Pricing on the QTP

We have recently changed our approval process on the Quality Training Portal so that all training must show either a price or POA (price on application).

This is in response to feedback from users of the site who felt that no price at all implies a free programme.

As part of our regular housekeeping on the site, we will be asking all providers who have £0.00 as a price to either insert a price or amend to POA by Wednesday 21 September.

After that date, any training showing £0.00 will be made inactive.

If you have any questions about this process please contact endorsement@skillsactive.com.

 

 

 

The Community Fitness Awards

The Community Fitness Awards are hosted by Project Mayhem Events Ltd and they explained to us the reason behind this celebration.

Community Fitness is a hugely valuable sector of the UK Fitness Industry, with thousands of independent instructors teaching all forms of freestyle and branded programmes every day.

We thought this warranted a celebration all its own, something to be proud of that would recognise the hard work and achievements bought by so many people who often go it alone and impact the fitness and well-being of the nation.

Project Mayhem Events hosts many popular fitness weekends, and has delivered the ‘Ribby Weekend’, every year for the past five years. Up to 500 fitness enthusiasts enjoy two full days of classes.

The community spirit that has evolved from this event is phenomenal, with instructors now having a sense of belonging to a much wider community than otherwise would have been possible. We’ve wanted to capture that magic and bring it to Trowbridge, Wiltshire in the South West of the UK for some years, and this year, finally, it is happening.

Our one-day event, sponsored by Sound Dynamics, will be jam-packed with sessions from some of the biggest brands and best presenters the industry has to offer. The event is open to everyone, instructors, participants, friends and family. Everyone can join in, and take away something from the day. Instructors will get motivation and refreshing new ideas, participants can enjoy taking part in sessions with their instructor, even those completely new to community fitness will love it as they will get to experience the best, all in one day.

The evening sees us hosting the all-important Community Fitness Awards. There are ten categories in total, from Best male and female instructors, to best brand, facility, presenter or even lifetime achiever. Nominations have been submitted and we have some very strong candidates, with more still coming in daily.

We are very pleased and grateful to be able to say we have Jacqui Hobbs from SkillsActive acting as an independent judge for the shortlisting process of the votes. We very much wanted to create awards that the recipients and the industry as a whole would be proud of, and recognise. Having SkillsActive’s support has meant so much to us as it gives credence to our efforts in recognising the work of community-based fitness professionals via the awards.

The public also have a chance vote via an online platform and the combined results will eventually bring us our winners, to be announced at the evening ceremony on 5 November.

Tickets for the event are available via the Project Mayhem Website with a day pass costing only £22, a seat at the awards ceremony only £35, or £50 for both the day and the evening – a generous 12% saving!

Project Mayhem Ltd are still interested to hear from anyone in the industry who may wish to get involved – there are opportunities still remaining for sponsoring individual awards, space in the exhibitors stand area, or simply tickets to the event.

 

Improving customer service for REPs Members

The new REPs team

SkillsActive and Sports Coach UK have collaborated to create a partnership to run the Register of Exercise Professionals to make life easy for those who work in the sector.

Coachwise, the wholly owned subsidiary of Sports Coach UK, is now responsible for supporting members of REPs on a day-to-day basis. Coachwise has a 22-year successful track record of serving customers, on behalf of over 40 organisations, in the active sector.

SkillsActive retains independent responsibility for REPs membership criteria and endorsing training that counts towards REPs CPD points.

Coachwise has established an infrastructure and a seven-strong team (above) that is entirely dedicated to serving REPs members.

Tracé Barry, Head of Operations and Service at Coachwise (above, bottom right) explained what this means for REPs members:

There is nothing you need to do to your REPs records in relation to this change. Your personal data will now be processed and stored by Coachwise and all your data will be used and held in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998.

REPs will continue to be the largest register of fitness professionals providing employers and the public with the same confidence that the REPs badge has bestowed on its members since 2002.

All the benefits you currently enjoy will continue, but with this renewed investment in REPs, you will see big improvements too.

Here’s a snapshot of what’s going on behind the scenes.

1. We have refreshed the REPs Code of Ethics and Conduct, making it far more user-friendly for you.

2. Our professional editorial team is hard at work writing for the next journal, which you will receive in the autumn.

3. We have discovered that some of you have experienced problems uploading evidence for your CPD points, so we are working hard to fix this.

4. After that, we’ll be trying to find out more about what challenges you face so that we can evolve the REPs benefits to suit your needs.

To talk to the new REPs team, contact them on 0330 004 0004 or email info@exerciseregister.org.uk.

