Skills Academy

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ACTIVE LEISURE SKILLS ACADEMY GETS GREEN LIGHT

Skills Active is delighted to announce that it has won government endorsement for its proposal to develop a National Skills Academy for the active leisure and learning sector.

 

The Department for Education and Skills has confirmed its decision to back the Skills Active Academy at a reception hosted by Phil Hope, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Skills. The announcement came on the day that sector employers were asked by Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Education and Skills, to sign a skills pledge, pledging to upskill their staff to ensure the UK’s workforce has at least a level 2 qualification – equivalent to five good GCSEs.

 

Speaking of the announcement, SkillsActive chief executive Stephen Studd said: "I am absolutely delighted by the decision. The Academy will transform access to learning, specifically to quality learning in the sector for the current workforce and the new recruits we so need to capitalise on our growth. The Academy will provide a radical opportunity for the sector to meet the productivity challenge and to increase participation in sport."

 

"This decision comes at a crucial time. Active leisure makes a massive contribution to society as a whole, a healthier nation, the reduction in crime linked to social inclusion, the number of volunteering hours required for sport to operate; and with the 2012 Games just round the corner, we are finally getting the recognition we deserve.

 

"The current provision of education and lifelong learning is not meeting employer needs. The fragmentation of the training market means that most employers have difficulty finding a local provider, identifying vocational provision that meets their needs in terms of content or schedule of delivery, and ensuring that the training is quality assured or leads to qualifications. We see the Academy as the delivery mechanism for the employer-led, reformed national system of vocational education and training desperately needed by our sector."

 

Rather than being ‘bricks and mortar’, the SkillsActiveAcademy will be led by a virtual website and underpinned by learning ‘hubs’ and centres of excellence across England. Not only does this provide a crucial joined up approach to training provision, but it also directly addresses specific regional skills needs.

 

This regional approach allows SkillsActive to address the challenges facing a sector with a large workforce, working primarily across small organisations, and the huge army of volunteers paid and unpaid. Those businesses and individuals that cannot identify the right training or commit to the cost of training will now, through the development of the Academy, benefit from clear routes to quality learning and come together ensuring financial restrictions are no longer a barrier to training.

 

Studd continued: "Seventy nice per cent of frontline staff need better customer care skills and 64% of managers require better business and management skills.

 

Sixteen per cent of our 36,500 organisations report skills gaps and a massive 54% of all training is not publicly funded. This puts a significant burden on individuals to pay for their own training, which commonly, isn’t quality assured.

 

"In 2004/05 the Learning and Skills Council invested £130 million in qualifications aimed at our sector. Employers invested over £300m just to deliver essential technical training. The Academy offers the opportunity to build LSC funding into vocational training that meets employers’ needs, and that investment of both public and commercial funds is coordinated and leveraged for optimal impact."

 

For more information please contact:

Shelly Beresford

Tel: 020 7632 2033

Email: shelly.beresford@skillsactive.com