Workforce Development Update

Edition 1: 7 November 2007

Welcome to the first in a bi-weekly series of Updates from Workforce Development.  Here you will find all the latest news and developments from this innovative team who are responsible for the development and delivery of training for teachers and coaches for all aquatic disciplines.

Firstly we are pleased to announce that we have been selected by the Learning & Skills Council to receive funding under The Development Programme for Train to Gain, which will provide us with support from the Quality Improvement Agency to look at ways of improving our training delivery.  We are one of 45 providers across the country to receive this support.  We were nominated for our innovative approach and willingness to break into new markets.

We are proud to confirm our status as a National Governing Body ‘Enhanced Trailblazer’ for the UK Coaching Framework.  This means that we are the only sport to formally pilot the framework across all of its four disciplines – the other ‘trailblazer’ sports involved will concentrate on one discipline only.

Further evidence of our continued position at the forefront of sports education in the UK is that swimming has been chosen by sports coach UK as one of the pilot sports to develop the UKCC Level 4 programme.  Currently our UKCC endorsed courses for teachers and coaches have been developed up to Levels 2 and 3. Watch this space for more details on this in the future!

News now of  'Women in High Performance Sport', which is being developed in conjunction with sports coach UK.  They have invited us as the first individual sport to run this 3 year education programme for female coaches who work in a performance environment. Other sports already taking part include rugby, football and cricket. The programme consists of 4 specialised Continuing Professional Development Seminars each year, each based around an individual needs analysis to provide a personalised schedule. The first of these sessions will take place in early December for the 18 women who have been accepted, the most by far of any sport involved.

Another new training programme which has recently launched is the Young Aquatic Organiser Award, part of the ASA's strategy to engage more young people in the sport. Aimed at 14-19 year olds, this award is for teenagers who are keen on getting more involved with ASA clubs as a volunteer, developing their skill base and gaining a recognised qualification.

We are delighted to increase our ever expanding network of tutors with the appointment of our first two full time tutors dedicated to working for the Institute of Swimming.  Ellie Purvis covers London and the South East and will be tutoring her first course in the region during November, whereas the North region will be covered by Ray Butters from December.

Existing tutors have been attending Upskilling training days throughout the summer to train them in the teaching and/or coaching strands of UKCC.  A total of 274 tutors attended one of 24 separate training days held across the regions. The tutors had to sit a technical paper as part of the training to test their competence as a tutor for the new UKCC syllabus.  Of those who attended, 194 are now upskilled to deliver the teaching strand of UKCC courses and 99 are now upskilled to deliver coaching.

Finally, you may have seen in the news section recently that Survive and Save have been recognised as the first Swimming Club to achieve the Aquamark Approved status.  This is just the latest in a number of Aquamark accreditations achieved recently: Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council in Yorkshire, who have 4 pools, achieved Premier status, Pavilion Leisure Centre in Withernsea near Hull received the Premier level and City and County of Swansea have 4 pools who can also now promote themselves with this Aquamark status.  It has been a busy time for Aquamark in recent months with the total of accredited organisations now standing at 34.

If you would like future editions of this update emailed straight to you as soon as they become available, please send your contact details to claire.freeman@swimming.org

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