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Diversifying our future workforce

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A new initiative aimed at improving access to careers in sport brought 48 pupils from a local secondary school to the Sport Wales National Centre last month.

Year 10 pupils from St Illtyd’s High School in Cardiff were welcomed into the Centre for an Open Day to learn about career opportunities at Sport Wales.

We spoke to Rosie Walters, Senior HR and OD officer to find out more…

What’s the initiative all about?

As an organisation, we want our workforce to better represent the needs and priorities of the Welsh population.

Working with schools with high free school meal eligibility, we hope to improve access to careers in sport for students from deprived communities in Wales and inspire more young people to pursue a career in sport.

We’ve been working with Careers Wales on this initiative, while we’ve also developed an interactive presentation which we are sharing with schools across Wales to give an introductory insight to younger pupils about Sport Wales careers. It’s available in Welsh and English.

What did the Open Day involve?

After arriving for the Open Day, the pupils were split into groups of 10-12 and took part in five different sessions with staff from across the organisation to gain an insight into the various roles within the National Centre, the Institute and Corporate Services.  

Each session gave the students an understanding of the roles in each business area, and included an interactive activity designed to give some hands-on experience, too. They received a tour of the National Centre, made energy balls with the Nutrition team, completed an expression of interest form with Investments, designed wellbeing initiatives with HR and Communications, and met para-athlete John Bridges with the Strength and Conditioning team.

How did it go?

In my view, the day was a massive success – the sessions ran like clockwork and both the teachers and pupils I spoke to were really positive in their feedback. Feedback from the staff involved was really positive, too.

I want to say a HUGE thanks to all who were involved with facilitating the sessions – they were really well organised and well received.

What’s next?

The hope is to start running regular Open Days – possibly once a term, enabling us to reach lots of different schools. 

When arranging this Open Day we were led by the areas of work that St Illtyd’s High School told us their pupils were most interested in, but this is likely to differ from school to school so I would love to hear from any team who would be interested in supporting future Open Days. 

We want to get it to the point of being a well-oiled machine that we can run regularly, where everyone involved has plenty of notice to prepare and we have a library of potential activities and sessions to offer. My intention is to continue liaising with our contact at Careers Wales to understand the most meaningful times in the school calendar and the areas the pupils are most interested in to develop a schedule of Open Days in advance.

I would encourage everyone to have a think about what kind of interactive activity they could put on to spotlight their work and engage a group of young people. 

If you’re interested in taking part in any future Open Days, please contact Rosie Walters.