Tools for the job – exploring skills in our sector

A closer look into a section of the Workforce Insights Report 2023 uncovers the skills our workforce has and needs to succeed in sector careers

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 online, but in a series of articles, we explore some of the insight themes shared in the report. In the third piece in the series, we take a closer look at the skills of the sport and physical activity workforce.

A topic particularly relevant with the recent report on new body Skills England, workforce skills are at the forefront of the government’s agenda and have been rapidly evolving over the past few years. The government’s initial report focuses on “essential employment skills” and the gap and mismatch between the skills that employers need and those that are available to them.

This is a strong sign of the government’s no-nonsense approach to education, and with skills forming the all-important foundation in any career, it’s essential to understand which are needed for each role across the nation’s job market. Although some within our sector may be obvious – most people know that you need to be able to swim to be a lifeguard – others such as communication skills and business acumen are less traditionally associated with working in sport and physical activity roles.

While the Skills England report outlines the skills challenges and needs across all sectors as well as plans to address them, our Workforce Insights Report is able to focus on the skills landscape in terms of roles in sport and physical activity.

In order to analyse the current skills used and in demand in the sector, as well as how this is evolving, the Workforce Insights Report uses information extracted from 71,000 job postings categorised into 32,000 different skills.

What do we know?

The report’s section focusing on skills begins by defining the types of skills that all employers ask for as belonging to one of three categories:

• Common – broadly used and transferable skills such as organisation, communication and leadership
• Specialised – skills that are particularly important to a specific type of work, for example gym instructing, swimming and working with children
• Software – the ability to use particular computer programs or programming skills

In each of these categories, our sector shows a remarkable difference from the national average. The proportion of each type of skill requested by sport and physical activity job postings across a range of roles highlights the unique work that our sector workforce carries out.

Perhaps surprisingly, more ‘common’ or transferable skills are required in sport and physical activity roles than across all occupations. While the national average for this skill type lies at 40% of the required skill set for a job, our sector average is 10% higher. This can be explained by the broad scope of roles such as leisure assistants and managers as well as sports and fitness instructors. Requiring strong communication skills, customer service ability and in some cases management know-how, sector professionals must be confident in a range of proficiencies in order to succeed. Although billed as ‘common’, these skills are incredibly valuable and provide a strong foundation for career progression and business success.

This higher proportion of transferable skills does not, however, diminish the amount of specialist skills required. Particularly across fitness instructors and sports coaches, instructors and officials, specialised skills within the performing arts, sport and recreation category are in high demand, with 46% and 33% of job postings requiring them in comparison with the national average of 0.8%.

Drilling deeper, we can see that there are eight core sport and physical activity skill categories that stand out as extremely important to the sector workforce. These are:

• General instructing and coaching
• Sports coaching and athletic training
• First aid
• Lifeguarding
• Fitness certifications and professional recognition
• Working with children and other vulnerable participants
• Physiological knowledge
• Sport disciplines

The importance of these skills in our sector is clear, with 62% of all job postings requiring at least one of these skills in comparison to 9% across all sectors.

While some like lifeguarding and sport disciplines are centred around certain types of roles, other skills such as first aid are broadly in demand.

It is interesting to note, though, that many of these key sector skills are also relevant for roles outside of the sector, such as positions in teaching, healthcare and other leisure sector roles. This is important to consider when developing recruitment strategies, as pathways into the industry could involve leveraging these specialised but transferable skills.

The final skill category, software, forms the smallest proportion of those required for sector roles. This is well below the average for all occupations at just 8% of job postings mentioning them vs 25% on average in the UK. While other skills are generally considered more important for sport and physical activity careers, there has been a notable uptick in demand for technological capabilities since the pandemic, with video conferencing and virtual learning becoming more prevalent.

As the majority of the sector workforce falls into younger age brackets, jobseekers are generally capable of quickly learning and using new software. However, recent research implies that employers are not keeping up with the abilities of their employees, with a lack of digital maturity across the sector. While digital evolution moves slowly among employers, the sector may be missing out on opportunities that digitalisation can bring.

How are our skills changing?

While their own digital evolution might be falling short, the range of skills that employers are looking for in sector professionals is evolving and expanding. Since the pandemic, the number of specific skills requested by employers in job postings has grown significantly. This likely reflects the broader scope of sector roles, with positions now covering multiple responsibilities in order to cope with increased staff turnover.

In terms of the skills that are largely specific to our sector, the most change can be seen in fitness instructing. With a decrease in demand for specific sports coaching and athletic training skills, some organisations are now offering candidates with little experience short, intensive training courses followed by support into a role with a specific sector employer. While crash courses are often seen as a quick fix, this approach offers much-needed support to employers in a sustainable and managed way – provided that the courses are aligned with a professional standard.

Although this unusual approach to recruitment has likely developed as a way to tackle high staff turnover and skills gaps, it has a positive outcome for the sector as a whole. By providing training mapped to professional standards from the very beginning of an individual’s career in the sport and physical activity sector, these organisations are increasing the knowledge and professionalism of the sector as a whole.

As well as the delivery method, the type of skills required has also seen a shift. Post pandemic, proportionally fewer roles advertised required specific sport and recreation skills. In these postings, the focus has spread to include customer-facing skills and more. This is in line with changes outside of the sector too, although the sport and physical activity sector is experiencing the evolution to a greater extent.

Again, this suggests that in the face of a highly competitive job market, employers may be lowering skills-based barriers by placing greater emphasis on transferable skills. This is one way that they can attract a broader range of candidates.

This is also beneficial for individuals, as being equipped with an expansive skill set through taking on amalgamated roles means that they are able to adapt and progress in their careers. With the professional recognition of the sector, emphasis will still be placed on ensuring that technical sport and physical activity skills are developed to a high standard as a complement to more general skills required.

What will future skills look like?

Looking to the future, many people are worried about the effect of automation and technology on their career. Although the rapid advancement of AI is disrupting many sectors, its effect on sport and physical activity is reasonably small. With roles requiring the very human skills of creative thinking, physical activity and teaching, most occupations are exposed very little to technology change, with fitness instruction proving the most resilient to automation risk.

Looking at these human skills, the changes in job posting requirements to emphasise more transferable skills open up more career pathways to individuals. While some progressions such as coach to leisure manager or recreation attendant to personal trainer remain within the sector, there are plenty of roles from other sectors that can lead to sport and physical activity careers. These range between, barista, tour guide and teaching assistant, relying on capabilities in areas such as customer service, special education and sales to allow individuals to make a lateral shift and advance in a new sector.

This is beneficial to employers, as it creates new pools of candidates for recruitment and filling entry-level positions as they invest in further training for the existing workforce.

For those already in sector roles, there are plenty of opportunities for advancement. These are typically progression to either managerial or specialist roles. Although many exist outside of the sector, there are many ways that employers can retain talent through progression to further roles within sport and physical activity.

Though the work of Skills England is yet to be done, the future of skills in the sport and physical activity sector is bright. With our strategy, Releasing the Power of our Profession, establishing the spectrum of methods in which we will provide professional recognition, workforce skills are front-of-mind for CIMSPA. We will be working closely with Skills England to ensure that relevant, high-quality skills development opportunities are available to all. As well as boosting career progression opportunities for individuals, this will, in turn, allow employers to grow their workforce in the areas they need and drive the sustainable economic growth that the government is aiming for.