Over the last couple of weeks the row over quangos has hit the headlines once again, with both Labour and the Conservatives wanting to crackdown and relight the ‘bonfire of the quangos’ on the lead up to a general election – despite it being a year out.

The term quango is widely used; however I was deeply concerned to hear Sector Skills Councils being referred to in this way by ill-informed spokespeople who clearly hadn’t done their research.

Sector Skills Councils are independent organisations licensed by government – we are a charity and a membership body. We are very much led by employers and our work is solely directed by an employer-strong board made up of representatives from across our sector. In fact, we are the only organisation that operates within the sport and active leisure sector that addresses the skills and productivity needs in sport, fitness, playwork, the outdoors and caravan industries.

Being licensed by government is a pre-requisite for all Sector Skills Councils. Through this licence, government buys a service from an organisation that meets specific criteria, and being employer led means that we can speak with authority to government departments about the skills needs, funding issues and general landscape of our sector. We can, and do, lobby government departments on behalf of employers as we know what the real issues are, and yes like quangos, we are seen as the experts in this field and we are not a government department; however unlike quangos, our work is directed by employers, and we are not fully supported by government funding.    

It’s important for me that people understand our status, we do not want to be seen as yet another government directed organisation that doesn’t know what its like on the ground. We do, we’ve done the research, and we’re out meeting employer’s everyday. We are developing solutions – such as the National Skills Academy – to ensure the sector has access to the best training provision, at the best price. We’re working with a sector that is primarily made up of micro and small businesses and we’re brokering funding on their behalf. We’re producing workforce development tools that help to build a well trained and professional workforce that deliver a quality service. We’re working across those many partner organisations that have a foot in the door of our sector, and we’re ensuring that they – through us – support more people, being more active, more often, so that the sector can grown, become sustainable and excel.

In short, we ensure that more people are better skilled to deliver the active leisure and learning agenda for benefit of the health and well-being of the nation, and that those people hold the qualifications that employers value. And that’s not the role of a quango.

So it’s been nearly 7 weeks since I was successful in obtaining a bursary from Nancy Ovens Trust and SkillsActive.  The bursary was awarded to help get me to Australia this August, so I can carry out my comparison project of sport in Australia with that of the UK.

I currently work as a volunteer fitness coach and personal trainer for the Young Athletes Training Academy (YATA), a new company set up in Dorset to offer increased support and education for children in sport.  YATA has very little money and all the money the company earns go back in to the company to help offer increased services and facilities for children in sport in Dorset. 

It is apparent there is very little in the way of support in the UK for children in sport and many clubs, from my experience in Dorset, are crying out for additional funds to help with improving the fitness and strength abilities of children in sport.  After much research and many appointments with key sport divisions in the UK it appears our country offers nothing at grass roots level.  This of course got me thinking that perhaps if we were to educate and support our children from a young age in sport, we might have a better opportunity to produce more and more world class athletes. 

At the moment many children drop out of sport and this could be for many reasons such as injury and lack of interest.  If children were educated from a young age in to how their body works and why things such as stretching and diet are so important, I believe our children will have a much better opportunity in sport.  Most of these children in sport are incredibly dedicated and our country lets them down by not offering them a chance to develop to world class levels.  Of course there are facilities and support available to elite athletes, but you have to be identified to receive these benefits and that is very difficult.  See www.yatasports.com for more information on what services the Young Athletes Training Academy offers.

Australia is streets ahead in sport and they consistently produce world class athletes from all sports.  I initially decided to run a comparison study on swimming and after looking in to briefly what Australia does for their swimmers, they have a much more in depth coaching system and train less hours in the pool and more on the land.  This way of training has inspired me to think that perhaps they are on to something here.  So I therefore started to make arrangements with Swimming Australia and British Swimming to compare training schemes, systems etc.  To date I have met with Michael Scott from British Swimming who was extremely helpful and supportive, the information he provided me however will be detailed later in my report and is only geared towards elite athletes and nothing for the younger athletes.  Mr Scott suggested I meet with Nick Sellwood from English Swimming to help, however this does appear to be very difficult, as Mr Sellwood is never available to meet with me which is a real disappointment seeing as everyone else is very supportive.

