Now, more than ever, we must look to the future and provide greater insight into the world of work, the skills needed to succeed in the sector and build relationships between employers, colleges and universities.

With that said, the world of skills and education has been changing over the past few weeks, prompted by the reshuffle in Westminster. The government has merged the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (previously known as BERR), with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). The resulting new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is charged with building Britain’s capacity to compete in a global economy.

For the first time, this new department puts together skills, FE, HE and business development all under the same umbrella and recognises the need to have employers, colleges and universities closer aligned at a government level – something Sector Skills Councils have lobbied for since their inception six years ago. This new department puts employers where they should be – at the very heart of education reform and policy making.

So what does that mean for our industry? Well, we’re not entirely sure of the details; however we should recognise that there is a huge opportunity for the sector. For a start, we finally have a doorway to discuss vocational skills development aligned with academic qualifications, Apprenticeships are recognised as part of business and innovation, and skills development is now visibly at the heart of government thinking. We are an industry that needs the highly technical vocational skills to operate, combined with the more academic skills in leadership and management to succeed. Not forgetting that the training and qualifications available need to reflect this, and be eligible for public funding.

We can be encouraged by this new department’s remit to deliver on the government’s ambitious objectives to expand the number of Apprenticeships available. Despite the negative stories in the press recently, last month the government announced it will fund a £1.9m Apprenticeship Expansion programme in our sector, led by our National Skills Academy, and will recruit, train, place and mentor over 1,400 people in the next two years.

So the outlook is positive, it seems that the new department will be positioned to guide us through the economic turbulence, and we’re confident that the sector can once again prove resolute as the economy responds to the current downturn. As always, we will continue to work closely with employers across the sector to encourage the continued development of staff and investment in training at this time.

Recent research from Sport England and the CCPR certainly seem to suggest that is the case.

Volunteers are at the heart of most sports clubs

Sport England recently reported on their quarterly results for their Active People Survey, which provides the largest  survey of sport and active recreation undertaken in Europe. While the headline results showed promise, with 6,822,000 people (16 and over) now playing sport three times a week and regular participation holding firm since December 2008, as well as satisfaction with local sports provision increasing, there were some worrying trends including a decrease in volunteering.

Could it be that volunteering, along with competitive participation and membership, has suffered from the current economic environment?

With less disposable income it seems that participation in sporting activities, whether as a competitor or volunteer, is one of the things that suffers. A recent Times article, based on research by the CCPR, suggested that the recession could mean the final whistle for 6,000 community sports clubs due to falling membership.

The CCPR research noted that “volunteering is also being affected by the economic downturn, with more than a fifth of clubs saying that the circumstances have had a negative or very negative impact on attracting and retaining volunteers “.

Within our sector, volunteers play a crucial role in delivering activities across sport and active leisure, with volunteer hours equivalent to over 50,000 full time roles. These roles  can range from the obvious ones such as coaches and officials to many more roles behind the scenes such as those who maintain equipment or look after the finances.  One of the key barriers to volunteering, particularly in the front-line roles, is often the cost of training. With both clubs and volunteers currently suffering from a lack of funds this obviously impacts upon maintaining both the number of volunteers and their skills.

SkillsActive often plays a part in directing funding into the sector, and support a number of bursaries and projects which help those in the sector in funding their development. Our London and South West coaching bursaries were a huge success and there are a number of bursaries to coaches still available in some regions. In the East of England  the East-Links: Leading the Field programme provides opportunities in fitness and officiating as well as targeting coaches. Meanwhile in playwork, there is funding available for playworkers to undertake level 3 qualifications, allowing advancement of skills for those in or looking to join the sector.

For more information on volunteering, whether in sport or other areas, Volunteering England have a whole host of information on their website with a large section dedicated to sport. 

If you’ve seen the impact of the recession on volunteering, share your views below.

For the past four years we have invited applications from across our sector for funding, courtesy of SkillsActive and the Nancy Ovens Trust, to allow individuals to undertake a personal development project to enhance skills and knowledge outside of the day-to-day work environment.

Rachel Light helping young athletes

This has encouraged development in ways quite removed from traditional training, with work experience and shadowing of top coaches in a certain field proving a popular way to glean the personal insight that perhaps doesn’t exist when undertaking a training qualification.

This year, out of over 50 applicants, we are delighted to have chosen five bursars who will be blogging for us over the course of their time on the bursary. They’ll be introducing themselves here over the coming month, but here is a quick introduction to two of them.

Rachel Light
Dorset swimming coach Rachel Light plans to spend two weeks in Australia this summer to discover the secrets of the nation’s sporting success so that she can assist top young athletes in this country.

