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.