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07/01/2016
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CIMSPA employer partners - helping deliver the government’s sports strategy

With the government explicitly supporting CIMSPA’s workforce development strategy, now is the time for your organisation to sign up to our employer partner scheme.

As 2015 drew to a close the Department for Culture, Media and Sport published “Sporting future: a new strategy for an active nation”, the UK’s first overarching plan for sport and physical activity for 13 years.

The strategy contained a number of big positives for CIMSPA, confirming how closely its employer-led workforce development strategy project has aligned with government’s goals for an active, healthier nation.

In the new strategy document, the government declared its explicit support for CIMSPA, tasking Sport England to work with the sector’s employer-led chartered institute to:

  • Develop and implement a single, clear and rigorous set of standards for all sport and exercise professionals, with a similar system for assessment, and awarding and validating qualifications
  • Develop a workforce strategy and work with CIMSPA towards greater professionalisation of the sector with a clear skills framework and good quality CPD provision.


The message from government is clear – training and qualification structures within the “CIMSPA world” will be the definitive standard the sector should adopt.

But, CIMSPA’s leadership of the sector is no top-down diktat – instead it is EMPLOYER-LED at every stage, and will continue to be so going forwards.

Meeting the expectations of government and the nation

At the very centre of how we will meet the expectations of government and the sector itself is the CIMSPA employer partner scheme.

The scheme gives employers both a role on the sector’s workforce improvement ambitions, as well as immediate professional development advantages for their staff, including discounted membership with CIMSPA.

There are partnership opportunities for all service sizes – from single-facility teams with less than 10 staff, through to the sector’s largest employers.