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SkillsActive sponsors bursary for youth workers
SkillsActive is sponsoring a new skills development bursary aimed at coaches or leaders working with young people.
The Sector Skills Council is working with the Nancy Ovens Trust, which will award the bursary to both paid and voluntary coaches and leaders who work with children and young people in the active leisure and learning sector.
Awarded annually, the bursary will be worth up to £2,500 and will be awarded to allow the selected individual to enhance their own skills and knowledge by taking part in studies or activities outside of their community in the UK or EU. The maximum length of the work experience is to be two months.
The trust was formed in 2004 after the death of Nancy Ovens MBE, a former board member of SPRITO – the national training organisation and SkillsActive’s predecessor – and an enthusiastic supporter of education, training and development of skills in the active leisure and learning sector.
Ovens championed the development of work-based skills in the sport and leisure industry and contributed significantly to improvements in services over the years.
Fraser Falconer, chair of the trust, said there were many coaches, leaders and workers who would benefit from the opportunity to undertake training or work with another community group.
“These days, community coaches, leaders and workers are so busy that they seldom get the chance to experience similar work going on elsewhere,” he said. “We hope to provide someone with the opportunity to visit another project or access training that they have always been interested in but would not otherwise have had the opportunity to.”
The trust aims to award the first bursary in 2006.