Sport England Awards £250,000 to Get Qualified Programme

29th January 2008

Following plans for the introduction of a new National Skills Academy that will overhaul the way training is delivered in the sport and active leisure sector, Sport England has awarded the University of Cumbria a Sport Lottery bid of £250,000 to expand the reach of the highly successful Get Qualified initiative.

In addition to extending the Get Qualified project from Cumbria into Lancashire, the funding will secure the projects future for a further two years and expand its remit to up-skill those working in mainstream sport as well as the outdoor sector.

Get Qualified was launched in Cumbria in February 2007 with an aim to improve the qualifications and skills of professionals working in the outdoor sector. Get Qualified enables individuals to apply to the University of Cumbria for financial support and, if eligible receive funding towards their course fees, usually at the rate of 40% of the course cost. Since its introduction, over 270 people in Cumbria have received grants to finance training. The recent £250,000 investment means that potentially 500 people across Lancashire will now also benefit from subsidised training. The Get Qualified Programme has come about as a result of collaborative working between Cumbria Sport Partnership, Lancashire Sport and the University of Cumbria.

Simon Waring, Centre Manager at Outward Bound, says: “As a significant employer in Cumbria that is expanding, Get Qualified has been a great help in ensuring our current staff are trained and qualified to high standards. The launch of a NationalSkillsAcademy for Sport and Active Leisure will enable schemes like Get Qualified to be more accessible to employers in the sector, allowing them to gain financial support for training staff and to pull all skills training into one single and coherent place.”

The model of the Get Qualified project is seen as a preferred delivery mechanism for future developments on the NationalSkillsAcademy for Sport and Active Leisure. Pioneered by SkillsActive, the industry’s sector skills council, the academy will see a regional hub established at COMET (Centre for Outdoor Management, Education and Training) at the university’s campus in Penrith and is set to have a huge impact on training provision in the North West.

Once operational, the academy will secure a future for Get Qualified and similar projects across England as well as Cumbria and Lancashire. Many reputable and accredited training providers in the region have already signed up and committed to transferring into the NationalSkillsAcademy model.

Jon Owen, at the School of Outdoor Studies, University of Cumbria, says: “The NationalSkillsAcademy has the potential to really unite employers and organisations within the sport and outdoor sectors to create initiatives that are transformative and ‘greater than the sum of the parts’. As host of the North West hub, there is a superb opportunity for businesses in the sector to assist in the development of the academy in our region. Building the capacity of the workforce is paramount and projects like Get Qualifiedwill help address the skills challenges across the North West and provide local employers with a skilled workforce.”

The Get Qualified project has so far accepted over 270 applications from eligible individuals, and has committed to support them through courses which lead to qualifications in: first aid; canoe coaching awards; trail cycling and mountain biking; mountain leadership; rock climbing; powerboat handling; generic line management skills; and caving.

SkillsActive

SkillsActive is licensed by government as the Sector Skills Council for Active Leisure and Learning. Charged by employers, SkillsActive leads the skills and productivity drive across the sport and recreation, health and fitness, outdoors, playwork and caravan industries – known as the active leisure and learning sector.SkillsActive is dedicated to the needs of business and organisations by helping to improve their competitiveness and productivity, and aims to bring together employers, educators and government, and unite them with a common, employer-led agenda for action on skills.

Sport England

National SkillsAcademy network The National Skills Academy network is the new gold standard for industry training, aiming to improve productivity and tackle skills shortages across England.

Each National Skills Academy puts employers at the heart of skills training for their sector: they influence the curriculum to ensure it reflects employers’ needs; get involved in the Academy’s management; set standards; and influence strategic direction.

National Skills Academies aim to:

deliver high quality training for a specific sector
provide first-class teaching in a modern learning environment
be centres of innovation and creativity in skills development for their sector
be flexible, sustaining the closest possible relationships with employers of all sizes, and
build specialist networks with a range of other learning providers, so that new thinking, new methods and higher standards are shared to the benefit of learners and employers.

The National Skills Academy network was initiated by the Government to address the need for a world class workforce with better skills than ever before. It is managed by the Learning and Skills Council working in partnership with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the Sector Skills Development Agency, the Skills for Business Network and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

The Skills for Business Network is made up of licensed Sector Skills Councils and their regulatory body, the Sector Skills Development Agency. This network is responsible for improving skills and productivity within the UK.

For more information see: www.nationalskillsacademy.co.uk