Sport England awards University of Cumbria £250,000 (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Sport England awards University of Cumbria £250,000

9:34am Wednesday 30th January 2008 in

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Sport England has awarded the University of Cumbria a SportLottery bid of £250,000 to expand the reach of the highly successful Get Qualified initiative.

The announcement follows plans for the introduction of a new National Skills Academy that will overhaul the way training is delivered in the sport and active leisure sector.

In addition to extending the geographical reach of the Get Qualified project from Cumbria into Lancashire, the funding will secure the projects future for a further two years and expand its remit to up-skill those working in mainstream sport as well as the outdoor sector.

Get Qualified was launched in Cumbria in February 2007 with an aim to improve the qualifications and skills of professionals working in the outdoor sector. Get Qualified enables individuals to apply to the University of Cumbria for financial support and, if eligible receive funding towards their course fees, usually at the rate of 60% of the course cost. Since its introduction, over 270 people in Cumbria have received grants to finance training. The recent £250,000 investment means that potentially 500 people across Lancashire will now also benefit from subsidised training.

Simon Waring, Centre Manager at Outward Bound, says: "As a significant employer in Cumbria that is expanding, Get Qualified has been a great help in ensuring our current staff are trained and qualified to high standards. The launch of a National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure will enable schemes like Get Qualified to be more accessible to employers in the sector, allowing them to gain financial support for training staff and to pull all skills training into one single and coherent place."

The model of the Get Qualified project is seen as a preferred delivery mechanism for future developments on the National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure. Pioneered by SkillsActive, the industry's sector skills council, the academy will see a regional hub established at COMET (Centre for Outdoor Management, Education and Training) at the university's campus in Penrith and is set to have a huge impact on training provision in the North West.

Once operational, the academy will secure a future for Get Qualified and similar projects across England as well as Cumbria and Lancashire. Many reputable and accredited training providers in the region have already signed up and committed to transferring into the National Skills Academy model.

Jon Owen, at the School of Outdoor Studies, University of Cumbria, says: "The National Skills Academy has the potential to really unite employers and organisations within the sport and outdoor sectors to create initiatives that are transformative and greater than the sum of the parts'. For example, Get Qualified has come about as a result of collaborative working between the County Sports Partnerships of both Cumbria and Lancashire and the University of Cumbria. As host of the North West hub, there is a superb opportunity for businesses in the sector to assist in the development of the academy in our region. Building the capacity of the workforce is paramount and projects like Get Qualifiedwill help address the skills challenges across the North West and provide local employers with a skilled workforce."

The Get Qualified project has so far accepted over 270 applications from eligible individuals, and has committed to support them through courses which lead to qualifications in: first aid; canoe coaching awards; trail cycling and mountain biking; mountain leadership; rock climbing; powerboat handling; generic line management skills; and caving.