Personal Best leads the skills legacy for 2012

SkillsActive - 27/07/10

On the 5 July 2005, scenes of mass celebration across Britain were sparked as the IOC announced the success of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic bid. Today marks another important date in British sport, the final two year countdown to the start of the Games.

The excitement and buzz created in the build up to the Games is being used as a motivating force to help people that are furthest from the labour market, find sustainable employment.

Through Personal Best, a pre-employment training and event volunteering programme, the Games are helping to target workless and socially excluded people with learning and the labour market, creating a skills legacy beyond 2012. The prospect of becoming a Games Maker in 2012 and undertaking a level 1 qualification aims to raise individual’s self esteem and self confidence and propel them into further training or employment.

Graduates of the Personal Best programme are guaranteed an interview when they apply to be a Games Maker at the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Through its partnerships with the Skills Funding Agency, Job Centre Plus, SkillsActive and training providers across the nine English regions, Personal Best has gained 5,487 enrolments with 1,841 individuals having already achieved their level 1 Award.

Personal Best has, so far, been successful in facilitating 53,460 volunteering hours across the country. Each individual course is tailored to meet the needs of a wide and varied group of learners, many of which benefit greatly from the commitment, focus and social aspects that all stem from the scheme.

Bansari Somani, SkillsActive’s national manager for the Personal Best programme said: “With two years to go to London 2012 it’s crucial to have programmes such as Personal Best associated and being driven by the prospect of the Games. The programme continues to be hugely successful, engaging a number of learners who perhaps have low educational achievement, dropped out of mainstream education, face social and economic disadvantage and who are disengaged from mainstream society.

The programme works with individuals and encourages them to achieve the qualification, but also supports them every step of the way. Some of the graduates are already giving back by volunteering locally and others have progressed into jobs.”

With the start of the Games looming ever closer, Personal Best is helping to facilitate an increase in participation of sport and physical activity, skill levels and employability across the population.

For more information and to learn more about some of the individual case studies visit www.skillsactive.com/personalbest and read the Story so far document.