Back in November we ran a survey to find out who was the sporting role model of the year, as well as looking to find out what attributes make for a good role model. Well the results are in, and they make for some interesting reading!

David Beckham was named as the best sporting role model for 2009, ahead of Chris Hoy and Lewis Hamilton, while there was no real surprise in the worst role model stakes with Tiger Woods topping the list ahead of a trio of footballers; Ashley Cole, Cristiano Ronaldo and Joey Barton. Bizarrely, Beckham also appeared in the list of bad sporting role models!

Football was overwhelmingly found to be the sport that is the worst for producing good role models, although the intense media glare that footballers face, above most other athletes, certainly can’t help matters.

Athletics was picked as the sport most likely to produce good role models, although football was also highly rated in for this along with tennis.

So what do people look for in a good role model? Fair play understandably was top of the list, with almost 60% of the vote, while winning and charitable work were a distant second and third. 10% however thought that no famous sportsperson could be a good role model.

Cheating at their sport, along with bad sportsmanship, were the key characteristics of bad sporting role models, while tales of alcohol and drug abuse were also high up the list. Strangely, despite the indiscretions of Tiger Woods placing him firmly at the top of the list of bad role models, just 2% of those questioned stated that being involved in a kiss and tell made a sports personality a bad role model.

2009’s best sporting role models:

1. David Beckham
2. Chris Hoy
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Roger Federer
5. Jenson Button
6. Ellen MacArthur
7. Paula Radcliffe
8. Usain Bolt
9. Lance Armstrong
10. Tim Henman

2009’s worst sporting role models:

1. Tiger Woods
2. Ashley Cole
3. Cristiano Ronaldo
4. Joey Barton
5. Dwain Chambers
6. Marlon King
7. David Beckham
8. Ronnie O’Sullivan
9. Freddie Flintoff
10. Serena Williams

And if you’re wondering why we were undertaking this research, the new Diploma in Sport and Active Leisure, which launches in September, includes a module on teaching young people how to be good sporting role models – fair play and good sportsmanship seem to be order of the day there.

Spot anyone missing from either list? What key attributes do you look for in a sporting role model? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Mike Newton, one of our SkillsActive & Nancy Ovens Bursars for 2009, has recently embarked on his trip to Japan. After more than seven months of planning, Mike travelled to Japan last week where he is spending time at Sagami High School to shadow some of Japan’s top children’s judo coaches.

Mike, with over 30 years experience in the sport,  is a judo stalwart in Rutland. Since helping to establish Vale Judo Club in 2003, Mike has helped grow the membership of the club to more than 180 members – more than half of which are girls or women. Under Mike’s direction, five of the club’s junior club members have gained places within national judo squads since the club was established. Helping deliver 13 classes each week, Mike has helped grow the club’s coaching team from two to six coaches and also establish a schools judo programme. Today, the programme delivers judo courses to more than 550 children from eighteen schools around Rutland.

Mike has always been keen to develop his skills, and over the last few years has been studying towards a Foundation Degree in Sport Performance at the University of Bath, during which he has gained exposure to various international coaching systems.

Japan therefore is the next step in Mike’s skills development where he can learn more about how the sport is coached and how it is related to education, with Mike commenting:

“There is not a wealth of learning opportunities like this in judo here in the UK, so what I wanted was to create a learning experience that would be more beneficial to me than another coaching qualification. Going to Japan will allow me to develop my understanding of how to teach core and advanced judo technical skills to children and improve and extend my range of coaching methods and techniques. I hope to increase my understanding of how judo is delivered as part of the school curricula and community and how the sport of judo is being developed in Japan. My specific area of interest is the infrastructure in place that helps coaches to identify, select and nurture talented junior judo players.”

Already, just a few days in, Mike has seen and learnt a lot. Here are a few of his thoughts from the first few days of his trip that he has been sharing on his blog:

“It was great to visit the dojo and judo office this morning and having had a look at the many trophies on display and had a tour of the dojo it becomes very obvious how effectively their judo development system is working and how proud they are of it.  I am interested in discussing how they identify the more talented students to invite to the school – will let you know when I find out.”

