Are we diverse? Demographics in the sport and physical activity workforce

The CIMSPA Workforce Insights Report 2023 reports that, as of 2022, the sport and physical activity workforce is less diverse than the UK-wide workforce.

Last autumn, CIMSPA released the 2023 version of its Workforce Insights Report.

The report explored and analysed the shape, size and scale of the sport and physical activity sector post-pandemic and how it needs to develop to meet future skills needs.

You can read the full report, but in a series of articles, we will be exploring some of the insight themes shared in the report. In the second piece in the series, we take a look at sport and physical activity demographics.

The report breaks down the workforce population by five core demographic categories. These are age, gender, disability, socio-economic status and ethnicity.

Starting with age, the report’s analysis concludes that the sport and physical activity (S&PA) workforce is overwhelmingly young. Across all S&PA occupations, 30% of jobs are held by 16–24-year-olds and an additional 24% by 25–34-year-olds. This is three times higher than the average for the UK-wide workforce.

In some career options, there is even more of a tip in the balance: of sport players and sport and leisure assistants, roughly half are under 25 years old. On the other hand, the age distribution of leisure and sport managers is more closely aligned with the wider UK workforce.

While it is excellent that the sport and physical activity sector supports young people into careers, it is important that they are able to maintain and follow a wide variety of pathways to avoid high worker turnover.

The key to achieving this is by offering a wide range of training at different levels and ensuring that young people are aware of its existence. Through resource pools such as the CIMSPA Careers Hub and the soon-to-be-launched Training Academy for Sport & Physical Activity, anyone who has started their career in the sector will be able to access quality-assured training for any pathway that they might wish to pursue.

This type of distinct signposting will make it clearer to younger members of the workforce how they can progress in their career at any stage, combatting feelings of stagnation. As they age out of the younger brackets, their understanding of the pathways available, assurance of quality training and straightforward access to it will improve job satisfaction and empower young professionals to continue a career in sport and physical activity.

Age distribution across careers in sport and physical activity is also strongly linked to gender in certain occupations. A key example of this is that male fitness instructors are more likely to be within the 25–34 age bracket, whereas women in the same role are more likely to be 45–54 years old.

A case study on page 37 of the report highlights some of the reasoning behind this.

More generally, the sport and physical activity sector remains somewhat male-dominated – more so than the UK at large. It is, however, gradually changing. While the 2023 report states that only 44% of jobs in sport and physical activity occupations are held by women, this is up from 38% in the previous report published in 2020.

Although there is slow but steady progress in attracting more women to the sector, the prevalence of disabled people in sport and physical activity occupations remains persistently below the UK overall figure.

While the physical demands of some career options may offer some explanation for this, it is important to highlight that a lack of understanding about possible reasonable adjustments and the prohibitive costs of adaptive sport equipment may also play a role.

Diversity in workforce ethnicity tells a similar story, with over eight in ten sport and physical activity workers being of White British ethnicity. Although mixed ethnicity groups are better represented in the sport and physical activity sector than in the UK workforce as a whole, all other ethnicity groups remain underrepresented.

While sports players lack diversity in gender, this sector industry does represent the most diverse sport and physical activity occupation in terms of ethnicity, lagging only slightly behind the UK average. Leisure and sport managers are the least diverse sector occupations, with 97% of the workforce being white.

Finally, the report’s analysis of socio-economic status highlights the types of employment most common in each sector industry. It is clear that this varies enormously; students most commonly work in sport and leisure assistant roles, whereas sports players are most often classed within the higher or lower managerial and professional category.

According to Sport England’s Active Lives surveys, the disparities in ethnicity and socio-economic groups in sport and physical activity extend beyond the professionals. The data shows that in terms of participation, adults with

Asian heritage or of a lower socio-economic status are significantly less likely to meet the activity guidelines¹.

While an issue in its own right, this also has the knock-on effect of these groups not seeking careers in the sport and physical activity sector. If ethnic minority individuals and lower socio-economic groups don’t feel that this world is open for them to participate in, they are then unlikely to consider working in the sector or even have an awareness of what career options are available to them.

Supporting more participation in diverse population groups has been a key focus of the population and environment specialism professional standards managed by CIMSPA. The latest addition enables sport and physical activity professionals to identify specific training in working with culturally and ethnically diverse communities.

Training mapped to these standards will provide practitioners with key insights into engaging with these groups. They can then create more effective strategies and contact points to achieve diverse participation in sport and physical activity.

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This understanding of the wider context of professional demographics can also help us to find the right ways to ensure that our sector workforce is diverse. The overarching conclusion to be drawn from the demographic analysis in the 2023 Workforce Insights Report is clear – there is more work to be done in this respect.

To make progress, we need to ensure that there are clear career pathways for anyone to work in sport and physical activity.

Addressing these challenges, the new CIMSPA strategy includes system interventions that set out clear actions for the coming years. The careers support intervention will hold particular important for increasing diversity in our sector.

With a focus on ensuring that information and support is available to everyone, the intervention includes actions such as providing teaching products and guidance to ensure that young people are aware of the options available to them. This includes the CIMSPA careers hub, which includes careers guidance and a sector jobs board.

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Case studies in the strategy highlight existing work targeting communities that, as the Workforce Insights Report shows, lack representation in the sport and physical activity sector.

This includes working with the British Bangladeshi community in the Birmingham and Solihull area to professionalise badminton coaching. Local coaches have been supported in accessing career pathways, growing their confidence to continue their work in the sport and physical activity sector.

As more of the strategy’s system interventions are realised, more individuals will have access to the information, support and guidance to enter and grow in the sport and physical activity sector. This should result in a more diverse and well-rounded sector that anyone from any background is able to access and in which they can grow through a diverse range of structured career pathways.

¹ https://www.sportengland.org/research-and-data/research#demographics-17948