Sport & Recreation
East Midlands Newsletter May 2008 001

Welcome to a ‘new look’ edition of our newsletter designed to keep you informed of developments in learning and skills for your sector and help you develop your workforce.

I hope you find it useful – please feel free to get in touch if you would like help developing your workforce or you have anything that can be included in future editions.  I would like this newsletter to link to events run in the sector and use it as a platform to raise issues as we approach this exciting time in Active Leisure and Learning. I would appreciate your feedback to make sure we keep the quality as high as possible.

On the 7 May 2008 the government announced that SkillsActive can go ahead with their business plan to create a National Skills Academy. This is great news and will help to transform the sector in terms of learning and development.

What does this mean for the East Midlands? Well, the phased approach to the project means that it will be 'live' in our region from September 2010. Although that seems a long way away the work on an action plan has already started, with consultations from the regions employers and an employer operational group formed. If you would like to be involved in any of this work please get in touch with me initially jeff.spencer@skillsactive.com or 07841 981145

Click here for a NSA Press Release

Click here for a summary of the NSA

The Government’s main funding programme to businesses Train to Gain has recently had a plan for growth published which outlines significant funding increases over the next 3 years. It also outlines some flexibility to try and include more people – including volunteers. SkillsActive continues to lobby for flexibilities that will help our clubs and employers further as well as supporting Train to Gain brokers who are employed to support organisations with training needs. Why not give them a try to make use of a free visit that could help with your training needs?

Click here T2G

We are also supporting the drive to get employers to sign the Skills Pledge. The Skills Pledge is a voluntary, public commitment by the leadership of a company or organisation to support all its employees to develop their basic skills, including literacy and numeracy, and work towards relevant, valuable qualifications to at least Level 2 (equivalent to 5 good GCSEs). The purpose is to ensure that all staff are skilled, competent and able to make a full contribution to the success of the company/organisation.

Regional Minister Phil Hope attended a regional employer event to raise the profile of Train to Gain (including a protocol signed by Sector Skills Councils including SkillsActive) and the Skills Pledge.

Pictured: the signing of the protocol and attendees from Playwork and Sport, and Minister Phil Hope with Skill Council delegates.

Apprenticeships in the region – you’re hired!

In February the first National Apprenticeship week saw a promotional event in the region held at South Notts College. The college gave examples of successful delivery of Apprenticeships where youngsters had gone on to gain full employment in the sector. The event included practical coaching sessions for local school children.

Youngsters receiving Basketball coaching from an Apprentice. 

Some of these pupils, like David Terry were available at the event to talk to visitors keen to know more about apprenticeships.David Terry says: "The Apprenticeship gave me an opportunity to develop my coaching and organisational skills in the workplace. I preferred being in a more hands on role rather than studying at college. My placement at Trinity School gave me confidence and the motivation to work hard to succeed. The school even created a job for me because the apprenticeship worked out so well for everyone involved." Adam Beazeley, Head of School for Sport, Leisure, Travel & Tourism at South Nottingham College, says: “If young people are to realise their full career potential they need to be made aware of all the training opportunities available to them in the area. Apprenticeships allow young people to gain valuable hands-on experience whilst also developing good subject knowledge. “The event was also a great way to raise employer awareness of the benefits to be gained from enrolling employees onto apprenticeship schemes. The event has been such a success that, going forwards, we plan to hold it on an annual basis.”

If you are interested in finding out more about apprenticeships go to our website. Apprenticeships

The Learning and Skills Council, through a regional fund for Sector Skills Councils, has funded 100 level 2 or 3 coaching qualifications for sport. It was given as a bursary administered through the local County Sport Partnership in conjunction with local clubs and Governing Bodies of sport. This is one of several schemes around the country and demonstrates funding going directly to help our sector become better qualified and more effective. This will hopefully open up further funding opportunities as we approach the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

As a response to the way we all try to manage workforce planning and the enormous amount of data we capture – SkillsActive have developed an online tool that can do 3 things

1. Create a basic training plan for any individual – linked to Skills Passports  Skills Passport
2. A workforce assessment with an action plan (by department or organisation)
3. Cumulative Data reports on the information entered into the system above giving real time info on skills gaps and shortages for the sector. Searchable by county, region and nationally. All the above is suitable for employers, county partnerships, governing bodies of sport and voluntary clubs.

We want to work with as many organisations as possible to make sure this tool is used sector wide. Please get in touch if you are interested