As it is National Apprenticeship Week 2022 as well as our ‘Peer Research’ month, we caught up with Nikki Clamp from Aspire Training Solutions, training providers for Levelling the Playing Field’s CSHO apprenticeships and our mentoring programme, for an update.

Across the Levelling the Playing Field network, we are supporting the learning and development of frontline staff so they can successfully engage and improve health and life outcomes for ethnically diverse children.

By teaming up with Aspire Training Solutions, we have been able to offer workforce training that does not simply consist of ‘off the shelf’ qualifications, but is tailored to achieve the project’s common goals:

• Increase the number of ethnically diverse children taking part in sport and physical activity
• Prevent and divert ethnically diverse children from becoming involved in the Criminal Justice System

Our Community Sport and Health Officer (CSHO) and Community Activator apprenticeships, delivered by Aspire Training Solutions, are up and running at our specialist delivery partners InPower Academy in Wolverhampton. Both candidates have the potential to become outstanding coaches and mentors and are undertaking the Level 3 qualification to learn how to deliver fun, inclusive and engaging activities that improve participants’ health and wellbeing and bring about positive change.

The CSHO apprenticeship targets young people who have lived experience of the same kinds of issues as their participants. They are relatable role models who, once trained, can build trusted relationships with young people who are from the same generation and community as them (see pic below of CSHO apprentice Geri Leigh working with young people in Wolverhampton).

“The partnership between ourselves and Levelling the Playing Field has been such a good fit,” said Aspire UK’s Nikki Clamp. “We have been able to add value by getting the candidates to really think about how they will apply knowledge, skills and behaviour into their roles.

“Our CSHO apprentices are on a learning journey, in a similar way to their beneficiaries,” explains Nikki. “There’s a huge amount of empathy which definitely helps start a dialogue and build rapport. When you’re supporting behaviour change, building rapport and positive relationships is absolutely vital.”

As well as the apprenticeships, many staff from our specialist partners have now qualified as mentors through our mentoring programme delivered by Aspire UK, and are now giving young beneficiaries one-to-one support.

The mentoring training has given learners a platform to explore their capabilities and confidence to engage their participants in challenging conversations and tackle complex issues. Peer-to-peer learning among the cohort and their collective lived experience has played a huge part in the learning process.

“The experience each learner has brought to the table has been central to the development of each other,” said Nikki. “That peer-to-peer support and sharing of experiences has combined with the theory – you can’t have one without the other.

“There’s a freshness to those who have just started, while those who’ve been working in these roles a long time understand what does and doesn’t work. All of that feeds into the underpinning theory. It’s that mixture that is going to make a huge difference.”

Nikki adds: “Sometimes a mentor can feel massively out of their comfort zone, so as well as building up their capabilities and confidence to develop trusting relationships, hold difficult conversations and challenge their mentees’ behaviour, it’s also about them understanding when to signpost to further services. At that point, their role becomes a conduit between the young person and the third party, whilst maintaining that closeness.”

Levelling the Playing Field and Aspire UK have met a few challenges with learners being unable to commit time due to the hectic nature of their organisations’ day-to-day operations.

“We have found that it is very important to have commitment from everyone at the organisation to allow the individual the time they need to complete training as a core element of their role,” explains Nikki.

“It requires every layer of the organisation being involved in the training process as it all cascades down to the young people receiving a service that is targeted in the right way.”

To develop the impact of the training in communities, the plan is to appoint a designated Levelling the Playing Field ‘officer’ in each of the four LtPF delivery areas – London, West Midlands, South Yorkshire and Gwent. They will act as the project’s ‘boots on the ground’ to build engagement levels of all local partners in developing their workforce and achieving the common goals.