SkillsActive was delighted to take part in National Apprenticeship Week in February. It was a week long celebration of all things Apprenticeships, launched by the LSC to promote the programme across the country. For the second year running we engaged with colleagues to host a number of events across England that demonstrated the skills, expertise and commitment of apprentices within our sector.

What was particularly heartening was the reaction and willingness of employers who were extremely keen to get involved by hosting an event or attending one. I believe this demonstrates how far we’ve come with Apprenticeships within our sector. The respect that they have gained by employers is a testament to the programme itself, and the calibre of apprentices that we now have working and studying within the sector – over 4,000 of them.

Apprenticeships have a crucial role to play in workforce development for all sport and leisure employers – they deliver the qualifications which employers are looking for, they keep staff engaged, committed and loyal in an industry renowned for high staff turnover, they bring in public funding alongside employer investment, and above all else they give people a structured and relevant learning programme which will give them longevity in the sector and a career for life. In fact since its inception in 2005, the Young Apprenticeship programme has rapidly grown from a small pilot to attracting over 15% of Young Apprenticeship funding across all sectors which equates to over 1200 places nationally – which is an phenomenal achievement.

From demonstrations by young apprentices on the sports management, leadership and coaching programme, to the next wave of potential gold medallists and professional sports men and women on the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence, I believe the week went a long way to promoting the sport and active leisure sector and its importance on a national scale.

With the English National Apprenticeship Awards coming up in July, I am really keen that we build on last year’s success of having apprentices from our sector nominated for Awards, with two of them actually winning. I was delighted to witness Luke Power, a young man from Greenwich, London win the Young Apprentice of the Year Award, and Mark Brookes from Solihull be Highly Commended in the Personal Achiever of the Year Award – the first time for our sector. I would urge all employers to get involved with this year’s Awards and get nominating their apprentices. Winning awards really demonstrates the vital role our sector plays in the health and well-being of the nation, not to mention its contribution to the economy as a whole – particularly important in these unstable times.

For more information about the 2009 National Apprenticeship Awards visit: www.apprenticeships.org.uk/awards

Last week saw National Apprenticeship Week, an opportunity to celebrate and recognise the essential role that Apprenticeships are playing in today’s business world, ensuring that the workforce has the skills it needs in order to remain competitive, even in difficult economic circumstances.

Local school pupils, college students, training providers and employers joined representatives from SkillsActive and sports stars such as Sharron Davies MBE, Dame Kelly Holmes and Mickey Bushell to participate in a varied programme of presentations, talks, meetings and activity sessions. These ran throughout the week in London, Brighton, Bristol, Bolton, Buxton, Telford, Wellingborough, Sunderland, Harrogate and Benfleet.

Some of the events were organised and run by the apprentices themselves, with one event in Northampton seeing 170 young school children taking part in a multisport festival put on by 30 Young Apprentices. 

The Young Apprenticeship also programme received praise this week from the apprentices and employers alike, following SkillsActive’s evaluation of the programme between September 2006 and July 2008.

One of the London event’s focussed on the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence, and was hosted by former Commonwealth Games gymnast and TV presenter, Gabby Logan. Over 100 AASE athletes attended, and were able to attend workshops, discussions and a Q&A session with former elite athletes. The workshops proved especially popular, and althletes were given advice from Dame Kelly Holmes on “What it takes to be a champion”,  Barry Shillabeer presented elements of Rebecca Adlington’s gold medal winning strength and conditioning programme, and Sky TV presenter Graham Little offered up media training. 

We managed to find a few minutes to catch up with Gabby and ask her about the AASE programme and the impact it is having, and what impact it might have had on her sporting career had it existed when she was an elite athlete.

We also spent some time travelling round the country to interview current and past AASE athletes, those involved in delivering the programme, representitives of National Governing Bodies of Sport and the head of Performance Sport at UK Sport about their views on AASE:

Of course, we’re not the only ones who are throwing our weight behind the importance of Apprenticeships. Sir Alan Sugar has recently been starring in TV advertising (see below) to raise the awareness of apprenticeships, a video which also features Luke Power. Luke of course was Young Apprentice of the Year in 2008, studying his Young Apprentice in Sports Management, Leadership and Coaching at Eltham Green Specialist Sports College.

For anyone looking to find out more about apprenticeships in any form, you can find out more on our website or on the national apprenticeships website.