Fight for success, says boxing great McGuigan

Lee Rowberry, SkillsActive – 03/02/10

McGuigan was the keynote speaker at SkillsActive’s National Apprenticeship Week celebration event, held in the Nursery Pavilion at Lord’s. More than 100 apprentices joined in the celebrations – including those from the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence programme. A number of employers from across the sport and active leisure industry also attended.

Barry McGuigan said: “As an athlete, I lived off fear. I was afraid of failure so without that fear I may have never have achieved what I did. The way I overcame that was to prepare well and fight hard for my success. At 16, I believed that I could do exceptional things, but I had moments of self doubt – everyone does. But self belief builds up with success, preparation and strength of mind.”

Special guests also included Iain Wright, MP, and Simon Waugh, chief executive of the National Apprenticeship Service who spoke about the importance of Apprenticeships to the UK economy. Masterclasses for the apprentices were led by industry experts and covered everything from goal setting and motivation to strength and conditioning and media training.

Simon Waugh said: “We have a significant amount of young people out of work. You’ve heard the phrase ‘a lost generation’, unless we get this generation into work with the right skills, we will end up with an economy based on very low skills, low pay and a significant number of people unemployed. The number one concern for business is can we find the right people with the right skills to grow and develop our business and this is particularly important now coming out of a recession.

“It’s a time to lay the foundations for young people for the whole of their career. 720,000 people work in the sport and active leisure industry. The heros of that industry are those that turn up five days a week to coach young kids at their local leisure centre. So we would like to see an expansion of Apprenticeships in customer service, business administration and coaching – all those support roles that help make this industry work and which have a big impact on our economy. We have to have a growing thriving economy, we’ve got to bring unemployment down and the key to that is skills.”

Iain Wright MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “Sport is an increasingly important part of our economy – not just sport itself, but all the industries attached to it. We need a range of good quality training opportunities of which apprenticeships are a major part.

“During Apprenticeship Week, I’ve been so inspired and motivated after speaking to young people who are engaged with apprenticeships and who are so passionate about what they’re doing. It’s exactly what we want to see in this country and I’m confident we have a strong future ahead of us due to apprentices the likes of you.”

Sarah Winckless, Olympic bronze medallist and double world champion in rowing, led a workshop on goal setting. She said: “Every athlete would have experienced times in their careers where things haven’t gone well. Today’s session was about teaching the athletes how to get through those times and how important it is to set goals and capitalise on the good times.”

AASE apprentice Mackenzie Taylor, 16, who competes in Formula BMW, participated in the workshop. He said: “Goal setting is something I really work hard at. It’s important to help focus my mind and prepare me for a race. It helps me with my gym training as well.

“I’ve been competing in cart racing since I was eight years old and have progressed steadily through the ranks, but this is my debut year in formula BMW. My main goal for the year is to finish in the top three and hopefully be named Rookie of the Year.”

Floyd Woodrow, who spent 23 years with the SAS, led a workshop on motivation. In his session, he said: “Some people say you cannot replicate the pressure zone in training, but that’s not true. The more you push your outer limits, the better you’ll become at performing in that zone. And to be at the top of your game you have to have the drive to do that more often than not. That’s what separates people at the elite level.”

London Irish tight head prop and AASE apprentice Jake Caulfield, 16, said: “Floyd’s session was really helpful. I’ve been injured for 16 weeks now, so that’s been a big task to get over. I’ve tried to stay positive but it’s been frustrating. But you can’t be negative if you want to get back on the field.”

AASE apprentice Jake Cook, 16, who competes in Formula Ford, participated in a mock interview as part of the Sky Sports media workshop. He said: “In any sport you’re bound to get media coverage, so it helps to be prepared for interviews and to get in as much learning in as possible. Last year we had a lot of TV coverage, and the journalists often wanted to speak to us so today’s session allowed me to get in some good practice.” 

Employers were also given the opportunity to participate in a seminar run by Fit For Sport focusing on how to manage apprentices. Hayley Bell from Active Trowbridge, said: “We have 20 apprentices and are going to get another 60 soon through the Future Jobs Fund scheme. It’s great to see the youth engaged. You’re setting them up for a career for life so it’s a fantastic programme to get involved with if you’ve got the time to invest in it. Today’s seminar highlighted what we’re doing right, but also gave us some ideas as to how we could tweak things to make our scheme stronger. The mentoring process is something we’d like to start focusing more on.”

Apprenticeship Week will run from 1-5 February. For more information on Apprenticeships in the Active Leisure and Learning sector, please contact Katie.Couchman@SkillsActive.com.