Stephen Studd with Iain Wright MP, Barry McGuigan MBE and Simon Waugh of NAS

Last week was National Apprenticeships Week in England and once again we brought together key industry stakeholders, employers and decision makers to demonstrate the crucial role that Apprenticeships play within our sector.

It is vital that we show ministers and those key stakeholders what our sector can do given the right support, and with 50 employers and over 100 apprentices under one roof, our celebration event at Lords cricket ground really showcased how our sector has embraced the Apprenticeship programme, and the value we place on it.

It is no secret that traditionally, we have been a fragmented sector with no established qualification route, but things have changed dramatically. We have developed a programme of choice for employers and young people wanting to work in the sector by engaging with the Apprenticeship programme, and developing the right frameworks in partnership with our employers.

Last week’s event helped to demonstrate this to Apprenticeship minister Iain Wright, as well as Simon Waugh, Chief Executive of the National Apprenticeship Service. And the enthusiasm from the apprentices and employers alike really shone through. This supports my ambition for Apprenticeships in the sector, which is to achieve 10,000 certifications each year by 2012; 2009 figures revealed that we’re currently issuing around 4,300 certificates a year and rising. Breaking it down, that’s a target of 8,000 for our main frameworks around sport and leisure operations, fitness, coaching, sports development, playwork, and the outdoors; and an additional 2,000 in the specialised programme of AASE – which is gaining momentum with 15 sports now engaged with it.

If we are going to achieve these numbers more employers have to be helped and supported in working with Apprenticeships and that’s one of our key challenges. This is why we set up our National Skills Academy; through it we can help small employers to access the programme by finding them quality providers and helping them to access the funding available. This is crucial with so much emphasis being placed on Apprenticeships as a key driver to coming out of the recession, as well as our efforts to demonstrate that Apprenticeships work for us in the sport and active leisure sector, just as well as they work in plumbing, engineering and manufacturing.

So we’ve got a way to go. We need employers to step forward and take the leap into employing an apprentice, whether that’s a coach, fitness instructor or playworker. We need to engage with the new legislations set out in the white paper on Apprenticeships. We need to continue to demonstrate the depth of our sector, and the fact that not all of our apprentices can be employed from day one of starting the programme. And we need to continue our dialogue with employers, to ensure that our Apprenticeship frameworks are fit for purpose, and are reviewed and refreshed to keep up with an ever evolving sector.

Apprenticeships in our sector are highly regarded and hugely beneficial. They are a great way to enter and begin a career in a vibrant, exciting and public-focused sector that continues to gain profile, and really is at the heart of society as a whole.

Iain Wright MP and Barry McGuigan MBE

Last week was National Apprenticeship Week, an opportunity to celebrate apprenticeships across the country, and for us a chance to showcase the role that apprenticeships make in our sector.

The highlight of the week was our event at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, where around 100 apprentices across the three programmes (Apprenticeship in Active Leisure and Learning, the Young Apprenticeship and the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence) came together with ministers, employers and training providers to celebrate apprenticeships.

Here they heard speeches from Simon Waugh, chief executive of the National Apprenticeship Service, and Iain Wright, the minister responsible for apprenticeships.

Both spoke of the value of apprenticeships within the sport and active leisure sector, with Iain Wright MP saying: “Sport is an increasingly important part of our economy – not just sport itself, but all the industries attached to it. We need a range of good quality training opportunities of which apprenticeships are a major part.”

Also speaking was former World Featherweight Champion Barry McGuigan MBE, whose keynote speech contained a message to apprentices to grasp opportunities and fight hard for goals, whether in sport or in their careers.

Apprentices try out the Trixter bikes

Olympian Sarah Stevenson leads an inspirational workshop

Apprentices also had the opportunity to take part in workshops led by industry experts and Olympic athletes, covering everything from goal setting and motivation to strength and conditioning and media training.

One of the workshops saw Olympic athletes from the DKH Legacy Trust, Francesca Jus-Burke, Sarah Winckless and Sarah Stevenson, host a session which challenged attendees to set goals and identify barriers that they may have to overcome to achieve their goals.

Employers could also attend workshops by SkillsActive, Tottenham Hotspur Foundation and Fit for Sport about the benefits and experiences from organising an apprenticeship programme.

Aside from our celebration event, last week provided us with the opportunity to look at how apprenticeships benefit our sector, using the themes for each day of National Apprenticeships Week:

• Competitive Advantage
• Benefiting Directly
• Ambition
• Apprenticeships driving business
• Community A Team

You can find out more about our celebration event on our website where you can also find out more about the apprenticeships programme in our sector.

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.

With Christmas just around the corner, we’d like to wish all our visitors, members, partners and stakeholders a fantastic festive season, and hope that you have a prosperous new year.

Over on our website this month we’ve been looking back at 2009 in our 24 Days of Christmas series of news, highlighting some of the work that we’ve been involved in over the course of the year, so here’s the whole list for some festive reading!

And looking towards 2010, our latest issue of ActiveInsight magazine is focussed on the Future and looking towards the years ahead. It has articles about the workforce development within English Lacrosse and Milton Keynes Play Association, how Sector Skills Councils are fulfilling the vision of the Leitch Review of Skills and how we’re helping to deliver the London 2012 legacy. Read all this and much more in our online ActiveInsight magazine.