry point. Aquatic Swim Instructor II requires Standard or Intermediate First Aid, Bronze Cross, Swim Instructor and Lifesaving Instructor, with no National Lifeguard award. Adding National Lifeguard (Pool) moves you to Aquatic Swim Instructor I and raises the rate by $2.15/hr, so the guarding credential is an upgrade rather than a gate. That is the opposite of Toronto and Mississauga, where lifeguarding certification is a precondition for teaching at all. Teaching private lessons on Propel works the same way: a recognized swim instructor certification is what matters, because you are teaching one or two students in a partner pool rather than guarding a public swim.

Can you start working for the City of Richmond Hill before you are fully certified?+

Yes, and this is unusual. The posting states that hired applicants who are not certified as Swim and Lifesaving Instructors along with National Lifeguard must become fully certified prior to their second session of employment. In practice the City hires you, pays you in whatever classification your current awards support (Aquatic Attendant at $17.60/hr with only Bronze Cross and first aid), and gives you until your second session to finish the stack. Fully certified applicants are still screened first, and partly certified ones are considered when positions remain unfilled. It is a genuinely easier front door than most municipalities offer. What it does not change is where the ladder tops out once you get through it.

Can you teach private swim lessons on your own in Richmond Hill?+

Not during a public recreational swim. The City's swimming guide states that recreational swims are for non-instructional use only and that conducting private lessons during those designated times is prohibited. That is a sensible rule for a busy public swim, and it is published rather than improvised, so it is not something a friendly guard can wave through. What it means practically is that paid private instruction in Richmond Hill needs water whose operator has agreed to it, plus your own liability coverage and your own booking and payment handling. That is what teaching on Propel provides: partner pools where private lessons are the point, bookings and payments handled, and up to $10,000,000 of insurance, for a 16% booking fee.

What does it cost to get certified to teach swimming in Richmond Hill, and is it worth it?+

The City teaches the whole pathway at its own pools, and its 2026 course fees are published: Bronze Medallion $264.14, Bronze Cross $221.09, Intermediate First Aid with CPR-C and AED $210.44, and Swim and Lifesaving Instructor $463.64 at resident rates, about $1,159 in total for the entry teaching classification. Adding National Lifeguard (Pool) at $338.64 brings it to about $1,498. Fees include Lifesaving Society certification and materials, and Richmond Hill Libraries lend the manuals with a credit arranged through the Aquatic Supervisor. Whether it pays back depends on the rate you eventually teach at. At $19.23/hr the entry stack is roughly 60 hours of work; illustratively, at the $52/hr instructors on Propel averaged in 2025, it is closer to 22.

Can a high school student get certified and paid credit at the same time in Richmond Hill?+

Yes. The City runs an aquatic leadership program in partnership with York Region District School Board Continuing Education that delivers Bronze Medallion, Bronze Cross and Intermediate First Aid with CPR and AED together with an Ontario Ministry of Education credit, PAQ2O. It uses a blended format of pool instruction, in-person classes and online learning. You need to be at least 13, able to swim 400 metres without stopping, with the swim test done in advance, and currently attending a secondary school. Registration runs through YRDSB Continuing Education rather than the City. It gets a student three of the four awards the City's entry teaching classification requires, plus a credit, in one program.

Are City of Richmond Hill aquatic staff unionized?+

Not on the published documents. The City does have a union, CUPE Local 905.16, with an agreement running to March 31 2027, but its recognition clause excludes persons regularly employed for not more than 24 hours a week and students employed during the school vacation period, and its complete classification and wage schedule contains no Lifeguard, Instructor, Attendant or Aquatic entry at all. The only pool-related classification in it is Facility Operator I (Pools), a plant and mechanical role. Aquatic positions are posted as permanent part time and carry no union designation. So Richmond Hill is a unionized municipality whose front-line aquatic workers sit outside the bargaining unit, which is different from Toronto, where part-time recreation staff including instructors are covered.

