Sport maker boost for sixth form college

style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:

Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">STUDENTS at the City

of Stoke-on-Trent College are set to benefit from a £20 million Lottery grant to encourage more participation in sport.

 

The college is among 11 centres throughout the West

Midlands to be included in the five-year scheme, which will create

jobs for full-time sports professionals.

 

The money has come from National Lottery funding through Sport England

and will be used to appoint College Sport Makers, whose task will be to

increase sport involvement at further education level, particularly among

female students.

 

The announcement

comes after a recent Sports

Makers conference hosted by the Sixth Form College at Fenton Manor Sports

Complex, where students enjoyed an inspirational guest lecture from World,

Commonwealth, European and Europa Cup Champion Daniel Caines.

 

Phil McPherson, head of sport and

PE at the college, said the college was set to receive £105,000 for their Sport

Maker project, which would include hiring a full time member of staff to

promote physical activity in the college.

 

He added: "There's no doubt the

Olympics this year has had a positive impact in terms of encouraging young

people to take part in sport, and we've seen the number of students taking part

in our regular sports activities go through the roof. We're now 70 students up

per annum.

 

"But the importance of the Sport

makers programme is also to target our 1,200 students who don't do these

courses to get them taking part in sport and physical activity. We want them to

forge links with local sports clubs and organisations, and to get them leading

and volunteering so they get people in their community active as well.

 

"As a result of the funding we

will be looking to recruit our new member of staff to lead the project very

soon so they can be in place for January 2013. I think the post should be

attractive to a lot of people, from graduates to those already working in

sport, so there should be no shortage of quality applications."

 

Richard Lewis, Chair of Sport England, said: "Too many

teenagers drop out of sport when they leave school, as it gets squeezed by

competing demands like studying, work and relationships. We want College Sport

Makers to remind young people how much fun sport is and to help them build it

into their schedules so they develop a sporting habit for life."

 

Sport England

has also invited colleges across the country to bid for a share of £3 million

of additional funding to improve the sport they're able to offer. Grants of

between £30,000 and £150,000 will be offered to help run new sport projects.