London Metropolitan University and SkillsActive Endorsement

Karl Grainger from London Metropolitan University gives us an insight into the fitness programmes offered at the university and why they decided to go for endorsement.

London Metropolitan University is a hugely diverse university, with a vibrant mix of students of all ages and all backgrounds.  An inclusive university, employability is at the core of the curriculum.  In our school we offer a range of Sports Science and Sports Therapy undergraduate degrees, and also a Sports Therapy MSc.  I am currently a personal academic tutor and lead the Training Principles and Biomechanics modules.

The university’s physiology lab

With ever increasing numbers of students attending university, and employability at the centre of our PISO (Project for Improved Student Outcomes), offering more applied work based learning qualifications will help our students into employment.  As a previous Personal Trainer I know the benefit of having a REPs recognised qualification on entering the workplace.  As our common first year already covered about 80% of the Skills Active Level 2 and Level 3 syllabus it seemed an obvious choice to go for Endorsement.

The benefits of endorsement to London Met are many but these were the 5 key factors that pushed us towards endorsement,

For the student:

1. It gives graduates the additional qualifications they will need to either become gym instructors or personal trainers, which many move into.
2. For the Sports Therapy graduates, it gives them a potential additional income stream when they start work.  All students can in effect take part time work as Gym Instructors and/or Personal Trainers from the end of their first year, given them a stronger financial position to take them through years 2 and 3 of their chosen degree – as well as improving their CV.
3. Even though we have to charge a small amount for the courses, the students get the option of taking 2 valuable qualifications at a fraction of the cost of external providers.

For the University:

1. By charging a nominal sum for the Level 2 and Level 3 courses, the whole project is self-funding.
2. By including the REPs options in our prospectus, it gives the School and University an edge over other universities in the area that do not offer the qualifications.

We were endorsed just over 12 months ago, and have so far run the Level 2 course twice – to allow as many students as possible to take part.  Nearly 40 students have taken part so far.  For the forthcoming year, we have made modifications to our first year which means the Level 2 and Level 3 are now approximately 90% embedded into the students’ normal programme of study, so we’re looking at perhaps another 50 students taking the Level 2 and 20-30 taking the Level 3.

In 2016-17 we will be revalidating our degree programmes, so will be looking further at Level 2/3 embedding, and also looking at the Level 3 Exercise Referral and perhaps 2 or 3 of the Level 4 qualifications.  Our degree programme already contains a large proportion of the content, so is a real no-brainer when it comes to offering industry standard qualifications that our graduates can take out into the workplace.

If you are interested in endorsement for your HE programmes, contact the Professional Development team at endorsement@skillsactive.com.

 

Upcoming events

Here’s a selection of events that are coming up that you might be interested in attending.

The Future of Sport, Employment, Skills and Apprenticeships 2016
13 September 2016, Wolverhampton

This much needed conference will provide a platform to network and evaluate the Government’s Active Nation Strategy. The Active Nation strategy questions the continual focus on technical qualifications and the need to make sport an attractive career option for the brightest and most able individuals across the UK. The strategy pushes the further and higher education sector to ensure graduates are of high quality and have the right skill set for employers, and sees apprenticeships as the key mechanism to realise a sport workforce with the right skills. Full details here.

 

Leisure Industry Week
20-21 September 2016, Birmingham

Something for everyone! Covering fitness, health, play, sports, facilities management, and spa and wet leisure, there will be lots to do and see.

Tom and Hanna are attending on Tuesday 20 September, so let us know if you would like to meet up to discuss either your current endorsement or your plans for future endorsement.

 

Om Yoga Show
21-23 October 2016, London

Visitors go to the OM Yoga Show to immerse themselves in a truly yogic atmosphere for the whole weekend. Free open classes provide the opportunity to be inspired by leading teachers; the chance to try something new, or revisit an old favourite. Open classes, located within the exhibition, are free of charge to all visitors, and operate on a first come, first served basis. Full details here.

Food Matters Live
22-24 November 2016, London

From mainstreaming free-from food and drink to marketing to millennials, there are 80 seminar sessions to choose from – delivered by 300 expert speakers from across the food and drink industry, nutrition and health. It’s all free to attend – register today.

 

REPs Roadshows
14 September 2016, University of Sunderland

A great opportunity to network and learn new skills with our endorsed providers. Details of this and other roadshows this year here.

 

Implementing Prevent

The Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 has introduced the Prevent Duty for various bodies including all FE colleges, adult education providers and independent learning providers with SFA funding or with over 250 students enrolled.

The Prevent duty requires all FE and training providers to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism” (Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015). This is part of the Safeguarding duty for providers but one that extends to all learners of all age groups and also staff.

