Active on campus
1:00pm Friday 19th October 2012 in News
The legacy of the golden summer of 2012 continues at Wiltshire College, following the appointment of two full-time officers to promote sport across the campus.
The College Sport Makers are funded from a share of a £1.1 million National Lottery grant from Sport England, and will encourage students to get more involved with sport. Twelve colleges across the South West were given the chance to bid for the 11 new jobs, with Wiltshire College securing funding for two of them.
The two new posts will serve the north and south of the county, across the college’s four campuses, at Chippenham, Lacock, trowbridge and Salisbury.
The new officers will help promote different sports and nurture links with community sport clubs, running leagues and sport groups. They will also be on hand to provide direct coaching to the college’s 3,300 full-time students.
Di Dale, principal and chief executive of Wiltshire College, said: “They will support our community campus programme, delivering a legacy sport programme as a follow on from the London Olympics.”
Research by Sport England suggests college students take part in less sport than other over-16s in full-time education, with participation among girls significantly lower than boys. The new workers will focus specifically on changing this.
Paralympic swimming silver medallist Aaron Moores is studying at Wiltshire College in Trowbridge. He said: “Anything that encourages young people to get fit and take up more sporting activity has to be a good thing.”
The project also requires £60,000 of funding from the college, which will be provided once the scheme has been running for two years. Recruitment for the new posts will begin after half term, with the successful candidates hoped to be in their posts by the end of January next year.
