There is no mistaking that this is a difficult time for the economy. As we move into spring, more job losses and redundancies are reported, along with the downturn in consumer spending and rise of repossession figures amongst homeowners – there really isn’t much to celebrate.

Let’s not forget that over the last ten years sport and active leisure however, has outperformed the rest of the UK economy four fold in terms of GVA and employment. Yet the period of recession that we are now in will put immense pressure on the sector to maintain its position in the economy.

We are a service sector and therefore we attract discretionary spending. Consequently there is now a real concern that this spending will be hit. Prior to Christmas there was no clear evidence of this and there is a view that fitness and physical activity is now more resilient and the benefits are better appreciated by the consumer. Recently there has been anecdotal evidence that customers are being more cost conscious and looking for more value of money with their gym and leisure centre memberships. However, both privately and publicly owned and run clubs and centres are in the same boat. Local authorities are not immune to the lack of public spending and face the same business pressures as privately owned health clubs after all; people still pay for leisure services.

During this time it is crucial for SkillsActive to work with employers, to help them through this period of turbulence and maintain their status within both the economy and government agenda.

We’re taking a four ‘R’ approach. Retain: where possible encourage employers to retain their staff, facilitate opportunities to access funding for training and keep people on the ‘shop floor’. Re-skill: proactively broker training solutions for employers to introduce new skills in the workplace. Re-deploy: encouraging perhaps smaller employers to share both expertise and workplace training. For example, if an Apprenticeship programme cannot be completed within one organisation, linking with another to ensure the apprentice can finish the programme. Re-engagement: encouraging employers to open their doors to people who have perhaps been made redundant and offer volunteering places, coaching hours or similar to engage them with the sector. 

The fact is recession or no recession, increasing the number of people participating in sport and physical activity and adopting an active lifestyle is the key success for all parts of the sector and is an agenda shared with government. And although the last economic slowdown back in 1997-98 did have an impact on the sector, and we witnessed negative growth in employment, I am confident that ten years on consumers are more health conscious and physically active. That doesn’t mean we don’t need to stop encouraging them back through the door. A workforce with more people, better skilled, better qualified will help. And although we will inevitably come up against challenges over the coming months, working together we can and will overcome them.  

Last week saw National Apprenticeship Week, an opportunity to celebrate and recognise the essential role that Apprenticeships are playing in today’s business world, ensuring that the workforce has the skills it needs in order to remain competitive, even in difficult economic circumstances.

Local school pupils, college students, training providers and employers joined representatives from SkillsActive and sports stars such as Sharron Davies MBE, Dame Kelly Holmes and Mickey Bushell to participate in a varied programme of presentations, talks, meetings and activity sessions. These ran throughout the week in London, Brighton, Bristol, Bolton, Buxton, Telford, Wellingborough, Sunderland, Harrogate and Benfleet.

Some of the events were organised and run by the apprentices themselves, with one event in Northampton seeing 170 young school children taking part in a multisport festival put on by 30 Young Apprentices. 

The Young Apprenticeship also programme received praise this week from the apprentices and employers alike, following SkillsActive’s evaluation of the programme between September 2006 and July 2008.

One of the London event’s focussed on the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence, and was hosted by former Commonwealth Games gymnast and TV presenter, Gabby Logan. Over 100 AASE athletes attended, and were able to attend workshops, discussions and a Q&A session with former elite athletes. The workshops proved especially popular, and althletes were given advice from Dame Kelly Holmes on “What it takes to be a champion”,  Barry Shillabeer presented elements of Rebecca Adlington’s gold medal winning strength and conditioning programme, and Sky TV presenter Graham Little offered up media training. 

We managed to find a few minutes to catch up with Gabby and ask her about the AASE programme and the impact it is having, and what impact it might have had on her sporting career had it existed when she was an elite athlete.

We also spent some time travelling round the country to interview current and past AASE athletes, those involved in delivering the programme, representitives of National Governing Bodies of Sport and the head of Performance Sport at UK Sport about their views on AASE:

Of course, we’re not the only ones who are throwing our weight behind the importance of Apprenticeships. Sir Alan Sugar has recently been starring in TV advertising (see below) to raise the awareness of apprenticeships, a video which also features Luke Power. Luke of course was Young Apprentice of the Year in 2008, studying his Young Apprentice in Sports Management, Leadership and Coaching at Eltham Green Specialist Sports College.

For anyone looking to find out more about apprenticeships in any form, you can find out more on our website or on the national apprenticeships website.