GSC staff share their skills

The Guernsey Sports Commission is delighted that a number of its PE and Sport Development Officers are helping to share their skills and experience and encourage young people to consider a career in sport through the College of Further Education’s Level 1, 2 and 3 qualifications.

‘At the moment we have three members of staff lecturing on the full-time College courses hoping to inspire a new generation of young people keen to work in sport or follow a pathway into higher education,’ said the Commission’s Performance Director, Jeremy Frith.

‘We know how important it is that those working in sport, at whatever level, have the appropriate qualifications and experience to ensure activities are safe, well-planned and of course fun for all those participating.

‘The College of Further Education’s full-time courses give a great overview of all areas of sport from anatomy, physiology and psychology to sports coaching, fitness testing and organising sports events,’ said Jeremy.

Jenny Murphy, Lucas Barker and George Mason are all enjoying sharing their knowledge, delivering up to two sessions a week.

‘I get to use a lot of my physiology knowledge as part of my teaching,’ said George.

‘It’s more sport-specific and in some ways higher level coaching than our work in schools.’

Jenny delivers practical individual sports sessions as well as preparing the students for work experience.

‘For the last few weeks I’ve been introducing the students to table tennis and giving them a practical experience of playing the sport, thanks to the Guernsey Table Tennis Centre.

‘These practical sports sessions are designed to give them an experience of the sport and the differences between an individual and team sport as well as understanding how to break it down - the skills, techniques and tactics of the sport - and how to officiate and eventually coach it,’ said Jenny.

‘We also look at how sports organisations are made up, whether they are voluntary, public or privately funded and what the different roles are within the organisation and how they contribute to how it runs. We look at writing job applications, creating CVs and the sort of behaviours they would need to demonstrate when working in sport. This is all in preparation for work experience.’

‘I am lecturing Anatomy and physiology Level 2 and a playing sport unit for Level 1,’ said Lucas.

‘Anatomy and physiology is the science behind exercise and I am enjoying passing on the knowledge I learnt during my Masters degree onto the young people.

‘The playing sport module is also enjoyable. In this young people have chosen two sports they would like to develop during this time. To do this, the young people have used reflection, video analysis and coached each other to develop their basketball and badminton skills. The young people have been really engaged and I am finding it very rewarding.’

Tom Aitken is the Programme Manager for Sport at the College of Further Education.

‘The Sports Commission staff have made a positive and instant impact with our learners within the sport department,’ said Tom.

‘George, Jenny and Lucas have helped with the design and delivery of specialist unit content across our Level 2 and Level 3 provision, utilising their vast array of HE qualification knowledge and community engagement expertise to inspire and educate our students.

‘We are excited that this new partnership with the Sports Commission will allow the students to see a clear pathway to potential employment within the community as well as developing the skills and knowledge required to achieve their goals and ambitions towards higher education.’

The Guernsey Sports Commission is also working in partnership with the Guernsey Institute and a UK University to offer a degree-level Sport/Coaching Science Degree on-island which it is hoping to run from September 2022.