Spencer Moore, Chief Strategy Officer, CIMSPA
When the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions published their letter to the joint chief executives of Skills England earlier this week, setting out the Government’s skills priorities, it marked a significant moment for the UK’s workforce agenda.
The letter calls for a more joined-up, evidence-led and employer-driven skills system that better meets labour market needs, reduces duplication, and creates clearer routes into training and employment.
For CIMSPA, and for the thousands of professionals, employers and training providers we work with, this is a signal that the skills system is evolving and our sector has a vital part to play in shaping that change.
Clearer focus on national priorities
The letter sets three key expectations for Skills England:
- Understanding future skills needs – using high-quality data and insight to anticipate where the workforce must grow and adapt.
- Simplifying access – making it easier for individuals and employers to navigate routes into training, qualifications and apprenticeships.
- Working with industry – co-designing sector skills packages that target key growth and priority areas.
It’s an approach designed to make the skills system more agile and responsive by ensuring that government investment in skills aligns closely with where growth opportunities exist.
The role of our sector
The sport and physical activity workforce plays a unique and growing role in the nation’s wellbeing by improving health outcomes, building social connection, and creating local jobs. Yet historically, it hasn’t always had the visibility or recognition of other major sectors within national skills planning.
One of CIMSPA’s missions has been to change that. Our work ensures that the sport and physical activity sector is represented wherever national skills policy is shaped from ministerial roundtables to local delivery networks.
The Skills England priorities present a real opportunity to make that influence count, ensuring our workforce is recognised as a key contributor to national health, productivity and inclusion.
Working in partnership with DWP
CIMSPA’s growing partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is already demonstrating how our sector can help tackle workforce and inclusion challenges.
Through this collaboration, we’re connecting jobseekers with meaningful opportunities in sport, leisure and active wellbeing by:
- Supporting Jobcentre Plus work coaches to better understand the sector’s career pathways and entry-level opportunities.
- Developing structured routes into work, underpinned by the sectors professional standards, so new entrants gain recognised skills and knowledge from the outset.
- Helping employers to engage with DWP programmes, opening up more placements and training roles across communities.
This partnership is delivering impact by helping individuals to gain professional status and move into sustainable employment while meeting the workforce needs of operators, facilities and community organisations.
Supporting the NEET agenda
The letter from Pat McFadden also highlights a renewed national focus on those not in education, employment or training (NEET), an issue CIMSPA has been actively engaging with through a number of strands of our work including in support of the Youth Guarantee.
We believe our sector offers something powerful to young people who have disengaged from traditional education or employment routes by offering them a chance to learn by doing, to build confidence, and to find purpose in helping others.
CIMSPA is working with training providers, local authorities and community partners to:
- Design entry and pre-employability programmes tailored to young people’s needs.
- Promote apprenticeships and technical routes linked to professional standards.
- Celebrate real success stories by showing that a career in sport and physical activity is both sustainable and rewarding.
Across all of our strands of work we’re supporting stakeholders across the sector to align with national efforts to reduce NEET levels, ensuring the sector contributes directly to social mobility, community renewal and economic growth.
Leading locally: CIMSPA’s work in the skills system
While Skills England will operate at a national level, the letter also underlines the importance of local partnerships, where skills strategies are shaped in response to regional economies and priorities.
Through the Sport England and National Lottery funded Local Skills Project, CIMSPA has been ensuring that the sector has been ahead of the curve here. We are actively engaging with local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) and devolved authorities to make sure the sport and physical activity sector is recognised in regional workforce strategies and that locally employers have the skills they need to deliver.
This includes:
- Providing local labour market insight on workforce demand, skills gaps and growth opportunities in the active wellbeing economy.
- Supporting education and training providers to align courses and qualifications with local priorities and job opportunities.
- Working with combined authorities to embed our sector workforce into their strategic planning.
By strengthening these local partnerships, CIMSPA ensures the sector’s workforce is part of place-based and health improvement strategies rather than being an afterthought.
It’s also helping to create consistent, high-quality learning and career pathways across the country, ensuring people entering the profession and those looking to progress have the same development opportunities, wherever they live.
Navigating the challenges ahead
While the Government’s ambitions for a more coherent and responsive skills system are welcome, there are clear challenges to navigate if the benefits are to reach every part of our sector. One concern is visibility. As attention and funding inevitably focus on sectors deemed to drive productivity such as technology, construction or energy there is a risk that sport and physical activity could be overlooked. Yet our sector is foundational to the nation’s health, wellbeing, and community cohesion, providing the building blocks for healthier, more productive communities and supporting people into education and employment pathways. CIMSPA will continue to make the case that these outcomes are every bit as critical to the UK’s future prosperity as those in more traditionally ‘high-value’ sectors.
Another challenge lies in the complexity of our workforce. The sector encompasses a wide range of roles from personal trainers and coaches to health promotion practitioners, community officers and leisure managers. A one-size-fits-all approach to skills packages could easily fail to capture that diversity, particularly for smaller employers or those operating in rural and LSEG communities. Many of these organisations are small or micro-businesses with limited training capacity, making it harder for them to engage in co-design or investment.
While the letter sets out a clear strategic vision, success will depend on its translation into practical, local action and ensuring providers, funders and employers have the infrastructure and resources to deliver change on the ground. CIMSPA’s role will be to help bridge that gap by advocating for sector-specific investment, supporting smaller operators to engage, and ensuring the implementation phase doesn’t leave anyone behind.
Turning policy into progress
Together, our work with DWP, our NEET initiatives, and our leadership within local skills systems are proof of how CIMSPA is already putting the Government’s skills priorities into practice.
We are not waiting to be invited to the table because we’re already there, representing the sector’s interests and championing its contribution to health, wellbeing and employment outcomes.
Over the coming year, we will continue to:
- Engage with Skills England to ensure our sector’s insight and needs are reflected in national policy.
- Work with employers and learning providers to identify and co-design training that supports progression and retention.
- Gather robust workforce data to strengthen our evidence base and advocate for targeted investment.
Shared opportunities
The Government’s priorities that have been set out in this letter create a shared opportunity to build a more connected, equitable and responsive skills system, and one that reflects the full diversity of the UK workforce.
At CIMSPA, we see this is a moment to amplify our sector’s value and ensure that physical activity, health and wellbeing are recognised as critical national assets, and that the workforce delivering these essential services are recognised for the value that they deliver.
Our goal is to make sure that every professional in sport and physical activity has access to quality training, visible career pathways and the recognition their role deserves because we know that building a healthier, more active nation starts with a workforce that is skilled, supported and seen.