Association of Colleges
AoC welcomes the Youth and Community Sports Strategy
10 January 2012
The Association of Colleges welcomes today’s announcement by Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Olympics Media & Sport, about the launch of a Youth and Community Sports Strategy to be delivered by Sport England.
The strategy includes a £25million boost to provision in Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges to tackle the drop-off in sports participation that occurs when young people leave school. Up to 150 full-time sports professionals will be funded as college Sport Makers who will work across individual or groups of colleges to drive up participation and develop innovative provision. The funding will begin during the next financial year (2012 - 13).
Clare Howard, AoC’s Head of Sport Strategy, welcomed the announcement saying: “We are delighted that college students will benefit from this funding. It is ideal timing with the recent launch of the joint AoC/British Colleges Sport national sports strategy Growing Sport, Growing Colleges Main Strategy Leaflet, and we look forward to working with Sport England to work up these proposals in more detail.”
College Sport key facts:
· 860,000 16-18 year olds are educated at FE or Sixth Form Colleges
· 23% of students participate in activities organised by colleges
· Colleges organise an average of 512 events per year (spread over 54 different activities)
· An average of 20 sports are offered per college
· Colleges have formed an average of 9 club links
· Over 70,000 students compete intra-college; over 50,000 students compete inter-college
· Over 35,000 students volunteer in sport (coaching, administrating, officiating, organising)
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