What is the hiring process like for swim instructor jobs in Richmond Hill?+

Simpler than most. One posting covers the entire aquatic workforce and stays open for a full twelve months, from March 2026 to March 2027, and no resume or cover letter is required. You create a profile with a personal email, supply your Lifesaving Society ID so the City can verify your awards against the Society's registry, and complete a Police Vulnerable Sector Check. You then register for an in-person Aquatic Employment Screening, where the published in-water standards include 400m in 10 minutes and a 20lb object recovery from the deep end. Volunteering in aquatics at the facility you want is explicitly encouraged and counted as an asset. Note that not all pools hire each session, so flexibility about location helps. The nearest nonprofit alternative is stricter and further away: the YMCA of Greater Toronto's Markham branch hires posting by posting against dated deadlines, asks for typically three references before an offer, and requires an acceptable police records check before you start. On Propel there is no hiring cycle at all: you create a profile, do a short orientation call, and can be booked.

Is there a YMCA in Richmond Hill, and where else would you teach here?+

No, there is no YMCA branch in Richmond Hill. The YMCA of Greater Toronto's own location list names twelve branches as of 2026-09-01 and Richmond Hill is not one of them; the nearest is the Markham YMCA at 101 YMCA Boulevard, over the eastern boundary in the next municipality. That branch posts $23.50/hr for swim instructors and $21.00/hr for lifeguards as of 2026-09, above every City of Richmond Hill aquatic classification, and it asks for National Lifeguard plus Intermediate First Aid with CPR-C and AED before your first day. So the better nonprofit rate here is a commuting rate. Inside the boundary the City runs all six indoor pools, Bayview Hill, Centennial, Elgin West, Oak Ridges, Richvale and The Wave Pool, with no contracted or nonprofit operator, which is why aquatic work here is year-round and institutionally single-employer. Teaching on Propel means teaching in partner pools, which are quiet private pools booked for your lesson rather than a lane shared with a public swim, so you are working with one or two students at a time.

Start teaching in Richmond Hill

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Sign up to teach on Propel

City of Richmond Hill aquatic classifications and rates ($17.60 Aquatic Attendant, $19.23 Aquatic Lifeguard and Aquatic Swim Instructor II, $21.38 Aquatic Swim Instructor I) from the City's Aquatic Employment posting, open March 2026 to March 2027 and covering the Fall 2026 to Spring 2027 seasons, jobs.richmondhill.ca, as of 2026-03-02. Certification requirements, the second-session certification rule, award expiries, the in-water standards and the application requirements are from the same posting. Course fees from the City's ActiveRH registration system, as of 2026-08-31. The recreational-swim instruction rule, the library manual lending program and the pool list are from the City's complete guide to swimming, richmondhill.ca, as of 2026-08-31. The YRDSB high school credit program is from the City's ActiveRH course listing, as of 2026-08-31. CUPE Local 905.16 recognition clause and Facility Operator I (Pools) rates from the collective agreement in effect April 1 2024 to March 31 2027, cupe905.com and cupe.ca. YMCA of Greater Toronto rates ($23.50/hr swim instructor, $21.00/hr lifeguard), certification requirements, employment type and hiring windows are from the Y's own applicant tracking system at recruiting.ultipro.ca, read directly off the Markham branch requisition and corroborated on the Vaughan, Brampton and West End requisitions, as of 2026-09. The absence of a Richmond Hill branch and the Markham branch address are from ymcagta.org's location list and branch page, as of 2026-09-01; Markham as the nearest branch is derived from those published addresses and no distance is asserted. The published hiring stages and the police records check requirement are from ymcagta.org's work-at-the-Y pages and its published recruitment policy, as of 2026-09-01. Class ratios are per Lifesaving Society Swim for Life program standards. Propel earnings are the measured average take-home pay of instructors on Propel across 2025, shown for illustration; actual earnings vary with your price, availability, location, season, and demand.

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