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.

It’s been a few weeks since I last wrote my blog and in that time so much more has happened in the run up to Australia.  Last time I wrote that I had almost obtained all the sponsorship money for my trip, well now this is completed and I managed to raise MORE than the money required for the trip, which is truly fantastic.

To my joy Lush, a global cosmetic company came forward with the remaining money and generously the Borough of Poole and Poole Tourism has also donated some money.  As I managed to raise a little more money than required the remaining money has bought me clothing with all my sponsors logos on them and a tripod and microphone also for my trip – more on this will be explained later.

The meetings in Australia have now expanded and I have also gained further interest from the press in Canberra.  I decided to make contact with ABC 666 Canberra Radio and a producer from Alex Sloan’s morning show came back to me and said they would love to interview me on the telephone before I arrived and then get me in to the studio when I am in Canberra.  This is fantastic, as it means I am able to spread the word globally about my project! So on Thursday 30^th July I carried out an interview with the radio station, which can be listened to here: Rachel Light interview.

Since Lush has kindly sponsored me, they too are working hard on obtaining press during my trip.  At the moment I am in liaison with their UK press office to arrange this.  It is also pretty big news for Parkeon too, another sponsor of mine, as at the moment they are getting ready to deploy a contactless electronic ticketing system using smartcard technology for the process of charging patrons for public transport.  Smartcard has already been deployed in Perth the only thing different for Canberra is they have no rail system.  Bizarrely my younger brother is a programmer for Parkeon in Poole, and the guy I am meeting with in Canberra used to be my brother’s boss.

Another piece of great news is a few weeks ago my mum suggested I should look in to a cameraman filming my trip seeing as I am having a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet with all these fantastic organisations in Australia.  I therefore made contact with Channel 4 and Sky to see if it was anything they would be interested in.  Unfortunately Sky came back and said they are already supporting many projects and they did not have the budget.  However Channel 4 suggested I contact a production company to see if it would be something of interest to them, as Channel 4 use production companies to make documentaries.  They sent me a link for a directory of production companies and a came across a company who have been absolutely amazing!  Glasshead, based in London, are interested in my trip and also in my plight to improve education and training on health and fitness to young athletes in the UK.  A lovely lady Faye called me and has told me Glasshead are working with SkillsActive already and looking to put together a production for the Olympics and this could fit it.  HOW AMAZING IS THAT!

Unfortunately because of the short notice they are unable to send a camera person with me for my trip, so I have been loaned a camera from Sport England and will have to film myself.  Now I am no camera person and have no idea what I am doing with a camera, let alone made it any good for TV.  I therefore arranged to meet with a freelance news reporter, Richard Slee, who runs his own company called  Look out Media and well, what can I say, a truly kind man who spent nearly two hours with me talking to me about my project and how best to film, shots to take and what will happen when I return.  He has also said he will help me get my story on to the local news.  Now the pressure is really on!  Best get good with that camera…  I’ve spent the last few days filming everything and I’ve still got so much to learn!

Once again I would like to say thank you to all my sponsors:

• Lush
• Parkeon
• British Surfing Association
• SkillsActive/Nancy Ovens Trust
• Borough of Poole
• Poole Tourism
• John Maughan
• Talbot Heath
• Animal
• Sport England
• Young Athletes Training Academy
• Four friends Melissa King, Russell Palmer, Peter Light (younger brother), Janet Head

I would also like to say a massive THANK YOU to my mum, who has been so supportive to me, listened to me and helped me to stay strong and focused.

Only 5 days to go now. Stay tuned for more news…

Recent research from Sport England and the CCPR certainly seem to suggest that is the case.

Volunteers are at the heart of most sports clubs

Sport England recently reported on their quarterly results for their Active People Survey, which provides the largest  survey of sport and active recreation undertaken in Europe. While the headline results showed promise, with 6,822,000 people (16 and over) now playing sport three times a week and regular participation holding firm since December 2008, as well as satisfaction with local sports provision increasing, there were some worrying trends including a decrease in volunteering.

Could it be that volunteering, along with competitive participation and membership, has suffered from the current economic environment?

With less disposable income it seems that participation in sporting activities, whether as a competitor or volunteer, is one of the things that suffers. A recent Times article, based on research by the CCPR, suggested that the recession could mean the final whistle for 6,000 community sports clubs due to falling membership.

