Understanding the new CIMSPA management pathway

Phill Wright

Business Transformation Manager, CIMSPA

Helen Hiley

Education Officer (HE), CIMSPA

Phill started by outlining what he will be covering:

• The state of management in the sector.
• What CIMSPA has been doing.
• Unveiling the new CIMSPA management qualifications.

He then visualised the different elements of the sector’s workforce. Those elements are participants, front line staff, supply chain staff and the wider economy. The wider economy accounts for those who impact or work with the sport and physical activity sector.

“CIMSPA works directly with front line and supply chain employees. The sector has 50,000 management jobs currently but that doesn’t just affect those with ‘manager’ in their job titles but all those with management responsibilities. The sector has seen a huge growth in these types of jobs.”, he said.

A question was posed by Phill to the audience – “what percent of people do you think have a management responsibility?”

After a couple of rough estimates from the audience, Phill presented a few key statistics to answer the question:

• 60% of our workforce has management responsibilities.
• Only 20% of managers hold management qualifications.
• Two thirds of managers are looking for new opportunities.

Phill decided to give more context on the upcoming management qualifications. He noted that he has recently sent out a survey to the membership and employer partners about what the sector wants. 92% stated that recognised management qualifications would have a significant impact on their organisation and 68% stated that investing in their managers and leaders is a budgetary priority.

There are four new management qualifications that Phill went through. Aspiring Manager, Entry Manager and General Manager will be launched first and then Senior Manager will come at a later date.

Aspiring Manager

Aspiring Managers are individuals employed in the sport and physical activity sector who do not have management experience or responsibilities in their current role. They may be, for example; lifeguards, swimming teachers, coaches, administrators, gym instructors or people working in community sport who have aspirations to fulfil management (team leader/ coordinator/supervisor) responsibilities in the future.

Entry Manager

Entry Managers are employed in the sport and physical activity sector as individuals operating in a first line management position, who are able to work independently under some supervision and direction. They may be, for example, coordinators, team leaders or duty managers. They could be working as a first-line manager in leisure or fitness, or as a sports development officer or community sport and health officer.

General Manager

General Managers are individuals employed in the sport and physical activity sector who are experienced managers. For example: centre manager, operation manager, business manager, contract manager, governing body manager or head of department. They could also be a sports development manager or other manager in a community sports setting.

Senior Manager

Additional information will be shared in the future, but Phill said this was “The natural progression for somebody wanting to step beyond the general manager role.”

Phill summarised these new management standards with his closing statement:

“These are relevant management qualifications that meet the needs of our sector. Each of these qualifications are made up of common units where there are compulsory units, irrespective of how and where you are deployed. Then there are specialist things that can be tailored to the work you do.”

Professional standards and degree endorsement

Helen Hiley took the stage and directed people to the website for copies of the CIMSPA professional standards for management roles.

She began by looking at how these management standards will be delivered. She explained that a consortium of seven delivery partners will be working together to provide them.

The current programme overview – shown on slide 10 of the presentation – isn’t a ‘closed door’. Helen explained that they are trying out and improving the process by working with partners to expand it as more qualifications are endorsed and mapped against the sector’s professional standards.

Helen directed the audience to the ‘professional standards and the new sector career map – lighting up your future’ session that happened earlier in the morning as it explored the professional standards pathway in detail.

CIMSPA’s new learning platform

Following Helen, Bryan Jones from the University of Central Lancashire took to the stage. Bryan announced the creation of a new learning platform for sport and physical activity sector managers looking to progress.

Bryan gave a brief overview of how the platform works:

• A professional standard for a management role is broken down into specialisms.
• You click on the one you want to study, pay the fee (to be decided) and work through the programme.

Bryan compared it to the LinkedIn Learning platform, except this will be specific to the sport and physical activity sector.

“The only way to really upskill is to do a degree. That might put people off. That’s why a learning platform is being developed that offers a bite-sized way to learn new skills and receive appraisals from your manager”.

With this new learning platform, rather than starting from scratch, you can target the specific part of a professional standard that you need to improve.

It won’t all be video content. There will be textual tutorials and interactive elements such as quizzes.
When fully live, the system will understand how, by completing a programme of learning, eligibility for a new professional status could be achieved. For example, moving from aspiring manager to entry manager.

Employers will fully recognise this professional status achievement, confident that the holder is well-prepared for a new role.

You can start at the beginning of a professional standard package and work through the whole thing if you need to. Some packages require mentoring, assignment work and demonstrations of how you’re meeting those skills.

Three universities are collaborating to develop this learning platform – the University of Brighton, the University of Central Lancashire and Cardiff Metropolitan University. This platform counts toward credits in a degree, meaning it will ultimately contribute to a full degree.

Q&A

Phill opened up the floor to questions about the management campaign and professional standards.

Q: How aligned to the Chartered Management Institute is it? Because they have a similar model.

A: Phill shared his journey about the lack of training in his career progression and how this would have helped. Helen explained that the Entry Manager qualification shares very similar content to the Team Leader/Supervisor Apprenticeship Standard (Level 3). The General Manager qualification shares similar content to the Operations/Departmental Manager Apprenticeship Standard (Level 5). Both of those apprenticeship standards share the same content as the Level 3 and Level 5 CMI qualifications. We have alignment between the sport and physical activity sector’s Professional Standards Management Framework, CMI qualifications and the apprenticeships on offer in England.

Q: How would existing degrees affect this?

A: Bryan explained that it will align perfectly to the new management pathway. He said “There has to be a retrofitting system for those who have already spent money on a degree.” All of the qualifications people have, any old degrees or qualifications, will be looked at. On a case-by-case basis elements will be mapped, and CIMSPA will see what is missing.

Q: Where does this fit into the chartered process?

A: Nick Sellwood offered to answer this question because it linked into his session – “Sector managers – earning your royal chartered status”. Nick said “It is a self-triage system and we’ll go into that later this afternoon. If you’re a CEO, you’ll perhaps think you are ready because of the position of your role.”