Good practical experience makes the best employees
D C Leisure Management Limited specialises in the development and management of leisure facilities in partnership with local authorities throughout the UK.
Currently it manages 120 leisure centres for 30 local authorities across the UK.
With 7,000 employees, costing £80 million a year, DC Leisure has very sound commercial reasons for getting the best out of its staff.
It’s about people
“Our business is about people,” he says. “I’ve seen wonderful leisure centres which suffer from poor staff, and less modern ones which are more successful because they’ve got great staff. This is a service industry and the companies which recognise that stand a better chance of getting and retaining good staff.”
Where possible DC Leisure employs local people and aims to promote from within.
Richard agrees with the principles behind the new Diploma in Sport and Leisure, recognising the benefits of integrating the learning of education core skills with practical experience gained in a sports and leisure environment.
Currently the company works with the Institute of Sport and Recreational Management, which offers various levels of appropriate training for all levels of DC Leisure staff.
Practical experience is key
However, it’s the practical experience which can identify those who are likely to make a success of a career in the industry. “Gaining solid and valuable experience of the leisure industry is about doing the hard yards of working in a practical environment as well as learning the theory,” he explains.
"If the new Diploma in Sport and Active Leisure achieves its aim of encouraging more young people into the industry who are well qualified and enthusiastic, I support it wholeheartedly.” Richard Millard, Operations Director, D C Leisure Management |
“We don’t believe in ‘babysitting’ those who ask to do work experience with us,” says Richard. When D C Leisure takes young people on a proper work placement the company prefers they to do it within a proper learning framework, such as that proposed within the Diploma In Sport and Active Leisure He added: “We make sure they contribute as much to the leisure centre as they gain in understanding the industry better. That way they’ll have had a more valuable experience which will offer them a much truer perspective of the business and encourage them to develop and learn appropriate skills and knowledge to go with them.”
Many career pathways
He continued: “There are many career pathways, such as a fitness adviser studying at levels 2 and 3 to become a personal trainer and be able to offer exercise referral. We work with schools and the disabled and they all require different skills from our staff.”
Whilst lifeguarding is another job which isn’t the most glamorous job in the world, according to Richard, it is certainly the most important within a centre.
“Lifeguards must be trained properly, and we employ 1800 in our leisure centres. Again, we offer a strong career progression from supervisors to duty managers to operations managers to general managers.
An exciting sector
Over the last ten years DC Leisure has grown substantially and the company is now seeking to gain market share whilst sticking to its core skills.
“As sport merges with education and leisure this is a very exciting sector to be in,” adds Richard. “Whilst at opposite ends of the spectrum, both obesity and the Olympics are focusing everyone’s minds and we will need more well qualified people with strong practical experience to fulfill the Government’s objectives to reduce obesity and widen participation in sport,” says Richard.
“A Diploma in Sport and Active Leisure which fulfils this objective should be strongly welcomed by the industry.”
