Chris Hoy, last year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year, a great sporting role model?

Who will be named our sports role model of the year 2009? Have your say!

December sees the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year while the recent furore about Theirry Henry’s handball has put sportsmanship to the fore of everyone’s minds with articles such as the Independent’s ten best acts of sportsmanship feature. But aside from personality and sportsmanship, what makes a good role model?

Role models play an important part in a young person’s life, they can affect their views, actions or attitudes towards a certain sport or lifestyle. This is particular apparent in the world of sport, where stars are constantly in the public eye and their actions are seen and heard by many individuals on a daily basis.

It is therefore important for a role model to lead by example and show a positive image to young people. However, there are occasionally stories of bad sporting behaviour or problems in personal lives that lead to some stars becoming poor role models.

So we’ve produced a short survey to offer you the chance to tell us what you think makes a good or bad role model, who they are and what sports are notorious for producing role models, both good and bad. Simply follow the link below to complete the survey and pass the link on to friends so they can comment too.

www.skillsactive.com/survey/sports-role-models/

We’ll be announcing results in December, so check back then to see who’s who of our sporting role models both good and bad!

As we announced last week, our discussions with Ofsted highlighting the impact of Early Years Foundation Scheme (EYFS) requirements on playwork has led to new guidance which should allay the concerns of playworkers.

We are delighted that numerous meetings with Ofsted to represent the employer voice on this issue have finally paid off. It highlights the importance of the role that we have, as the sector skills council and employer voice for playwork, in challenging external regulations that impact our sector.

We listened to the playwork sector to understand concerns about the requirements of the EYFS, gathered evidence and took this to Ofsted, ultimately resulting in this new guidance which should mean that playworkers don’t have to change their existing practice to meet the requirements of the EYFS.

It is encouraging to see that Ofsted has recognised that play based provision is compatible with the EYFS and we hope that this this factsheet will make Ofsted inspections clearer for the play sector.

With the government due to review the EYFS in September 2010, we will continue to listen to our members and will work closely with the DCSF to ensure playwork employer views are once again represented.

The Ofsted factsheet is available to download while we have also produced a guidance paper on the Early Years Foundation Stage and its impact on holiday playschemes, a topic recently mentioned by Elaine Clowes in a previous blog post.

As I noted last month, after months of waiting, I am delighted to say we have finally been officially relicensed as the Sector Skills Council for Active Leisure and Learning.

Following a rigorous relicensing process by the government, we were not only successful in having our five year license renewed, but was also judged as a good SSC with a number of outstanding areas, namely employer engagement, leadership, project management and delivery. And I am thrilled with this assessment, as our sector employers are our bread and butter and if we’re not delivering on their behalf then we’re doing something wrong.

Over the last five years – technically six – our focus has been on increasing the demand for skills, along with raising the quality of skills provision, creating a fit for purpose system of training, and lobbying funding agencies and policy makers to invest in this employer-led framework. And this can be demonstrated in a variety of ways, for example the development and delivery of apprenticeships, these programmes have developed and rapidly grown in a sector with no tradition for such structured work-based programmes. Over 4,000 apprentices have been certificated in the past 12 months.

The development of a broad range of S/NVQs that have become established across the industry – there has been a 30% increase in people completing their qualification, and we have issued around 22,000 certificates already this year. Not forgetting our National Skills Academy, which since its creation, has led to a one-stop shop for the industry to access quality assured training and support in four out of nine English regions.

Our renewed license is based on a new five year plan of delivery. We need to ensure all qualifications in the sector are on the new Qualifications and Credit framework – in which case they have to be the qualifications employers want their future workforce to have. We need to ensure our National Skills Academy continues to expand across the whole of the country and look at ways it could work within the home nations. And despite the recession, we are a growth sector, its crucial that we continue this growth. Therefore, we must ensure that the sector is supported by a qualified, high calibre workforce, and we must support employers to invest in this workforce. So there’s a lot to do.

The fact that we have been relicensed is a testament to the commitment and passion of my staff that are working so tirelessly on behalf of the sector. But also, it is a testament to the commitment and passion of employers in the sector, that are working so tirelessly to develop and deliver a service that addresses the health and well-being of the nation.

So for me, right now, it’s important to recognise how far we’ve come and say with pride that we’re going in the right direction. But it’s also just as important to recognise the journey has only just started and we’ve a long way to go. However, working together, I know that we’ll get there.

After recently blogging about our role in London 2012 and the Personal Best programme,  it was announced today that we’ve been awarded the Inspire Mark for Personal Best.

The London 2012 Inspire Programme recognises innovative projects that are inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Inspire Mark is awarded to projects that help inspire change – a key vision of the London 2012 Olympics.

The Personal Best programme uses the prospect of becoming a Games time volunteer in 2012 as the inspiration to attract unemployed and socially excluded people to complete a level 1 qualification, experience volunteering and move towards getting a job or onto further training.

More information about the programme can be found on our Personal Best pages.