Sport & recreation

“Sport embraces much more than traditional team games and competition. Sport means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental wellbeing, forming social relationships or continuing results in competition at all levels.”
The Council of Europe.

The UK has a proud sporting pedigree, but sports provision from grassroots community projects through to professional sportsmen and women at the very peak of their performance relies on a huge number of skilled staff and volunteers. The sport and recreation sub-sector will be under pressure to deliver a fitting Olympic legacy, and the workforce must be up to the task.

“We all know that sport can harness young people's imagination and teach them the value of dedication and hard work – but social problems can often keep them away. The holistic approach in these courses is going to make a difference in engaging the most hard to reach."
Manny Lewis, chief executive, London Development Agency speaking of the SPRINT project, which provides courses to youth and community sports workers

Our role

SkillsActive works across the UK to help achieve the government’s and devolved administration’s objective of a healthier, fitter nation. As a result of inactivity, obesity-related diseases are becoming more and more frequent throughout the UK’s population.

We have programme managers in each of the home countries, and nine regions across the UK who work with employers to ensure the sport and recreation workforce is appropriately skilled and qualified. We work in partnership with the home country sports councils, and other sports bodies, the regional and local funding agencies, higher and further education, private training providers and the voluntary sector to ensure the contribution of the sport and recreation sector is recognised at a local, regional and national level across the UK.

Examples of SkillsActive’s work in the sport and recreation sector:

• Defined the first generic standards for UK sports officials;
• Developed an interactive sports map showing clear career progression routes for the sports sector;
• Worked with sportscotland, Volunteer Development Scotland and the Scottish Executive Skills Fund to provide a fully-funded three-day training course on managing volunteers to professional sports officers in Scotland.

Click here to watch a video explaining the importance of skills and training to the sport and recreation sector.

See SkillsActive around the UK to find out more about our work in the sport and recreation sector.

Key facts and figures

• There are 1.2 million coaches in the UK of which 81 per cent are volunteers.
• Until 2009 an average 68,400 job opportunities will be available each year across the UK.
• The sector had an estimated GVA output of £5.2 billion in 2004, this accounts for some 61% of the total UK GVA.
• The South East of England has over 60,000 people working in the sector. The North West of England and Scotland are also big employers of the sport and recreation workforce.  Wales and Northern Ireland employ the smallest proportion of the workforce, accounting for 25,500 workers in total.

Training, education and qualifications

SkillsActive has worked in partnership to develop training plans and qualification frameworks for the active leisure and learning sector, we also develop national occupational standards that underpin education courses and qualifications, click here to access them.