Rachel has focussed her work on, and is particularly passionate about, those just outside of the elite sporting programmes. It is difficult for those just outside the top programmes to continue at a high level, so Rachel assists by providing them with guidance ranging from nutrition to strength and conditioning that they would otherwise receive from their NGB.

Judo coach Mike Newton

Read more about Rachel’s bursary here and check back over the coming months to see how her plans for the trip progress. You can also listen to Rachel discussing her trip, and read more, over on the BBC Dorset website.

Mike Newton
Rutland judo coach Mike Newton plans to spend a month next spring in Japan, the home of judo, in order to shadow top children’s judo coaches. Having helped establish Vale Judo Club in 2003, Mike has since established the club as one of the leading clubs in the region with members in national squads, as well as developing a strong schools judo programme.

You can read more about Mike’s dedication to the sport and youngsters, along with his planned trip to Japan here, while you’ll find him blogging here soon.

Apprentice candidate Lorraine Tighe lied on her CV but claimed it was a misprint

We recently commissioned research, released yesterday, that discovered that as a nation, we are mostly quite truthful on our CVs… until we need a job.

Following this, our Chief Executive Stephen Studd was in demand for interviews yesterday, which you can view on a number of news sites such as The Metro, the Mirror’s video news and Virgin Media.

Given last night’s dismissals on the TV show the Apprentice, where one of the contestants who Sir Alan Sugar fired, Lorraine Tighe, was accused of lying on her CV and admitted it was “like a graveyard of skeletons” it can be a serious issue. So what can employers do?

We can point towards ActivePassport as a solution for both employers recruiting staff, and candidates looking to ensure their credibility, as it offers a verified record of qualifications, training, employment and volunteering.

While our research found that hobbies were the most likely thing that those questioned would lie about, this was followed by salary and secondary education qualifications, which could certainly impact upon the recruitment process. We also discovered that the recession has sparked an increase in lies on CVs.

Do you think it’s acceptable to lie on your CV? Have you ever done it and would you be more tempted now because of the high unemployment rates? Take our quick poll or leave us a comment below to share your views.

Playwork sector employers will be aware of the changes in policy regarding the registration of childcare for children under the age of eight that took place in September 2008.

Childcare is no longer registered under the Children Act 1989; it now falls under the Childcare Act 2006. The changes separate the regulation of under and over sixes to reflect the different needs of school aged and pre-school children. These changes have caused some confusion for employers, particularly in relation to the qualifications that are accepted by Ofsted, and therefore recognised on the Early Years Register – recognised within the Childcare Act.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) was charged by government to develop a set of criteria against which qualifications are assessed. This assessment determines whether qualifications are deemed ‘full and relevant’, and only then will they gain entry onto the Early Years Register.

The majority of playwork qualifications have passed the assessment and are recognised on the Early Years Register; and SkillsActive is now working to ensure that the new Diplomas in Playwork at level 2 and 3 meet this assessment before they are launched next year.

The Childcare Register – another core Register within the Childcare Act, requires all level 2 and 3 qualifications held by staff to be on the current National Qualifications Framework (NQF) However as the new Qualifications and Credit Framework takes shapes and supersedes the NQF over the next few months, SkillsActive is working to ensure all new Awards, Certificates and Diplomas at level 2 and 3 that are developed match any new regulations; and working with training providers and employers to ensure existing qualifications are up-to-date and relevant to ensuring recognition on the new Framework.

Currently there is no provision for a transitional arrangement covering holiday playschemes this year, following Ofsted’s refusal to recognise the Playwork Induction Standard, so employers who are unable to recruit qualified staff will need to consider how they might become exempt from registering on the Early Years Register in the interim.  Reluctantly, we would advise employers to consider taking only children of eight years or over or operating playschemes for less than two hours a day or for less than 14 days in the year until a replacement for the induction standard has been approved.

We are gathering information on the impact of the new registers on recruitment to holiday playschemes, and have devised a brief questionnaire for employers so they can share their views with us. If you are an employer, help us make the case for the playwork award at level 2 to be accepted for holiday playschemes on the Childcare Register, by visiting: www.skillsactive.com/survey/holidayplayschemes

The DCSF has no plans to establish a database listing appropriate qualifications for staff working in settings on the Childcare Register, but has confirmed that it is SkillsActive’s role to determine which qualifications were appropriate for staff in play settings. To this end DCSF has agreed that we will publish a list of qualifications on our website that playwork employers can consult when appointing staff to play provision and we are developing this at the moment.