Releasing the Power of our Profession
20/09/2024
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Releasing the Power of our Profession: Professional Status and Recognition

Colin Huffen smiling at the camera

Our Strategy, Releasing the Power of our Profession, sets out CIMSPA’s commitment to delivering individual and collective professional recognition for those working in the sport and physical activity sector. The sector workforce makes an immense contribution to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the population, to social cohesion, to the engagement of everyone in communities and to the economic prosperity of the country.

In our latest deep dive blog, Colin Huffen, Associate Director at CIMSPA, discusses how the development of professional status for sport and physical activity professionals will be a game-changer in delivering greater recognition of the huge benefits that the sector and workforce delivers to communities and the country.

Last year, I had some building work carried out on my house. It was a significant project for me. I didn’t want to risk anything going wrong or not having the perfect result that I had envisaged. So, I spent a lot of time researching and ‘auditioning’ project managers and builders to find the best professionals for the job.

I asked friends, family members and colleagues for recommendations. I trawled websites looking at photos of previous projects and quotes from customers.

With my education hat on, I looked at what qualifications and experience a ‘good’ builder or project manager should have. The trouble is, when you call for a quotation, ‘what qualifications do you have?’ isn’t the easiest question to slip into the conversation. And then asking for proof that they are competent in working with certain materials, tools and on specific projects, outside of Gas Safe and electrician registration, the raised eyebrows quickly turn into “sorry, I’m too busy to fit the job in.”

Understanding the experience, qualifications and competency of a professional in many sectors is challenging for the consumer, and often it feels uncomfortable to ask a lot of questions. It can be equally difficult for a professional to demonstrate their skills, ability and experience and set themselves apart from other service offers. Recognition of the level of experience and expertise that you are buying/engaging is so important from both sides of the transaction. I was willing to pay more for an experienced builder who had specialist skills, but there was no real uniform or easy way of identifying that. So how does the highly experienced builder who has funded extensive specialist training for themselves show a potential customer that their services are worth paying more for than someone who is just starting out with a base level of knowledge?

Professional recognition in our sector has some of the same issues. How does a consumer choose an instructor that is qualified and competent? How does someone know that a personal trainer is experienced in and has the skills to support their specific needs in relation to a health condition? How does an employer know if a coach has the expertise to support a particular client group?

To a significant extent, professional standards have been a big help. Having an established, sector defined and continually reviewed set of skills, competencies and behaviours for occupations and population, environment and technical specialities, has been a huge step forward. Training and education providers have mapped their learning and qualifications to those standards meaning that by choosing an endorsed course, a professional knows that their investment meets industry standards.

In the same way, many employers and consumers know that checking if a professional is a CIMSPA member is a means of verifying that their skills, competencies and behaviours meet the professional standards and a defined code of conduct.

But that is only part of the solution, it demonstrates the meeting of a standard but it doesn’t differentiate based on experience or specialist expertise.

This is where professional status comes in. It offers a framework which recognises expertise and experience as well as skill level for a particular type of role. It supports progression allowing sector professionals to develop their career and gain greater recognition through a more advanced status.

For example, a professional, let’s say a personal trainer, meets the professional standard for their role/occupation. Their professional status could be defined as a Practitioner.

If that professional then went on to undertake further professional development through which they could evidence that they meet a particular environment or population standard, maybe working in schools or working with antenatal and postnatal clients, they could be recognised with a different status, for example Advanced Practitioner. In addition, their ‘specialism’, for example the population or environment, could be referenced as part of their status, potentially Advanced Practitioner – working in schools. This recognises a different level of expertise to a Practitioner.

If that same professional chose to continue to extend their skill set and met the criteria for multiple population professional standards or technical specialism professional standards, again they could be recognised with a different status, for example Senior Practitioner. Again, the status could also recognise a particular specialism that aligns with the population or technical professional standards, for example, Senior Practitioner – Activity and Health. This would recognise a different level of expertise to a Practitioner and Advanced Practitioner.

Further, the professional could choose to be assessed for Chartered status which, if successful could see them being recognised as for example a Chartered Practitioner or Advanced Chartered Practitioner.

This model can be applied across different roles and occupations within the sector giving a huge number of benefits including:

  • Professionals would be recognised for their expertise and their investment in their skills. Their career progression would be more clearly defined as they received different statuses. Their services may become more sought after by achieving a different status.
  • Participants/customers would be able to recognise if a professional has certain expertise that they are seeking.
  • Employers would be able to recognise and develop their workforce through recruiting for particular statuses and/or offering promotion opportunities linked to status.
  • Allied professionals would be able to recognise sector professionals that have the expertise to collaborate with them to support their service delivery, for example in health and social care or education.

Other sectors already apply a similar model. For example, in healthcare, nurses are recognised by status linked to their specialisms. At CIMSPA we’re working towards launching the opportunity for sport and physical activity professionals to have their professional status recognised from the start of 2025. We are already testing the visual means by which professional status could be recognised and awarded through our digital badging pilot for Chartered members.

Recognition of professionals creates a sense of pride and belonging within the sector and offers our workforce the confidence that their skills are valued and respected, encouraging them to drive their career forward through specialist expertise. This recognition also acts as a safeguard, ensuring that professionals meet industry standards and ethical practices, which ultimately enhances the quality of services provided and helps to engage more participants in sport and active wellbeing.

And this is why the overarching theme of Releasing the Power of our Profession is professional recognition. That recognition through status which is earned is the foundation of supercharging the impact that our sector has.

It gives professionals in the sector that confidence and pride and the opportunity to progress, helping to retain the best talent.

It gives those choosing a career a clear pathway where they can achieve parity of recognition with other sector professions.

It gives employers/operators a means of differentiating their service by showcasing the status of and their investment in their team’s expertise.

It gives education providers the means of linking their learning to career progression.

It gives other sectors’ professionals the confidence to leverage our sector’s expertise and reach to address their priorities whether that be in relation to health and wellbeing, economic sustainability or social value.

It gives the public and participants the confidence to engage.

Every intervention in our strategy underpins this. The Careers Hub provides the advice and support to help people enter the sector and progress their career in a way that supports them to earn and advance their professional status. It will also inspire more people to join the sector by illustrating that they will be professionally recognised with opportunities to develop their status.

Our local skills work connects professionals skills and expertise to local priorities, being the champion of helping stakeholders inside and outside the sector to recognise and value professional status.

The Training Academy for Sport and Physical Activity offers the highest quality learning and development to enable people to earn and advance their professional status.

The Sport and Physical Activity Workforce Observatory will provide the intelligence and foresight to determine how professional standards and occupations need to evolve and will guide the future of professional status.

The Workforce Governance and National Registration Scheme Project will explore how sports recognise the professional expertise of coaches, helping us to make recommendation on how a potential future registration scheme could showcase great coaches.

The Business Support Hub will provide small business owners with the support to make their operation more sustainable, offering the means for them to advance their own status and potentially employ other professionals with specialist expertise to grow their business.

Professional recognition, for individuals and our sector as a whole, is something we’ve been striving for for some time. Enabling our talented, dedicated workforce to have their commitment and investment in their skills and expertise recognised through their professional status will be the keystone that allows the sector to fulfil its potential of enabling more people to lead happier, healthier and more active lives.

Our strategy

Individual and collective professional recognition for the sport and physical activity workforce.

READ OUR STRATEGY