A Workforce for an Active Nation: Zoe's Story
Watch Zoe's Story of how she improved her life through exercise.
Active Sussex’s Workforce Investment Fund Project was delivered from 2018-2022 and was aligned with the five outcomes in the DCMS Sporting Futures Strategy.
Active Sussex used a whole system approach to invest Sport England’s Workforce Investment Fund into partner organisations in three inactivity hubs in East Sussex. In each area we wanted to work with partners to gain a true understanding of residents’ needs, and how we can build the workforce to support them to be active.
Active Sussex’s Workforce Investment Fund project was aligned with the five outcomes in the DCMS Sporting Futures Strategy. In line with the launch of the new Active Sussex Strategy in 2018, we wanted to target areas with high inactivity rates and used the insight to identify 3 inactivity hubs in Sussex. Within these hubs, 3 key strategic partners were identified that were best placed locally to create a step change in approach and behaviour that would lead to meaningful and sustainable impact. The aim was to develop a skilled and diverse workforce that would make a difference to local people and communities.
In June 2021 Active Sussex delivered a Workforce Investment Fund Learning Event to share the key learnings and impact with partners. See the presentation slides here.
The project has come to an end but the learning and recommendations inform the Active Sussex approach to workforce development.
Watch Zoe's Story of how she improved her life through exercise.
Active Sussex worked with Rother District Council, Hastings Borough Council and 3VA to build the workforce needed to engage inactive people.
In each area of our Workforce Investment Fund project we began by gaining a greater understanding of residents, existing participants, and the workforce. We are supporting our partners to create a more diverse and representative workforce by recruiting coaches from the community. And we’re training the workforce to ensure their behaviour creates a positive experience for customers.
The first stage of this project was focused on understanding audiences: to understand physical activity levels and attitudes of residents and participants. This helped to gain an understanding of resident needs and the workforce needed to support them to be active. Click here for more information on phase 1 of the project.
Phase 2 was focused on building the sport and physical activity workforce by offering training and qualifications to develop skilled and inspiring people from all backgrounds, to provide great experiences of sport and physical activity for everyone.
We want to develop a workforce with the knowledge, skills, competencies and behaviours to engage a wide range of audiences in sport and physical activity. Implementing a ‘person like me’ approach to workforce development aims to create a workforce that is reflective of the communities they operate in.
Nick is the Strategic Workforce Officer for Active Sussex, leading on workforce development for Active Sussex and the implementation of the Workforce Delivery Plan. Nick leads on projects such as the Workforce Investment Fund, Coach Core and Project 500, and is also the CYP Safeguarding Lead Officer for Active Sussex.
Email: nchellel@activesussex.org