“The question that I have started to wrestle with is if we are to have the same competition successes from GB players, can we implement and encourage many of these concepts/methods/attitudes to be adopted in the UK or are our cultures too different? I think that the answer is to try and implement a few of these concepts, the benefits have been obvious for Sagami High School and its judoka.”

To find out more about what Mike has been observing on his trip, and the thoughts and ideas that he is bringing away from the experience, visit Mike’s blog for regular updates, photos, videos and more.

Mike received one of six SkillsActive and Nancy Ovens bursaries, awarded annually to paid and un-paid individuals working within the sport, fitness, playwork, outdoors and caravan sectors. The bursaries are designed to help individuals improve their skills through an innovative training programme outside the scope of regular training. You can also read more insights from some of our other bursars on this blog, courtesy of Naomi Harling and Rachel Light.

Barely a week goes by without sports officials being criticized, they are rarely popular, and no matter what they do they are more than likely to upset somebody. Given they are often volunteers, it is a wonder that many want to get involved at all!

While we can’t control exactly what they do on the field of play in the heat of the moment, we can however try to ensure that they are suitably prepared and able to deal with events in the correct manner.

Thats why we are working with Sports Officials UK and several national governing bodies of sport to develop a new set of national occupational standards for officials at the elite level in sport, which could form the basis for qualifications or training at Level 4.

We’ve got to a stage where a draft set of standards for officiating at the elite level are available for comment, developed through input from a steering group of industry experts.

The new standards cover:

• Managing oneself as an official at the elite level in sport
• Managing the competitive environment as an official at the elite level in sport
• Managing people whilst officiating at the elite level in sport
• Managing competition at the elite level in sport

The standards will define best practice for an official at the elite level in any sport and can be used in a range of training and employment settings:

• To develop training, courses and qualifications based on competencies required for working as an elite level official
• To support the definition of job roles
• As a basis for identifying and developing routes for progression and professional development

As we enter a new year, and indeed a new decade, we are faced with a number of new possibilities, but also new challenges.

According to the economists we are entering into phase two of the recession and the old adage of getting worse before it gets better is a real possibility for us in the skills sector. With a general election fast approaching, there is a renewed emphasis on squeezing public expenditure. There appears to be a competition going on between the political parties on who can cut public expenditure the most, yet have the least impact on public services. This very much puts funding for training into the spotlight.

With that said, we are already in active dialogue with the political parties to fight the corner for public funding focused on the needs of employers. It is clear that whichever party gets in, Apprenticeships will be the flagship training programme. This is good news for a sector built of vocational qualifications.

There is clear evidence that Apprenticeships provide the best route for young people into the industry by giving them structured training and real work experience. They also provide employers with the opportunity to get to know and shape the people that they need for the future.

The good news is that the role of Sector Skills Councils as the coordinated voice of employers has been reaffirmed by both the Labour and Conservative parties; and in fact the Conservatives see employer leadership as crucial to the continued rationalisation of the skills landscape.

Of course a major weapon in our armoury is our National Skills Academy, set up to bring together public, employer and individual investment to achieve best value for money and ensure the best training available. We are proactively promoting the Academy to politicians as the most cost effective way of getting funding into skills delivery where it is really needed.

Looking forward, the new Qualifications and Credit Framework finally becomes the only game in town after the end of this year, enabling employers to access bite sized learning credits – something we have been lobbying for a long time. In addition, only qualifications approved by us will get on the new Framework, meaning that only qualifications that are approved by employers may be eligible for public funding.

And not forgetting the launch of the Diploma in Sport and Active Leisure in September. A major part of the 14-19 education reform, the Diploma will offer young people the opportunity to combine both class work and hands-on experience giving them the a fully rounded education through a number of learning methods within both the classroom and the workplace. We have ensured that employers have been fully engaged through the development of the Diploma and can be confident that the content is right, what employers are looking for, and yet is still suitable to go on to college and university if that is the ultimate goal.

So what a year we have in front of us. Last year was all about the relicensing process, this year is about delivering our strategic objectives. With that said, we still need employers to engage with us, now more than ever, with your support we can continue to pressure the government to fund the qualifications and training that are important to our sector. Once you’ve help us to shape them of course.