The CCPR research noted that “volunteering is also being affected by the economic downturn, with more than a fifth of clubs saying that the circumstances have had a negative or very negative impact on attracting and retaining volunteers “.

Within our sector, volunteers play a crucial role in delivering activities across sport and active leisure, with volunteer hours equivalent to over 50,000 full time roles. These roles  can range from the obvious ones such as coaches and officials to many more roles behind the scenes such as those who maintain equipment or look after the finances.  One of the key barriers to volunteering, particularly in the front-line roles, is often the cost of training. With both clubs and volunteers currently suffering from a lack of funds this obviously impacts upon maintaining both the number of volunteers and their skills.

SkillsActive often plays a part in directing funding into the sector, and support a number of bursaries and projects which help those in the sector in funding their development. Our London and South West coaching bursaries were a huge success and there are a number of bursaries to coaches still available in some regions. In the East of England  the East-Links: Leading the Field programme provides opportunities in fitness and officiating as well as targeting coaches. Meanwhile in playwork, there is funding available for playworkers to undertake level 3 qualifications, allowing advancement of skills for those in or looking to join the sector.

For more information on volunteering, whether in sport or other areas, Volunteering England have a whole host of information on their website with a large section dedicated to sport. 

If you’ve seen the impact of the recession on volunteering, share your views below.

In response to the news that councils are ignoring the ‘compensation culture’ and investing in more adventurous play, here at SkillsActive we are pleased to see that the government and councils are beginning to understand the benefits of play and playwork.

However, we would encourage that those facilitating playspaces are qualified playworkers as they are best placed to aid the opportunity for young people to experience risk in a broadly safe environment.

We are currently engaged in a project to fund 4,000 playwork professionals up to Level 3 and have recently launched a tool to help playworkers find appropriate training, so there are opportunities to ensure the provision of skilled playworkers to deliver more adventurous play schemes.

If you’re a coach or leader working with young people, you’ll often find that there are two things standing in the way of your personal developement – time and money. The SkillsActive and Nancy Ovens Bursary could help with those by offering funding of up to £2000 for anyone working across the Active Leisure and Learning Sector to enhance their skills and knowledge in a way that traditional training courses cannot provide.

This can often be achieved by taking part in studies, work experience or activities outside of their day-to-day job, with previous applicants shadowing the best coaches in their chosen field or using the money to pay for cover in their day-to-day job so that they can volunteer elsewhere.

We’ve just produced a few new case studies of some of last year’s successful applicants, which you can download below:

• The first case study looked at aspiring basketball coach Ben Foster spent the summer in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA, coaching at various summer camps with Doug Noll, a top former player and assistant coach, who runs a worldwide basketball academy.
  
• The second case study looked at hockey coach Duncan Parnis travelled to Australia over the summer; here he took part in two projects, a coaching project at a successful Australian Hockey club, and ‘The Refugee Sports Project’ which helps children from war torn countries such as Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan who find refuge in Australia.
• Finally, the third case study looks at how Nigel West spent three weeks in California in a bid to learn from some of the country’s top coaches. Despite having 22 years coaching experience, Nigel is always looking to develop his skills and the bursary presented the best opportunity to continue his personal development through a unique learning experience.

As you can see from these, and the other bursary recipients from 2006 and 2007, this is a really unique opportunity to develop a truely individual learning experience – it is these well thought out and unique experiences that the judging panel look for.

In previous years the majority of our applicants, and all of the recipients, have come from the sporting sector. Coaches from a variety of sports have benefited by learning from the very best coaches in their sport, and to do so have travelled worldwide in search of personal development. This year we’re keen to attract applicants from some of our other sectors, in addition to top coaches, who could equally benefit from learning from the best in their field, whether it be in the outdoors, playwork, health and fitness or caravans.

As such, we’ve been running a series of articles on how applicants from each of these sectors might chose to develop their skills in Playwork, the Outdoors, Caravans, Sport and Recreation and Health and Fitness.

The closing date for applications for the SkillsActive and Nancy Ovens Bursary is 12 May, so applicantions need to be made quickly. Find out more at www.skillsactive.com/nancyovensbursary