Turning Sports education on its head
Sue Beeley works to link local education authorities, schools and colleges with local sports clubs.
Employed through Objective 1 and Football Foundation to work with professional sports clubs, and a member of the Skills Active Diploma in Sport and Active Leisure Steering Group she is also determined to help develop the new Diploma in Sport and Active Leisure and give employers a real opportunity to influence education in a way that hasn’t been done before.
“This new Diploma allows employers to engage much more in the training and education of the next generation of employees,” she says. “It turns the current way we deliver sports education on its head, as it will now be driven by employer needs.”
The trick, according to Sue, is to produce a diploma that delivers the skills required by the sector’s employers with the skills base that will give young people entering the sector the wider education and abilities they need not just to succeed in the sport and leisure industry, but also in other walks of life.
Employers take the initiative
“Sports training has traditionally been done by schools and colleges,” she explains. “Now, as some young people leave education without the necessary skills that match those needed by the sector’s employers, those same employers are taking the initiative and becoming actively involved.”
“This new Diploma allows employers to influence the training and education of the next generation of employees. It turns the current way we deliver sports education on its head, as it will now be much more driven by employer needs.”
Sue Beeley, Project Co-ordinator, South Yorkshire Professional Sport and Education
Sue points out that compromises are being made by both the education sector and employers to produce a diploma that delivers the skills needed by employers in their particular context with the broader education and skills required by every young person to achieve their personal potential.
“Some of this new employer-led attitude has already been absorbed by the B-Tec qualification, but the Diploma in Sport and Active Leisure will take this many stages further to being a qualification that is respected by student and teachers, and recognised by potential employers,” she adds.
Achieving ambition
“The Diploma will allow a young person to become fully engaged with an employer whilst they are training. Sport motivates young people and if they are keen to make a career out of it, then this Diploma will show them how they can achieve their ambition by actively involving them in some of the day-to-day work so they understand how the theory they are being taught works in practice.”
Sue feels that there are challenges ahead, not least in encouraging smaller employers to engage with the new Diploma.
Engaging with all employers
“In some ways it’s easier for big employers to provide the support and facilities needed to achieve our objective; they have the company structure and flexibility to deliver a critical mass of training opportunities. They also know that if they don’t engage with the next generation, then they won’t have the pool of talent needed to maintain their business success. More difficult is encouraging smaller companies to take part, where often the business has few employees and each one is already contributing 100% with little time spare for training others. We will have to work that bit harder to demonstrate that this Diploma is essential to their professional success.”
Producing the next generation of professionals
Sue adds: “I’m looking forward to the future when this new Diploma in Sport and Active Leisure is recognised as delivering well-trained young people into a growing sector. We’ve already achieved the most difficult part – the commitment of some of the industry’s biggest employers. Now we’re well on the way to developing a Diploma that will open the doors to an exiting career for a new generation of sports industry professionals.”
