Playwork North West - part of the Northern Tri-Region

Details of SkillsActive's involvement with Playwork in the North West

Latest news: 

• We need your views!  Playwork People 4 has just been launched to gather information on many aspects of the playwork workforce - the more responses we get the better the evidence we can present to the funders and decision makers so click here to submit your views about your sector.
• SkillsActive has launched a new free on-line interactive qualifications toolkit for the play workforce, Pathways to Playwork.

• Following the news from Ofsted that the Playwork Induction Standard is no longer accepted as an adequate briefing for temporary staff working on holiday playschemes, SkillsActive has produced briefing guidelines on how to tackle the issue of training temporary staff for seasonal employment.   Download the guidelines here

• Would you like an NVQ Level 3 in Playwork?  For an update on the next round of fully funded qualifications in Playwork, click here.

Facts and figures

Playwork People 4 has just been launched - click here to submit your views about your sector.

From the Playwork People 3 survey in 2007, research into the region’s play workforce revealed that:

• Nearly two thirds (65.1% of playwork employers thought that the level of skill needed to do playwork jobs is increasing.
• The key skill lacking in the workforce is 'knowledge of playwork practice and principles' which 52.6% of employers stated was a skills gap in their current workforce.
• In the last 12 months, workers in the playwork sector are most likely to have undertaken training in first aid (76.9%), child protection (61.2%), health and safety (36.4%) and food hygiene (53.4%).

Click here for the full Playwork People 3 report, and here for the North West summary.

Contacts:

Playwork Strategy Manager: Julia Fallowfield julia.fallowfield@skillsactive.com

Playwork Engagement Manager: Laura Mattocks laura.mattocks@skillsactive.com

Northern Administrator: Jean Large jean.large@skillsactive.com.