A recent government press release explains that ‘due regard’ includes preventing extremists from seeking to radicalise learners and supporting those learners perceived to be at risk of extremist influences.

Ofsted has responsibility for monitoring how well the duty is being implemented and has raised concerns in a recent report about the Prevent duty in some quarters.  A specific recommendation from the report is that providers should be better aware of the support The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) can offer.”

Ofsted’s report also said: “some providers viewed the duty as a list of conditions just to comply with and have adopted a ‘tick-box’ approach. This goes against the spirit of the government’s guidance, which seeks to promote meaningful ways to reduce the specific risks of radicalisation and extremism for learners and the local community”…” there was a tendency to be over-reliant on online training packages. These packages provided only a basic awareness and understanding of ‘Prevent’. Little thought was given to extra or bespoke training for staff”… “Providers now must work more quickly to ensure that learners are protected against the threats of radicalisation and extremism.”

SkillsActive would like to offer ETF training at our London office in the near future so if you are interested in attending let us know below. Once we have sufficient interest we will be able to contact you with dates.

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WorldSkills UK Fitness Trainer Competition

Rob Wilkie, SkillsActive Compliance and Standards Manager, recently acted as a judge for the heats of the WorldSkills UK Fitness Trainer Competition.  This competition, managed by Association of Colleges (AoC) Sport, is the only active leisure skills competition in the UK for students working towards careers in the sport and leisure industry, and is a great opportunity for students to showcase their skills in a competitive environment.

This particular heat was held at Queen Mary’s College, Basingstoke, and saw competitors perform in either the Gym Instructor or Personal Trainer categories.  Rob was a judge for the latter category and was impressed by the high standard and great potential he saw in the students.

The next stage in this competition are the national semi-finals which will be held at Loughborough University in July, with the national finals to be held at The Skills Show in November at the NEC Birmingham.

Upcoming Events

Here are some of the events that are going to be taking place around the country in the coming months – we plan to be at most if not all of them, so if you are going too let us know if you would like to meet up!

  REPs Roadshows: If you are an endorsed provider, these roadshows offer a great opportunity to offer bitesize master classes to REPs members so they can get a feel of the training you offer. Find out all the details on the REPs website.

 Leisure Industry Week: LIW is the UK’s largest gathering of leisure decision makers, influencers and buyers, bringing together thousands of like-minded professionals to shape the future and growth of the sector, and is taking place in Birmingham on 20-21 September 2016. Full details here.

Food Matters Live: The conference will address the political, social and economic issues surrounding the complex and challenging relationship between food, health and nutrition. 400 speakers across 80 seminar sessions and 17 live debates taking place at the ExCeL in London on 22-24 November 2016.

 SkillsActive Training Days: We have released September dates for the next tutor, assessor and internal quality assurance workshops for anyone seeking endorsement or wanting to brush up their skills. The places are filling up first so don’t miss out! Full details here.

 National Playwork Conference: The 15^th National Playwork Conference will be taking place in Eastbourne, East Sussex on Tuesday 7^th March and Wednesday 8^th March 2017. Find details here of the first call for presentations.

 

Contact us at endorsement@skillsactive.com if you would like your event in our next newsletter.

CPD for Endorsed Providers

Having sent out our recent customer survey asking endorsed providers what extra services we could provide, we discovered that a significant number wanted additional tutor training for existing tutors.

SkillsActive would therefore like to introduce you to ‘Inspirational Teaching’, a continuing professional development training course for tutors.  This is the first of many new courses to be exclusively offered to SkillsActive endorsed training providers in partnership with Habia.

You can find out more about the course and what you will learn here.

Training dates and venues to follow, but you can register your interest now by emailing sales@habia.org with your contact details.

 

AfN endorsed so what now?

As you will know, last year the Professional Development team decided to remove nutritional programmes from our endorsement process. This was because we felt that such a specialised topic should be dealt with by a dedicated organisation, and we have therefore been working with the Association for Nutrition (AfN) to bring this about.

After a successful pilot, the first AfN endorsed programmes are coming through. So if you have been endorsed by AfN, what now?

Well, simply put the programmes through the Quality Training Portal in the usual way if you have a Multiple Endorsement, or, if you are operating under Single Endorsements, submit it through the Single Course submission form, where you will be able to bypass the normal evidence requirements.

In both cases, you must send through your official endorsement confirmation from AfN to endorsement@skillsactive.com. Nothing can be endorsed without it!

If you have any questions, please contact the Professional Development team on 0203 434 4384 or endorsement@skillsactive.com.