Shaping the future of college sport

AoC Sport’s recent survey results show there has been a leap in the number of college students taking part in sport or physical activity – up from 15% in 2013 to a fifth (20%) in 2014. This is excellent news. But we’re in sport, we’re competitive, and we want to do more. While AoC Sport is only three months old, we’ve got three main ambitions: To be the single voice for college sport, driving improvement, channelling funding and shaping the further education sporting landscape. To design and deliver high-quality opportunities and services to meet the needs of students, member colleges and external agencies. To promote, represent and support college sport, championing the lifelong benefits of involvement in sport and physical activity. But what does this actually mean for the year ahead? We want to make sure the right sports are available, in the right formats, with the best possible competitive structures to give students the best possible experience. So while we continue to organise leagues, cups, tournaments and championships for member colleges, we will also be reviewing the competition structures. Alongside this, we want to boost non-competitive sports as well. Secondly, we will continue our policy and curriculum development work so that member colleges can benefit from our expertise and knowledge about the latest goings-on in sport and physical activity. This includes reviewing and refreshing‎ the national standards for college sport, hosting a Sport in the Curriculum Conference in January and looking at better ways of engaging and focusing on what's important for colleges. I think we all know how tight funding for colleges will be over the next few years. So our third area of work will be to look at new funding opportunities, from both the public and private sectors, to ensure the continued development of college sport AoC Sport’s strapline is ‘for college, for life’. Involvement in sport and physical activity in college not only sets the basis for a healthy life, it also provides invaluable skills welcomed by employers. The foundation of our work is to help students of any age, gender and ability achieve their goals…and our ambitions for the year ahead reinforce this.