The bursary I was awarded only contributed to 25% of the money I require to visit Australia, so I therefore have had to find the money from elsewhere.  Because the Young Athletes Training Academy has no money to support my trip the only way I can go is to reach out to other companies for sponsorship and in this particular climate it has proved extremely difficult.  However I believe in my trip and my project so much I have done everything in my power to make this trip happen.  Unfortunately British Swimming and the ASA have not contributed any money to my trip, which is a shame seeing as initially the whole basis of my trip is about swimming.  They have said all their money goes to the regional governing bodies.  This is fair enough and I appreciate donating £500 to my trip is just not affordable for them…

Recently the Young Athletes Training Academy has become involved with the British Surfing Association and has started to work with them on occasional strength and conditioning, as well as personal training services to their young athlete surfers.  After many conversations, the BSA have agreed to fund part of the trip in return I make appointments with key surfing organisations to discuss their Long Term Athlete Development Plan.  When I return from Australia the information I have obtained will be used in developing the UK LTAD for the BSA.

My trip to Australia and the reasons for going has raised quite a bit of interest locally.  After I was awarded the bursary I featured in two local publications and was interviewed by the BBC for Radio Solent and also the website.  This has aided my plight for raising more funds and the local council, Borough of Poole, also got involved.  My contact there, Duncan Kerr, has been working extremely hard for me by taking my sponsorship proposal to many different companies.  It caught the eye of one company in particular – Parkeon – a large international manufacturing firm with offices in Australia.  They are extremely interested in my work for children in sport and decided to offer further funding to help my trip to Australia.  Further funds have now been raised from the following:

• Talbot Heath School
• The father of one of my clients Amelia Maughan, the fastest 12 year old swimmer in the world at this time.
• Two friends Melissa King and Russell Palmer
• And Animal clothing are providing me with clothing to raffle off and luggage for my trip

I am still to raise a little more money, but even so I now have a majority of the money and have managed to book flights, accommodation and pay for my visa.

I would like to thank all of my sponsors including the Nancy Ovens Trust/Skills Active, for supporting me, without your generous contributions my trip would not be possible.

My two week trip in Australia has just got bigger and bigger.  I am now no longer focusing on swimming alone and I have many different appointments booked with fantastic sporting organisations, all of whom seem to be extremely helpful and only too happy to help.

My current itinerary exists of the following:

• Wednesday 12^th Aug: leave the UK.  Change flights at Dubai, Singapore, and Brisbane
• Friday 14^th Aug: arrive Canberra, Australia (Rest and Recovery over the weekend)
• Monday 17^th Aug: meet with the Australian Institute of Sport
• Monday evening meet: with Canberra Times, who are running a feature story on me
• Tuesday 18^th Aug: meet with Swimming Australia
• Tuesday evening: meet with Parkeon Press officer
• Wednesday 19^th Aug: morning fly to Brisbane
• Thursday 20^th Aug: drive to Surfing Australia and meet to discuss their LTAD and visit their high performance centre
• Friday 21^st Aug: meet with Queensland Government to discuss sporting opportunities
• Friday 21^st Aug: afternoon meet with Brisbane Broncos (Rugby Team) watch them train and visit their high performance centre
• Friday 21^st Aug: evening meet with Brisbane Times, who are also running a feature story on my visit
• Monday 24^th Aug: spend the day with Michael Bohl and Stephanie Rice (triple Olympic gold medallist)
• Tuesday 25^th Aug: catch up day and any additional appointments add here
• Wednesday 26^th Aug: fly home to the UK

As you can see my diary and trip to Australia is not only extremely busy, but very very exciting and I cannot wait to go.  I am going to learn so much whilst I am away and really believe when I return to the UK I can make a MASSIVE difference to young athletes in the UK.

Please keep reading my blog for further news and developments of what is happening!  Only 4 weeks and 3 days to go…

Recently FE News interviewed John McNamara, chief executive of the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils, about what is in store for the future of skills given the recession. He emphasises the importance of training and the continual improvement of skills, along with reinforcing the points of Stephen Studd’s recent blog posts about how employers direct government messages through the Sector Skills Councils and the need for employers to be at the forefront of skills development.

View the video below: