Welcome to the first national update on the Pilot Further Education Sport Co-ordinators (FESCO’s) project.
Out of the 190 FE Colleges who wanted to be in the pilot, 31 colleges were accepted from all regions. They represent a wide range of colleges and the majority of them are now in the process of recruiting their FE Coordinator.
After the induction at Walsall on 23 January these 31 selected colleges were tasked to complete the application form, working with their allocated School Sport Partnership (SSP). All of these applications were successful and a grant letter sent to the SSP confirmed that funding was available for recruitment from the beginning of March.
The main aim of the FE Sports Co-ordinator programme is to increase opportunities for young people, aged between 16 and 19 in education to participate, perform and lead and volunteer in Sport. The expected outcomes are:
- Increase in the range and quantity of sport programmes available to the college students aged 16-19.
- Increase in the number of coaching hours across a range of sport.
- Increase in the number of intra and inter-college competitions.
- Increase in training, support and deployment of young people as volunteers in sport.
- Improvement in the provision of “sign-posting” information to college students regarding participation opportunities in community sport.
It is very evident that there is already some real innovative partnership work happening, prior to the inception of the FESCO programme. Examples include:
- The Junior Athlete Education programme was delivered by the FE for three years and the hosting of Disability Sports events. FE students are placed in many primary schools and they also run some competitions within the region as part of their courses.
- Many schools use the college sports facilities.
- Young Leaders from the FE organising and officiating a variety of festivals such as tag rugby, kwik cricket and ‘Disability’ days (working with Special Needs Schools).
- Linking with local community clubs on programmes such as “Girls only” taster days.
- The FE college is strategically well placed and is an integral part of the County PE and Sport strategy working with key agencies and partners such as Primary Care Trust, Sports Development, County Sports Partnership and County Sports Network.
Pilot FESCO induction event
All the pilot FE colleges have been invited to an induction in Birmingham on 7 and 8 May. This is being hosted by the Youth Sport Trust with some of the newly appointed FESCOs and their line managers. They are attending the two days to help shape the induction process for the national roll-out in September. This will also give FE colleagues the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the Physical Education and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP), future training and education training for FESCOs, how to measure success and sharing good practice.